Bobby Valentine Named Sacred Heart Univ. AD

Fairfield, CT — Bobby Valentine is the new athletic director of Sacred Heart University. The official announcement will be made Tuesday according to various media accounts.

The Connecticut Post reports that Valentine — whose lives in nearby Stamford, Conn. — will replace AD Don Cook whose retirement becomes effective on July 1. Valentine reportedly interviewed for the job in January.

Valentine is coming off a failed, one-year stint as manager of the Boston Red Sox in which the team finished in the MLB American League East cellar at 69-93. He had a more successful run as a baseball manager in Japan. Prior to that, he managed the Texas Rangers and the New York Mets. He also was in the booth for ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball in 2011.

Of his brief tenure with the Red Sox, internet commenters didn’t mince words:

“He did a terrible job communicating, he did a terrible job managing his players, and he routinely made poor in-game decisions.

” … a poor motivator, poor communicator, poor tactician, and a disaster with public relations.”

Despite being fired by the Red Sox after a very poor season, Valentine is not the type of person to just sit on the couch. He recently signed on with the NBC Sports Radio network to co-host a talk show that starts in April. He also has other things going according to USA Today:

“But Valentine’s interests have never been limited to baseball. Since 1980, he has owned and operated an eponymous sports bar in his hometown of Stamford, Conn., where he maintains he invented the wrap sandwich even though reports of meats being wrapped in flatbread date back to Hillel the Elder over 2000 years ago. In 2011, Valentine took a job as Stamford’s director of public safety … “

Sacred Heart University, according to NBC Sports, is a power in baseball and golf in the Northeast Conference.

Do you think Bobby Valentine will succeed as Sacred Heart University Athletic Director?