Red Sox Fire Bobby Valentine

In a move that should come as a shock to no one, the Red Sox fired Bobby Valentine on Thursday after one of the worst seasons in Boston in decades. I think I speak for all Mets fans when I say we would welcome him back to Flushing.

The Sox finished 69-93 — their most loses since 1965. Valentine clashed with his players and the front office and was just a bad fit for this team.

Yet Mets fans still revere Valentine for the job he did with the Mets in the late 1990s and early 2000s. They have been clamoring for a return pretty much since the day he was fired. It will probably never happen, but we can dream, can’t we.

And this is no disrespect to Terry Collins, who has done a fine job as manager thus far with a very flawed team. It’s just that Mets fans put Valentine is on a different level than anyone else.

It’s funny, the rest of the baseball world apparently despises Valentine while New York still loves him. It’s much like Barry Bonds, who is widely hated except in San Francisco, and Roger Clemens, who pretty much only has fans left in Houston (there are probably a few Yankees fans who still like him).

I would be surprised if Bobby Valentine got another manager job. He’ll likely go back to the broadcast booth, where his honesty and candor was a sharp contrast to announcers who go out of their way to avoid critical and controversial comments.