Ex-Rangers Coach Bobby Valentine Rumored to Be in the Running for Trump's Ambassador to Japan

WASHINGTON -- Bobby Valentine, a former manager for the Texas Rangers, Boston Red Sox and New York Mets, is reportedly in the running to be the next U.S. ambassador to Japan.Though the potential move, first reported by Boston radio station WEEI, would be unconventional, the 66-year-old baseball vet has plenty of connections to the Land of the Rising Sun."If they ever do appoint him to this job, they'll get someone who's not going over there just to eat sushi and mingle with the elite," said Tom Grieve, the former Rangers general manager during Valentine's tenure with the team. "They'll get a guy that's going over there to do a job and work at it."Valentine, the athletic director at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut, was hired by the Rangers in 1985 at the age of 35 and managed the team for 1,186 games, second in franchise history after Ron Washington.He was fired in 1992 by then-owner George W. Bush, during which time Tom Schieffer was one of the club’s managing partners.Schieffer became Bush’s ambassador to Japan in 2005, when Valentine lived there as manager of the Chiba Lotte Mariners. Valentine led the team to victory in the 2005 Japan Series, becoming the first American manager to win the event, which Schieffer said made Valentine “very popular.”Japanese fans worshipped the Connecticut native, erecting a statue of Valentine at his home stadium, renaming a nearby street “Valentine Way” and distinguishing a special section of seats in the stadium called “Bobby Seats” where kids could watch games free of charge. When a national study in Japan polled young workers on whom their ideal boss would be, Valentine won.Schieffer said Friday he couldn't confirm speculation that this popularity might translate into a diplomatic post.   Continue reading...