Ever since being fired by the Mets in 2002, Bobby Valentine has managed the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan's professional league. He's entering the fourth and final season of his contract with the Marines, and the word out of Tokyo today is that the team has decided against offering him an extension. "They just wanted to go in a different direction," Valentine told the Associated Press. Sure, that's one theory; another theory is that Valentine is the one who wanted to head in a different direction -- as in east, across the Pacific and back to the major leagues. Back in October we heard rumblings that he was setting the stage for a comeback (reportedly, he was emailing a few "future" GMs in hopes of keeping his name on everybody's radar) and this seems to put him one step closer to making that a reality.
Valentine won more games than he lost over 15 seasons with the Rangers and Mets, and since he's been in Japan he ended a 31-year drought by leading the Marines to the Pacific League pennant. He has a flamboyant personality that doesn't mesh with everybody, but on a rebuilding team looking for faces to market (and someone to play along with silly team promotions), he at least deserves an interview.
