Few men have witnessed as much baseball around the globe as Bobby Valentine, who remains as bicoastal and international as ever at age 74.
While he’s spent the last few seasons in a broadcasting/advisory role with the Los Angeles Angels, Valentine is still a popular presence in New York, where he led the Mets to the World Series in 2000, and Japan, where he led the Chiba Lotte Marines to the Japan Series title in 2005.
Valentine appeared at the Mets’ inaugural Amazin’ Day fan fest, when he offered his typically candid take on the big splashes made this winter by the Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers, the what-ifs regarding the Mets’ decision not to sign Ichiro Suzuki following the 2000 season and what Suzuki’s election to the Baseball Hall of Fame signifies for the game’s increasing global expansion.
Here is the exclusive Q&A with SportsLens.
Q: As a manager with plenty of experience in the Subway Series, what’d you think of the Juan Soto signing?
Bobby Valentine: “The mention of Ichiro and then A-Rod and then some others who have come along and the Mets swung and missed at, I think cost (them) a lot of victories and caused a lot of heartaches for fans. I think hitting this one out of the park is exactly what the Mets needed. I love him as a hitter and I love what Steve Cohen and Dave (Stearns) are doing here with this organization.”
Q: Now you’re mostly based on the west coast. What do you think of the Dodgers’ aggressiveness this winter?
Bobby Valentine: “Ridiculous.”
Q: Ridiculous in a good way or bad way?
Bobby Valentine: “I think it’s probably a bad way. I know the guys there, I know the owners and I know the front office and I know what they’re doing and I’m in that market basically advising the general manager across the way. That’s a super team. That’s different than most other teams. And I know we’re trying here with the Mets. We’re trying to keep pace. But I think it’s difficult.”
Q: Are you concerned the Dodgers’ spending spree might lead to a work stoppage when the CBA expires in 2026?
Bobby Valentine: “There’ll be a stoppage. Depends on how long and for what reasons. There’ll be some problems with the CBA, because there’s problems with Major League Baseball.”
Q: What are your thoughts on Ichiro Suzuki making the Hall of Fame?
Bobby Valentine: “One of my greatest regrets (as Mets manager is) that I didn’t say ‘I’ll walk out if we don’t sign him.’ I thought we were going to sign him. Someone thought different. I saw him my first year in Japan live and we basically made a decision not to go with him on reports that somebody else gave. And I never could figure that out. I was told ‘Why do we want a singles hitter in the outfield?’”
Q: Worked out OK.
Bobby Valentine: “For him!”
Q: What does Ichiro making the Hall of Fame on the 30th anniversary of Hideo Nomo winning the Rookie of the Year say about the impact of Japanese players on Major League Baseball?
Bobby Valentine: “That was the same year I went to Japan, Nomo came here. I tried to make a statement. I took the kid that could not make the Yomiuri Giants pitching staff and had him on my staff named Takashi Kashiwada (in 1997) and he won a game in the big leagues! And he pitched OK sometimes. Just to try to kind of prove a point, that a guy who couldn’t make a team there could make a team here, to say that it wasn’t more of an equal playing field.
“Now I don’t think that all the players in Japan want to play in the States. Why would you want to disrupt your whole world? Just for more money? I think what Japan will eventually do is change their model and bring up their salaries. They’re now building new stadiums for more revenue, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, to keep their players there. And if they keep their players there, eventually there’ll be an expansion to Asia with a division of baseball. That’s my thought and it’s been my thought for a long time. And because Major League Baseball didn’t come up with the thought, I think that they’ve decided to do it the way they’re doing it.
“And the way they’re doing it is the way Major League Baseball did it with the Negro Leagues — that they took their best players, and then they took their other players. And when that happens, the league folds. And I don’t want that to happen in Japan, because (in) Japan, baseball is the No. 1 sport in that country. And to take their professional leagues away from them would be a crime.”
