Background and career
Robert John Valentine (born May 13, 1950), nicknamed "Bobby V", is an American former professional baseball player and manager. He also served as the athletic director at Sacred Heart University. Valentine played for the Los Angeles Dodgers (1969, 1971–72), California Angels (1973–1975), San Diego Padres (1975-1977), New York Mets (1977–78), and Seattle Mariners (1979) in MLB. He managed the Texas Rangers (1985–1992), the New York Mets (1996–2002), and the Boston Red Sox (2012) of MLB, as well as the Chiba Lotte Marines of Nippon Professional Baseball (1995, 2004–2009). Valentine has been an analyst for ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball. In February 2013, CBSSports.com hired Valentine to represent its Fantasy Sports business, including running a viral marketing campaign in which he made fun of the many times he was fired in his career and gave fans a chance to "Hire or Fire Bobby V" one more time. On November 2, 2021, Valentine lost the election to become mayor of his hometown of Stamford, Connecticut, to Caroline Simmons, the first female elected mayor in Stamford.
Valentine was born in Stamford, Connecticut, to Joseph and Grace Valentine. He is of Italian descent. He attended Rippowam High School in Stamford, Connecticut, where he was an All-State player in football, baseball and track. He is the only three-time All-State football player in Connecticut history. He set state records for career touchdowns (53), career interceptions for TD (5) and 60-yard dash. The career interception for TD record remains, having later been tied by two other players. As a sophomore in 1965, he averaged 5.6 yards a carry, scored 21 touchdowns and led Rippowam to a 9–0 record and a state championship. He was also a champion ballroom dancer as a teenager, winning a regional competition with his partner at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York and took part in the opening ceremonies of the 1964 New York World's Fair. He was president of the student council. He was recruited by the University of Nebraska, the University of Notre Dame and the University of Southern California as a star in football and baseball, but ultimately chose USC. In 1967, he played collegiate summer baseball for the Yarmouth Indians of the Cape Cod Baseball League. The Los Angeles Dodgers drafted him fifth overall in the 1968 Major League Baseball draft and he signed with the Dodgers, receiving a $65,000 signing bonus. He attended both USC and Arizona State University while in the Dodgers organization and was a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity. His roommate at USC was Bill Buckner, who was the Dodgers second round pick in 1968.
At age 18, Valentine made his professional debut playing with the Ogden Dodgers of the Rookie Pioneer League, winning the league's MVP Award, hitting .281 with a .460 slugging percentage and leading the league with 20 stolen bases. He was one of only three players in the league to appear in every game. His roommate was Tom Paciorek and was also teammates with Bill Buckner and Steve Garvey. The manager at Ogden was Tommy Lasorda, the start of a friendship that has lasted four decades. In 1969, Valentine impressive enough in Spring Training that he was promoted to the Class AAA Spokane Indians of the Pacific Coast League. After the PCL season ended, he debuted with the Los Angeles Dodgers as a September call-up in 1969 at 19 years old. Though he did not record a major league at-bat that season, he appeared in 5 games as a pinch runner, scoring three runs. Back with the Spokane Indians for 1970, Valentine was again his league's MVP after batting .340 with fourteen home runs and leading the Pacific Coast League in eight offensive categories. Led by Valentine and manager Lasorda, Spokane won the league championship over the Hawaii Islanders. He suffered a fractured cheekbone when he was beaned in the PCL playoffs that season and also had right knee surgery to repair a ruptured ligament in January 1971.
Valentine made the Dodgers out of Spring Training in 1971 and batted .249 with one home run and 25 RBIs in 101 games. His first career MLB hit came on April 25, 1971, an RBI single off Milt Wilcox, scoring Steve Garvey in a 4–2 Dodgers win over the Reds. The following season in 1972, he managed to play in 119 games by playing many different positions—including shortstop, second base, third and all three outfield positions and his batting average improved to .274. He missed time after sustaining a broken nose. Following the season on November 28, 1972, he was packaged in a trade along with Frank Robinson, Billy Grabarkewitz, Bill Singer and Mike Strahler to the California Angels for Andy Messersmith and Ken McMullen.
Prior to the start of the 1973 season, Valentine was named Caribbean Series MVP playing shortstop for the series champions from the Dominican Republic, Tigres del Licey. The team was managed by Tommy Lasorda. As a regular starter for the Angels, Valentine had a strong start, leading the Angels with a .302 batting average. Four days after his 23rd birthday, he suffered a multiple compound leg fracture on May 17, 1973, at Anaheim Stadium in a game against the Oakland Athletics after his spikes got caught in the outfield's chain link fence while attempting to catch a home run ball hit by Dick Green, one of only three home runs hit by Green during the season. He missed the remainder of the 1973 season and never regained his speed as the bones did not heal properly. Two days prior to the injury, Valentine was playing center field when Nolan Ryan threw his first career No-hitter. Valentine would later be Ryan's manager in Texas for his last two No-hitters (6th and 7th). In 1974, despite still recovering from his leg injury, Valentine made 414 plate appearances, the second most of his career, and batted .261 with three home runs. On April 4, 1975, the Angels loaned him to the Charleston Charlies, a AAA Pittsburgh Pirates organization where he played in 56 games before returning to the Angels organization on June 20, 1975. He was assigned to the Angels AAA affiliate Salt Lake City Bees and played in 46 games batting .306 before being called back up to the Angels On September 17, 1975, he was traded to the San Diego Padres with Rudy Meoli for Gary Ross. On September 19, 1975, in his first game as a Padre, Valentine homered off Mike Caldwell in a 3–1 loss to the Giants.
In 1976, Valentine spent most of the season with Padres AAA affiliate, the Hawaii Islanders, playing in 120 games batting .304 with 13 home runs. On June 15, 1977, after playing 44 games with the Padres, he was part of the New York Mets infamous "Midnight Massacre", when the Mets traded Dave Kingman to San Diego for minor league pitcher Paul Siebert and Valentine, sent Tom Seaver to the Cincinnati Reds for Pat Zachry, Doug Flynn, Steve Henderson, and Dan Norman, and Mike Phillips to the St. Louis Cardinals for Joel Youngblood.
