Bobby V, we hardly knew ye

The Bobby Valentine era ended last night in New York City as the Red Sox lost to the Bronx Bombers 14-2 while they dropped their final eight games and finished in last place with a 69-93 record. It was their worst performance since the Billy Herman-led Sox went 62-100 in 1965. You know the old saying “You can’t fire 25 players” so in the end it wasn’t a surprise when Red Sox General Manager Ben Cherrington gave Bobby V the ole “Bobby, it’s not you, it’s us” send off today. This time those words might actually have some truth.

2012 was nothing more than a continuation of 2011 when Terry Francona suffered a fate similar to the one Bobby V received today. In both cases the managers were done in by a bunch of spoiled, out-of-shape Prima Donnas who cared more about themselves then they cared about the Red Sox and their fans. Last year the players quit in September but this year they never even  bothered to show up. Sure, Bobby is V culpable in this disaster too, but for the reasons the Red Sox knew when they hired him – Bobby can’t keep his mouth shut and has a way of making a bad situation even worse. From questioning Kevin Youklis' commitment to complaining about his coaching staff's loyalty on the last day of the season, Bobby always had to get the last word in and that is part of the reason he became an unsympathetic manager on the most unlikable team in the history of Boston sports. With that being said, Bobby V paid the price for the Red Sox failures but make no mistake; he was just a small part of the 2012 Red Sox failure that future dismal Red Sox teams will be measured against.

Today, we will all try and put this mess behind us but before we do that, I could not miss a chance to give my list of the top ten reasons The 2012 Red Sox Resembled The Titanic:

10 - Josh Beckett’s poor performance and attitude.

9 - Jon Lester’s poor performance.

8 - Dice K being Dice K.

7 - Bobby V forgetting that he wasn’t a TV commentator anymore and saying things publicly that should have been kept in the club house.

6 - Carl Crawford and Jacoby Ellsbury’s penchant for injuries.

5 - The Red Sox having more rats then a New York City tenement.

4 - The Red Sox brass refusing to allow Bobby V to pick his own coaches and thus making him becoming an island on the team he managed.

3 - Will Middlebrooks, David Ortiz and Andrew Bailey all missing large chunks of the season due to injury.

2 - Ownership allowing the players to run the asylum.

1 - Dustin “Pee Wee” Herman  Pedroia and David “Rodney Dangerfield” Ortiz  failing to replace the leadership vacuum created by the retirements of Jason  Varitek and Tim Wakefield and becoming problems instead of  solutions.

 Oh well, wait til next year.