New film on ESPN shows Zen of Bobby Valentine

Neil Best

May 13, 2008

'Oh, to be a kid again," a wistful Bobby Valentine says in "The Zen of Bobby V," a documentary that premieres on ESPN2 tonight.

The unintended irony is that Valentine, who turns 58 today, does a better job than most inter-hemispheric sports celebrities at remaining ever youthful.

See Bobby ride his bike to work. See him display boundless energy. See him climb Mount Fuji.

And see him spend eight months getting along famously with the three insanely young NYU film students who ESPN bankrolled for this look at Valentine managing the Chiba Lotte Marines.

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"I think my husband wore them out more than they wore him out," Mary Valentine said after an April 27 screening in Manhattan.

Two of them graduate tomorrow, and as creditable a job as they did, they surely realize they never again will have a subject as easy as Valentine.

Bobby V. is as much of a ham as ever, and seems to relish the chance to spread the gospel of Japanese baseball.

In one scene, he addresses Japanese reporters in the same sarcastic, condescending tone he used when he managed the Mets.

It was amusing, but Larry Rocca insisted it was an aberration.

Rocca covered the Yankees for Newsday from mid-1998 to early in 2001, and since January 2005 has worked for the Marines, where he is deputy managing director of business operations and the only foreigner in a front office of 60.

"Ninety-nine percent of Bobby's interaction with the media here is very unremarkable," Rocca said from Japan. "He would kill me for saying this, but if he ever goes back to the U.S., I'm just going to say over and over, 'Pretend the press is Japanese.'

"Sarcasm doesn't play here. It doesn't get translated."

Rocca stars in one of the movie's most memorable scenes: climbing Mount Fuji. (Valentine called the camera work by Jonah Quickmire Pettigrew on the hike the "greatest athletic achievement" he has witnessed.)

During the climb, Rocca is heard trying to convince someone on his cell phone that he really is climbing Mount Fuji with Bobby Valentine.

Turns out it was a client calling Rocca to see if he wanted to grab a beer. Um, no. Rain check?

At the summit, Rocca deadpans that he still is waiting for a challenge, "because so far, Mount Fuji shows me nothing."

Rocca said he initially was wary the filmmakers (Andrew Jenks, Andrew Muscato and Pettigrew) might "burn" Valentine, but "they were the three greatest guys of all time."

Their finished product is well worth watching, but there is too much footage of games, taking precious screen time from the manager.

"They could have made 10 movies," Rocca said of the more than 500 hours that were shot.

Valentine helped the project however he could, part of his mission to show Americans a baseball world about which they know little.

How long will he be a part of it?

"It's always a surprise with him; you never know where or when," his wife said.

"He's definitely not in any rush to leave here," Rocca said. "He's got a great job, a great life. He's making a huge impact. He's revived a franchise by his own sheer force of personality and will and charisma and legitimate genius."

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