Proof Rodgers will get all the time he wants
Such is the microscopic glare of the mushrooming volume of media outlets in that city, no stone is left unturned when the sports press sets out to crush whichever overpaid underachiever is rattling the cages of its infamously intolerant fanbases.
But Red Sox and Liverpool owner John Henry is not built in that mould and he has proven that this season by sticking with the often disastrous Bobby Valentine, the mildly eccentric team manager of their baseball interests.
A TV analyst in recent years after time spent in Japanese dugouts, Valentine has only been at the helm of the iconic Red Sox for just over 100 games — two-thirds of the season — and managed to lose just over half of them.
That’s a statistic that will set off alarm bells at most ball clubs but in Boston, it’s grounds for mutiny. For a while, it felt as though Valentine might just go ahead and trigger a player mutiny with his own mouth. He went through an experimental phase of courting drama through the microphones by publicly admonishing veteran players. It was fun while it lasted but he eventually had to settle down when one of his own players told him through the media “that’s not the way things are done around here”.
After he learned the hard way to shut up, it was his ill-advised tactical manoeuvres which somehow managed to lead his numerous critics to look beyond an injury list for the ages. However, John Henry was not about to leave Bobby hanging. Last Monday, the owner took the unusual step of emailing reporters directly with a lengthy missive on why he was continuing to back the manager. This wasn’t your routine vote of confidence, there was a lot of effort put into making it clear that he was standing by his man and that the worst injury list in the league (23 at the time of his writing, up to 25 at the time of mine) was partly to blame for their atrocious run of form.
“We have been nothing but supportive of [Valentine] inside and outside of the clubhouse,” the email pointed out. “An organisation is much more than the field manager. We all share responsibility for the success and failure of the Boston Red Sox.”
I don’t know when Liverpool supporters will turn against Brendan Rodgers and I don’t really care. Nor do I know or care what their level of tolerance will be or what it will take for this currently tepid dynamic to cool all the way down.
It doesn’t matter what they think of Rodgers now or during the season. Judging by what has happened at the Boston Red Sox this year, Rodgers will have all the time in the world to get things a little more in order than they have been.
What happened with Kenny Dalglish was different. This point has been made before: that was a “careful what you wish for” admonishment of the Liverpool fanbase. Fenway gave the supporters their man and it didn’t work out. Now that they have their own man in charge, they won’t abandon him easily.
Rodgers sounds like a realistic guy, fully aware of the bumps in the road that lie ahead. But he knows enough about his new bosses to not be overcome by a chilly premonition when he does the pre-match handshake with Dalglish’s former lieutenant Steve Clarke at The Hawthorns on Saturday.
John Henry and the Fenway group will stick with him through thick and thin and even more thin. Because, despite all their big talk about legacy and pressure, the Boston Red Sox know what thin feels like — they had decades of practice.
Johnny Pesky died on Monday. He played 10 seasons at Fenway Park, before and after he served his country in the Second World War. His reluctance to make a run-saving throw cost the Red Sox the 1946 World Series, almost 60 years before they’d win it again. He went into hiding for five weeks, housebound and depressed. He told a journalist a few decades later that when he went back out into the world, he had reasoned with himself that this was the way his life would have to be.
“If you’re a palooka, you’ve got to live with it.”
After his playing career ended, he spent another half-century at the club. Times have changed but if you’re a Liverpool fan with low patience and high expectations, don’t go wishing Brendan Rodgers away to Palookaville. This time, you won’t get what you want.
* john.w.riordan@gmail.com Twitter: JohnWRiordan
