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Bobby Valentine Calls First Season in Boston ‘Miserable,’ But Still Open to Returning

You could describe the Red Sox season with many, many words. Bobby Valentine would go with "miserable."

The Boston manager was not in a particularly good mood on Wednesday afternoon during his weekly radio interview on The Big Show on WEEI.

Valentine, who sounded like he has had enough of this season, was irritable throughout the segment. 

"This is what I chose to do. I think it's been miserable, but it's also been part of my life's journey," Valentine said when talking about his first season at the helm in Boston. "You learn from misery."

However, given the chance, Valentine said that he'd like to return to Boston next year to honor the second year of his contract. That is, of course, if he's asked back, which is up in the air to say the least. Boston enters play on Wednesday at 63-74, a full 14 games behind the division-leading Yankees and Orioles.

Valentine also said that he was "very, very disappointed and personally hurt" by the story that he showed up "late" to a game in Oakland. Several outlets reported that Valentine showed up three hours before first pitch during a game against the Athletics on the club's current road trip, a trip in which they've gone 1-7. Many big league skippers tend to arrive at the park in the middle of the day for a night game, a few hours before Valentine arrived for the game in question.

"Who said I was late?" he asked Glenn Ordway and Michael Holley, prompting the hosts to search for the original story. 

"That really pisses me off," Valentine added, also callling the story an "absolute disgrace."

The manager was also asked, by Ordway, whether or not he had "checked out" for the season.

Valentine's response was eye-opening, but also a little bit comical.

"What an embarrassing thing to say," Valentine said. "If I were there right now, I'd punch you right in the mouth. Ha, ha. How's that sound? Is that like I checked out? What an embarrassing thing. Why would somebody even, that's stuff that a comic strip person would write. If someone's here, watching me go out at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, watching me put in the right relief pitchers to get a win, putting on a hit-and-run when it was necessary, talking to the guys after the game in the food room — how could someone in real life say that?"

Listen to the interview below.