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What: “Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel.”

Where: HBO, tonight, 10.

What often got Bobby Valentine in trouble when he was managing in the major leagues was his biting sarcasm. Now he’s managing in Japan, where the sarcasm doesn’t translate well, and he apparently is getting along fine.

That’s the impression viewers will get from the segment with Bryant Gumbel, who went to Japan to interview Valentine, who is in his second stint as manager of the Chiba Lotte Marines.

Valentine, fired as manager of the New York Mets in 2002, tells Gumbel he is surprised he didn’t get any major league offers after spending last season as an ESPN commentator. But Valentine admits his reputation hurt his chances.

“A couple of guys who never played for me got contracts with the Mets after I had left and made comments that they wouldn’t have gone there if I was there,” Valentine says.

Valentine has an interpreter, but there are still problems communicating with his players.

“We had this throw-behind-the-runner situation we were working on in practice, and after 15 tries they just couldn’t get it,” Valentine says.

“Well, what came back to me was, they were thinking, ‘We understand you have an aggressive style, but why do we throw to the behind of our lead runner.’ They thought I had a dodge-ball thing going on the baseball diamond.”

-- Larry Stewart