Valentine’s Vision Didn’t Translate Into Japanese

Bobby Valentine, back in the wide-open spaces of the USA, had no trouble remembering the most important phrase in Japanese society.

Valentine, who is in his second tenure as the Norfolk Tides’ manager, didn’t pause. He slipped into Japanese that may not have been fluent, but was certainly passable. He waited to be asked, then translated.

“It’s because Japan is a small country.”

A deeper translation was still necessary.

“That answers most questions over there,” said Valentine, who played for the Angels and Dodgers. “It’s one of those catch-all phrases. ‘Why do Japanese players have the same batting stance?’ The answer will be, ‘It’s because Japan is a small country.’ ”

Too small for a gaijin such as Valentine?

The short answer is Valentine, the former Texas Ranger manager, was the first to go from the United States to manage in Japan, and the first manager to be fired in both countries. He has returned to manage the New York Mets’ triple-A team.

The longer version is a little more convoluted.

Valentine guided the Chiba Lotte Marines, a perennial loser, to a second-place finish in the six-team Pacific Division. After the season finale, Marine fans chanted his name, demanding he return from the clubhouse for a curtain call. Valentine obliged and was overwhelmed with the shouts and cheers. His assimilation to that country seemed to be complete.

Last October, Valentine was visiting his family in the United States when Marine officials called to fire him. The reason given was the cultural gap was too wide. Valentine said he had condensed a three-year plan into six months. Success aside, Valentine apparently had to go because he tried to make too many changes too quickly. Maybe Japan is too small of country for Bobby Valentine.

“I don’t know that phrase,” said Hidetaka Irie, a writer who covered the Seibu Lions last season for Hochi Shimbun (Sports Newspaper). “Maybe Bobby just felt claustrophobic because of management.”

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This is the fourth go-round in the Mets’ organization--including one as a player--for Valentine, 46.

He is a Tom Lasorda protege and there was a time, back when he was managing the Rangers, that Valentine was considered heir to Lasorda. The line of succession has since been altered. Dodger coach Bill Russell, who became the team’s interim manager when Lasorda was hospitalized last month, appears first in line.

But Norfolk isn’t so bad. Valentine managed there in 1994 and was happy to return. He was a third base coach for the Mets from 1982 until being hired by the Rangers in 1985. So going back was natural and even predictable.

Valentine had just returned to his Arlington, Texas, home after a trip to Japan to meet with Chiba Lotte officials for the last time when Steve Phillips, the Mets’ assistant general manager, called to offer him the job.

“I had just put my suitcases on the floor and the phone rang,” Valentine said. “[Norfolk Manager] Toby Harrah had just been hired by the Cleveland Indians and Steve wanted to know if I wanted to manage the Tides. I said, ‘I’d walk there to take that job.’ ”

He has traveled a lot farther for one.

The offer to manage Chiba Lotte was sweet, but team officials didn’t sugarcoat it. The Marines had finished in the bottom half of the division for 15 consecutive seasons.

Marine officials gave Valentine a two-year contract, worth about $1.2 million. They asked him to manage the worst team in Japanese baseball history and they used those exact words.

Don Blasingame was the only other gaijin--the Japanese word for foreigner--to manage in Japan, spending two seasons each with the Hanshin Tigers and Nankai Hawks in the 1970s. But Blasingame, a former Cincinnati Red infielder, had played in Japan for three seasons and was a coach another nine.

Valentine was the first to make the jump without waiting for the jet lag to subside. Team officials were that desperate.

“Chiba Lotte had been a managers’ graveyard,” Valentine said. “No one in Japan wanted the job. They had tried everything.”

Which made it easier for Valentine to try anything, even things unheard of in Japanese baseball.

“His guys would wear sunglasses during batting practice,” said Angel third baseman Jack Howell, who spent four seasons playing in Japan. “But the game is the same over there. The rules don’t change.”

Some did. The Marines got off to a 4-12 start and Valentine decided he had to shake things up.

Players were expected to drill and drill each day to hone their skills. But Valentine began letting players skip the four-hour batting practices. Instead of a complete team-as-one philosophy, he tried to deal with players on an individual basis.

And it worked.

Veteran Koichi Hori, a utility player in the past, became the team’s everyday shortstop. He finished second in the league in hitting and made the all-star team.

“He was a guy who would basically break down every year,” Valentine said. “I watched to make sure he didn’t break down and that sometimes meant missing batting practice.”

Still, it made Chiba Lotte management uneasy. A Valentine comment that the players “looked like they were having a good time” didn’t help matters.

“In Japan, you practice for practice,” said Irie, who is now in the United States following the Dodgers’ Hideo Nomo for his newspaper. “Bobby’s style was more like the major leagues and everyone liked it--the players and the fans.”

And management was fond of it to a point. The Marines finished 68-58-3 and attendance was up 23%. The Marines made a profit for the first time in 20 seasons.

Valentine earned another $250,000 as a bonus. But by the end of the season, he was feeling a little pressure from above.

He had been given complete control by General Manager Tatsuro Hirooka. Then Assistant General Manager Masuichi Takagi began changing the training program, according to Valentine.

“When I was hired, they called it a revolution,” Valentine said. “When they talked about revolution, they were talking about things evolving slowly. It was happening too quickly. Everyone dislikes change. The Japanese just dislike it a little more.”

Not that Valentine didn’t conform to some Japanese styles. He even spent three hours fielding 1,000 ground balls after being told it was a Japanese ritual for those who wanted to be a professional player. He later learned it was a figurative, rather than literal, accomplishment.

Valentine took language lessons before going to Japan and had an interpreter at all times, so there would be no misunderstandings. He also continued the tradition of grading players after each game and practice.

“Even guys who didn’t play in the game got a numerical evaluation,” Valentine said. “At the end of the year, they add it up and that determined the players’ salary for the next season.

“The idea is everything can be accomplished by working on technique. Every relief pitcher threw every day and a coach would give him a grade. The problem arises when a pitcher has an 0-2 count and then walks the batter. That doesn’t mean he needs more practice. They don’t quite believe that more isn’t necessarily better.”

It was better that Valentine move on.

“The Marine management got greedy with winning,” Irie said. “Before, they just wanted their players to be better. Then they wanted to win. The problem was there was too much attention focused on Bobby. It became known as his style. They didn’t think the team should be Bobby alone.”

Fans felt differently. More than 14,000 signed a petition in an effort to keep team officials from firing Valentine.

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Valentine has been fired before and knows he will be again. In some ways, though, starting from scratch in Japan was refreshing.

When the Rangers hired him in 1985, Valentine, then 35, was the youngest manager in the majors and his future seemed clear. He spent 7 1/2 seasons with Texas and was named the American League’s manager of the year in 1986.

At one point, even Lasorda said: “I’d like Bobby Valentine to get my job.”

It seemed like a natural transition. Valentine had been a Dodger first-round draft pick in 1968 and played in the minor leagues for Lasorda. But Valentine was traded to the Angels before the 1973 season. His 10-year career was marred when he broke his leg crashing into the fence at Anaheim Stadium in 1973.

Valentine and Lasorda remained close. The Dodgers approached Valentine about becoming a coach in the early 1980s. His name shot to the top of the list to replace Lasorda after taking the Ranger job.

But Lasorda remained the Dodger manager and talk of Valentine as the heir has passed, to the point where he only jokes about it.

“I’d love to be the Dodgers’ manager,” he said. “That’s all I ask. Well, that and Santa Claus coming to my house every day.”

Said Phillips: “Over the years, you hear it was Bobby and then Russell, Rick Dempsey and Phil Regan. Mike Scioscia is the new name. All I know is Bobby will be managing in the major leagues again and we’re lucky to have him right now.

“He’s an excellent teacher of the game. Who wouldn’t want Bobby Valentine working with their players?”

Major league teams have made informal contact in the past, but the situation was never right. Russell is the next Dodger manager, at least on an interim basis. And Valentine has expanded his horizons.

“Last year was the greatest experience in my life,” Valentine said. “It was also the most difficult thing I have ever done. There were many, many nights that I came home very frustrated. But it was fulfilling.”

So who knows? In the end, it may be the United States that is too big. Japan may be the perfect fit.