Valentine soap opera continues to unfold

'Brad34,' a Penn student, apologized for attributing incorrect quotes to Valentine. New developments are continuing to surface in the ongoing saga of New York Mets manager Bobby Valentine, who made several controversial comments about his team in a speech at the University last week. The Penn student who started the controversy apologized on Sunday for posting a message on the Mets official Web site that stated his interpretation of Valentine's remarks, which included several disparaging comments about his players and the team's management. "If I were to know that the [original] post would end up in the hands of the vast media, I never would have made such a post," wrote the student -- whose name is being withheld by The Daily Pennsylvanian -- on the Mets site. "Most of the information included in the [original] post was not factual." The New York media, however, is continuing to keep a close watch on the Penn campus, and Valentine's face is still plastered on the back pages of the New York tabloids. Yesterday, the DP published the first verbatim excerpts of Valentine's speech from an audio recording of the first half of the event. The recording contained previously unpublished remarks about Mets outfielder Rickey Henderson, Atlanta Braves reliever John Rocker and the politics of baseball in New York City. UTV-13 also revealed yesterday that it is in possession of a videotape of the event but will not release the footage. Station President and General Manager Eric Gordon, a College junior, said the station's executive board made the decision to "minimize the risk that this would pose to the station." The student's initial Web post last week and the subsequent media interest prompted Mets General Manager Steve Phillips to make an unscheduled flight to Pittsburgh to discuss the matter with Valentine. The Mets said that the existence of the audio tape confirming some of the comments Valentine was alleged to have made would not cause the manager to lose his job. "Regardless of whether there was a tape, whether there was no tape? we're just prepared to move on and concentrate on the baseball season," Mets spokesman Jay Horowitz said yesterday. "[Phillips and Valentine] were together on Friday and Saturday," Horowitz added. "They spoke about the situation, and Steve heard all Bobby had to say about it." On Friday, Valentine contacted a DP reporter to request that the tape not be released. She told him she would need to speak to her editor. And Wharton Wide World of Sports -- the club that sponsored the event -- requested over the weekend that all copies of the tape be handed over to them. Wharton Wide World of Sports declined comment. According to the audio tape, Valentine sprinkled his remarks with statements like, "I'm willing to handle all those questions as long as this isn't going to be seen on 20/20." Valentine, who had earlier praised some of his ballplayers for being "worldly in their ventures," is heard on the tape relating a story about Henderson. Valentine was reading The Wall Street Journal on the team bus when Henderson boarded. "[Henderson] said, 'Hey, Bobby, what are you reading?' I said, 'The Wall Street Journal.' And he said, 'You mind if I look at the sports page when you finish?'" Valentine said, provoking laughter from the audience. "Worldly, he's worldly." Valentine was also critical of his team's failure to sign Japanese reliever Kazuhiro Sasaki over the winter. "I was a proponent during the offseason to say 'Let's boost our bullpen?But the group who makes the decisions decides that wasn't a good idea."

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