In homage to Lowetide:

This is John Valentin. He played 11 seasons in the Show, 10 of them for my Boston Red Sox, batting .279 lifetime. He was the shortstop for the Bosox from his rookie year, 1992, until 1997 when some kid named Nomar Garciaparra came up through the farm system and displaced him to third base. Val was deeply unhappy with the move, and expressed his feelings to the media in spring training, but treated Nomar with great class, enough so that Nomar once credited him with teaching him how to talk to the press. Val seemed to think that the best revenge was living--or fielding--well, and that he did, essentially robbed of a Gold Glove that year by Robin Ventura of the White Sox, who expressed surprise at his own win when it was announced.

In terms of on-field achievements, flying beneath the Boston sports media's radar was Val's speciality, despite a superb fielding percentage year in and year out (.971 in his first three seasons at short), perpetually leading the team in doubles, and becoming the only man in MLB history to hit for the cycle AND perform an unassisted triple play. Valentin was a team leader, a close friend of slugger Mo Vaughn (with whom he not only came up through the farm but roomed with in college as well), a devoted fundraiser for Boston children's cancer charity The Jimmy Fund, and played hard and played hurt. The Boston sports media, as was their wont, focused on his New Jersey wisecracking tone, and his criticisms of Boston's disastrous GM, labeling him a troublemaker and ungrateful. The hero of the 1999 playoffs would leave Fenway in bitter circumstances, in 2001, play one more season for the Mets on a shattered knee, and retire in enemy territory.

Val was my first sports hero. He had many things to recommend him to a teenage girl in the early nineties, and his intelligence and oddball humor were just some of them. (What can I say--a 9.71 fielding percentage is girl bait!) I amassed a collection of Valentin cards in the hundreds (the rise of eBay was remarkably well-timed) and recoiled in a souveneir shop on Yawkey Way when I was asked while picking through their Valentin cards, "Hey are you that girl, who's like, stalking John Valentin?" For the record, as I said then, and I'll say now: No, I was not. Eeek.

Tonight I learned he's managing an AA team in Chattanooga, and I'm delighted to hear it. I hope someday he's welcomed back into the Red Sox organization with a reconciliation to warm my teenaged heart. Stay classy, Val.