Bobby Valentine has the first laugh. Get your five-dimensional chess sets out boys and girls!
“The new Red Sox manager loves nothing more than folks hanging on his every word, and he basked in the media attention for a half hour on Wednesday. Reporters got what they wanted as well, a quote as juicy as the $56 cowboy rib-eye in the hotel’s twenty-seventh floor restaurant.
“Asked, ‘Can you talk about the rivalry with the Yankees?’ Valentine replied, ‘No. I hate the Yankees. I don’t want to waste this valuable time talking about the Yankees. This is too valuable. I told Joe Girardi I used to love them. But now I hate them.’
“He was grinning ear to ear the entire time, but it was clear he’s throwing down the gauntlet: Boston’s three-century long inferiority complex when it comes to New York has no place in his clubhouse.”
Random Notes: I (Evander) am still watching (and re-watching!) Empire of Cricket, now to episode 5. For all baseball kooks, the BBC Empire is (to the stage I’ve reached) somewhat like a cross between the Burns baseball documentaries and Ian McEwan’s Atonement or Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited, sometimes with The Sex Pistols thrown in. In short, the program is riveting. You’ll get it.
Right Off the Bat 
He’s pretty hilarious. I’m digging the hilarity.