Toucher & Rich Take On Bobby Valentine and Boston Sports Media

Fred Toucher and Rich Shertenlieb photo by Jesse Burke for “Revolution Radio”

It’s no secret that segments of the local sports media have been curiously easy on Bobby Valentine and the Red Sox brass this season. Nearly every big story about the Red Sox’ discontent has been broken by a national reporter, and when Yahoo’s Jeff Passan published his damning report on dissension within the Red Sox clubhouse, just one (!) Red Sox beat reporter even asked about it at Bobby V’s next press conference.

Now, admittedly, we’re fans of 98.5 the Sports Hub’s Toucher & Rich show around here. So I couldn’t help but enjoy their send-up of the local sports media establishment this morning. Yesterday, Rich Shertenlieb made his way over to Fenway Park to put a blunt, but more than fair question to Valentine. Shertenlieb opened the press conference by asking, “Obviously it’s been a tough year for the fans of the Red Sox and if you had to make your case to those fans as to why you should remain the manager of the Red Sox next year, what would you say to them?”

Valentine replied: “I feel bad for those fans. I don’t have to make a case to them, though. I’ve suffered with them.”

Shertenlieb followed up: “But from the outside looking in, what do you want to say to them in order to make them believe that if you were to stay next year would have a different result?”

“I’m the best man for the job,” Valentine replied, and left it at that.

The exchange—watch the video here—was pretty run of the mill, if a little tense. But it seems to have kicked up a bit of a controversy, which is really pretty dumb. Less dumb is the rant it prompted from Toucher & Rich this morning about the stodginess of the local sports media. It’s good the whole way through, but really picks up at the 11:30 mark. It’s more than worth a listen.