After Tuesday's practice — when the Red Sox practiced relays and cutoffs -– he needled the Yankees shortstop, saying Jeter was out of position when he flipped the ball to Jorge Posada, who tagged out Oakland's Jeremy Giambi in the 2001 American League Division Series.
Having spoken to Red Sox catching instructor Gary Tuck, who served the same role with the Yankees in 1998 and 1999, Valentine recanted his comment Wednesday.
"[Tuck] said they do practice it," Valentine said. "Total mistake on my part that they don't practice it, that's for sure. And he said that when they practiced it, Jeter always got there late in practice. In that game, he got there on time.
"So it's interesting. As I said [Tuesday], the shortstop there is being aware but it's hard to practice that because why are we going to practice a bad throw? It's not what we're doing here, but I get it."
Valentine acknowledged the mistake after hearing that Jeter staunchly defended the practice routine.
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