When Boston's prolonged search for a new manager began, Valentine was hardly even on the radar. Cherington's public first batch of interview candidates consisted of Pete Mackanin, Dale Sveum, Sandy Alomar, Jr. , Torey Lovullo and Gene Lamont. In that...

Of that group, only Lamont -- the official runner-up -- has been anything more than an interim manager.Confronted with that, Lucchino responded, "I was giving my preference from the outset."Valentine didn't emerge as a public candidate until after...

Valentine said that he would welcome it, but also that it would be “a growth opportunity” as he “hadn’t lived it.” He went on to say, “I’ve been outside of the information age of baseball for the most part.” Contrast that with Torey Lovullo, who also...

I think he’s going into this confident and I don’t think the term of the contract matters to him.’’ Although Cherington conducted a wide-ranging search that included Dale Sveum (who wound up being hired as Cubs manager), Pete Mackanin, Sandy Alomar Jr....

Cherington was said to have settled on Sveum, but that choice was vetoed after a meeting with the owners in Milwaukee on Nov. 16. Cherington had also looked at other candidates, like Torey Lovullo and Sandy Alomar Jr. , who did not have the kind of...

During Cherington's remarks to begin the festivities, there was no indication that anyone but Valentine was his first choice, though he did begin by thanking the other candidates such as Sveum, Torey Lovullo, and Sandy Alomar Jr. , and Gene Lamont. "In...