COLUMN: Big deal about his big mouth

From Jeremy Reiss's, "Vegas, Baby," Fall '00 From Jeremy Reiss's, "Vegas, Baby," Fall '00Sorry, everyone, but we don't deserve all this attention. I'm not talking about Spring Fling. We throw one hell of a party and this year was no exception. Like dozens of other Mets fans, I attended Bobby Valentine's talk on campus last week. And like a good New Yorker, I was prepared to grill the manager about questionable moves he has made from the dugout. But like most others in the audience, I came away with not only a greater sense of respect for Valentine as a manager but a clearer understanding of the complexities that business issues bring to on-the-field operations. What was most entertaining and refreshing about Valentine's talk was his candor. That said, he did include both subtle and not-so-subtle references to player acquisitions with which he doesn't agree. He also jokingly commented on some of his players. Some might say Valentine was stupid for putting his trust in a bunch of kids to keep things quiet. But more likely, this whole controversy is a consequence of Valentine's outspokenness. As was made clear in Steinberg-Dietrich Hall, he is a loudmouth who has a tendency to speak his mind regardless of the consequences. No one knows how his mind works. But my guess is he felt the best way to educate students about the business of baseball was to openly offer personal examples. Valentine understood that both a Daily Pennsylvanian reporter and a UTV-13 cameraman were present and recording his words, so he couldn't reasonably think that nothing would leave the room. More likely, he assumed that management would never make a big deal about such casual comments. And to a large degree, that sounds logical. Valentine's remarks were hardly shocking to those familiar with the long-standing bitterness between Valentine and Mets General Manager Steve Phillips. Further, nothing he said indicates he is any less capable of performing his job on the field. That's why it was shocking to hear the news break on Friday that an irate Phillips had hopped a plane to Pittsburgh to discuss with Valentine his talk with some college kids. Throughout the weekend, from what I've heard, many callers to New York radio talk shows were none too happy with Penn students. While some fans voiced concern over Valentine's confrontational comments, others seemed to think students had conspired to sabotage the manager's career. Even on a University newsgroup, upenn.talk, someone accused "Brad34" -- the student who posted a summary of Valentine's speech on the Mets' Web site -- of being a Yankees fan who purposely leaked the story to the press to hurt the Mets. Heaven forbid. As ESPN.com more recently noted, Brad34 is in fact a Met fan who, intrigued by the comments, wanted to share them with fellow fans. So he posted a message to a bulletin board. "If I were to know that the post would end up in the hands of the vast media, I would never have made such a post," Brad34 wrote on the Mets' Web site Sunday, apologizing to fans and the team. In fact, the guy is no Deep Throat. Despite Valentine's plea that his talk would "not appear on 20/20," many students in attendance -- myself included -- went home to discuss with friends what we had heard. Like Valentine, no one in attendance thought the speech would create such an uproar. In reality, no one had to know about this latest bone of contention between Phillips and Valentine. Even after he read the comments on the Web, Phillips didn't need to make a scene. By taking the surprise trip, he made it into a controversy. On the other hand, Valentine had no justification for asking both the DP and UTV to keep their tapes under wraps. Certainly, the reactions speak more to the fact that the rift is so deep that Phillips is looking for any reason at all to fire his manager. Except he can't. Not over this. If Phillips had dealt with the situation privately, fans could chalk up Valentine's dismissal to their irreconcilable differences of opinion. But Phillips' own contract runs out at the end of this year. And if the public perceived that he fired "Bobby V" over a talk with college students, there's a good chance he too might be out of a job soon. And Valentine knows this. In fact, part of me thinks that somewhere in the back of Phillips' mind, he is waiting, even hoping, for a big Mets losing streak to justify making his move. Mr. Valentine, if that's not indicative of baseball as a business, I don't know what is.