Bobby Valentine to be hired by Red Sox

The Yankees-Red Sox rivalry wasn't in need of any more juice but it's about to get some.

An industry source and multiple media reports out of Boston said last night that the Red Sox, reeling from the embarrassing revelations relating to their September collapse that caused them to miss the playoffs, have selected Bobby Valentine as their next manager.

"He's got it. I just spoke to him a little while ago," Hall of Famer Tommy Lasorda, who managed Valentine in the minors with the Los Angeles Dodgers, said in a telephone interview with the AP.

Valentine, who has not managed in the majors since being fired by the Mets in 2002, was a finalist along with Tigers third-base coach Gene Lamont. He will replace Terry Francona, who split with the team after the season. General manager Theo Epstein soon followed, moving to Chicago as the Cubs' new president of baseball operations.

Valentine has been in Japan, where he managed from 2004-09, and is expected back in Boston sometime Wednesday. A news conference with the official announcement could be Thursday.

Valentine, 61, went 536-467 (.534) from 1996-2002 with the Mets, leading them to a wild-card playoff berth in 1999 -- they lost to the Braves in the NLCS in six games -- and the World Series in 2000, when they lost to the Yankees in five games. There was far more to his tenure than that, an at-times tumultuous seven years that included open feuding with GM Steve Phillips, some members of the media and various players.

Valentine is almost unanimously respected for his baseball acumen and is just as nearly universally known for his ability to alienate. But he was also at the forefront of the response from the city's professional sports teams in the days and weeks following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, all of which still makes him a popular figure in the Tri-State area.

Valentine, most recently working as an analyst for ESPN, managed the Rangers for eight seasons from 1985-92, going 581-605.

He will inherit a talent-rich team in Boston, one that went 90-72 but blew a nine-game lead over the Rays for the AL wild card, held as late as Sept. 4, and missed the playoffs by a game with a 7-20 finish.

Reports soon surfaced that painted a picture of a dysfunctional clubhouse, one featuring some players not putting forth maximum effort and the revelations causing the most incendiary headlines -- a group of pitchers eating fried chicken and drinking beer during games.

Francona was portrayed as an absentee manager who could no longer motivate his players. Valentine will certainly command everyone's attention at the start. The degree to which his hiring ultimately changes the dysfunction in Boston remains to be seen.

As the weeks dragged on after the departures of Francona and Epstein, criticism mounted of the selection process. Dale Sveum appeared to be the choice of new GM Ben Cherington but Sveum didn't get the job and was eventually hired in Chicago by Epstein. At the same time, Larry Lucchino suggested the search should be expanded, sowing the seeds for what should be announced shortly but also the perception that Valentine is the CEO's choice, not the GM's.