NYT-1201: STATE OF THE ART A Thermostat That's Clever, Not ...
NYT-1201: STATE OF THE ART A Thermostat That's Clever, Not ...
NYT-1201: STATE OF THE ART A Thermostat That's Clever, Not ...
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"Bobby is a baseball genius," said Matt Franco, th<br />
e former Met who played for Valentine in Queens an<br />
d in Japan. "Sometimes that gets under people’s sk<br />
in. But the players loved him. They could see he w<br />
as out for them."<br />
Before he made any changes in Japan, Valentine wou<br />
ld first take on what he wanted to alter, particul<br />
arly the rigorous workouts. He fielded so many gro<br />
und balls he felt his arm was going to fall off. "<br />
It has to be right," he would say to his bench coa<br />
ch, Frank Rampen, as he thought about what to chan<br />
ge.<br />
Valentine wasn’t always right, though. He institut<br />
ed changes with the team draft that sometimes back<br />
fired, and offended others with the new uniforms h<br />
e helped design. But he kept going.<br />
In 2005, when the young third baseman Toshiaki Ima<br />
e asked for three days off to be with his wife as<br />
she gave birth, Valentine’s Japanese coaches said<br />
it was out of the question. Valentine gave him the<br />
three days, and when Imae returned he went on a h<br />
itting tear and was eventually named the most valu<br />
able player of the Japan Series.<br />
Perhaps the biggest change that Valentine brought<br />
about involved the fans’ access to the players. He<br />
insisted that the eight-foot chicken-wire fences<br />
that extended from foul pole to foul pole and sepa<br />
rated the fans from the players should come down.<br />
He wanted his players to sign autographs. Accordin<br />
g to Larry Rocca, a former sportswriter who became<br />
a Marines executive, Valentine’s reasoning wasn’t<br />
only about building good will. When Valentine fir<br />
st returned in 2004, the players were lacking in s<br />
elf-esteem. Why would anyone want their autographs<br />
? The team was no good. But Valentine reasoned tha<br />
t if the players saw fans asking for autographs, t<br />
heir confidence might get a boost and so might the