Bobby Valentine's Playing Career (1969 -1979)
Trivia: Valentine is considered to be one of the best high school athletes in the sports history in the state of Connecticut. He is the only player to have his number retired in both sports at his high school.
In football he was a half back & in baseball a versatile fielder that could play anywhere while hitting the ball all over the field.
He was recruited by the University of Nebraska, Duke, Notre Dame & the University of Southern California. But in 1969, he signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team.
In 1968 with the A ball Ogden Dodgers his manager was Tommy Lasorda who became his mentor & life long friend. On that team Bobby played alongside Steve Garvey & Bill Buckner.
Bobby & Tom Paciorek both came thru the ranks of the organization together. The two humorous personalities became close friends for the rest of their lives. Paciorek was known as Wimpy, after being called that by Tommy Lasorda when out to a team dinner he was the only player to order a hamburger instead of a steak.MLB Career: He got a September call up in 1969, making his big-league debut against the World Champion New York Mets.
On September 2nd, he came in as a pinch runner & scored a run on Andy Kosco's base hit in the 5-1 Mets win. Overall Valentine saw action in five games, with no official at bats but in pinch running roles he scored three runs.
1971: On April 7th, he was playing right field in the third game of the Dodgers season.
On April 25th, in the first game of a twin bill at Cincinnati, he got his first career hit, it came off the Reds Milt Wilcox & scored Steve Garvey with his first RBI. Valentine played in the second game of that double header & recorded another hit.
On May 19th he singled off Bob Gibson in the bottom of the 8th inning in what turned out to be the games winning run, against the St. Louis Cardinals. On June 13th, he hit his first career HR, coming off the Expos (former Met) Steve Renko. Valentine would drive in four runs in that game, a career best. He drove in two more runs the next day & a total of eight that week.
That year the Dodgers (89-73) finished just one game behind the San Francisco Giants in the NL West.
1972: On May 15th, Valentine's RBI single scored Frank Robinson leading the Dodgers to a 2-1 win over the Padres in San Diego. On May 20th, he homered off the Astros Dave Roberts helping Al Downing to a 3-0 shut out over Houston at Dodger Stadium.
In September he drove in seven runs in a six-game stretch, this included three multi hit days, with a four-hit day on September 17th against Houston. Overall, for 1972, he raised his average to .274 with three HRs 32 RBIs & 107 hits in only 119 games. That year the Dodgers were 85-70 finishing ten games behind the mighty Big Red Machine.
Blockbuster Trade: Being a top prospect with a bright future he was involved in a big Los Angeles area trade in November 1972. Valentine, along with Frank Robinson, Billy Grabarkewitz, & Bill Singer went to the California Angels for Ken McMullen and Andy Messersmith who became one of the NLs top pitched over the next few seasons.
Thursday Night May 17th, 1973: the Angels hosted that year's World Champion Oakland A's in front of 11.481 fans at Anaheim Stadium. The Angels Rudy May went up against the A's Catfish Hunter. Catfish would shut out the Angels 4-0 on a five hitter.
In the top of the 2nd, Reggie Jackson tripled for Oakland & Ray Fosse later walked. Second baseman Dick Green came to bat & blasted a shot to deep center field, Valentine ran to the fence jumped up in attempt to snag the ball. He missed it by less than an inch & it went over for a HR. For Valentine it was much worse, his leg got caught up between two posts in the fence and tangled as he fell down to the ground. He was carried off the field in intense pain & suffered multiple leg fractures. It was one of the worst baseball injuries of that year , becoming one that was talked about for a long time.
He required surgery which had him spend the rest of the year in two different casts but the bones in his ankle still did not heal right.
Instead of another surgery he decided to play thru it in 1974. Although he did play in 117 games, he batted .261 & was never the same player again.
His potential All Star career combined of speed, power, as well as being a versatile fielder was never to be the same. The surgery had left calcium deposit lump on his right leg which affected his play as well.
The following year he returned and had just 371 at bats and hit .261 with three HRs, ten doubles, 39 RBIs & a .308 on base %.
San Diego Padres Career: On September 17th he was traded to the San Diego Padres for Gary Ross & player to be named later (Rudy Meoli). Valentine only played in 22 games from that point & all of the 1976 season due to injuries.
Quotes- Bobby Valentine: "When Alvin Dark (Padres manager) told me I had been traded he said it was the hardest thing a manager had to do. He had a long face & my heart sank until he said I was going to the Mets. When I started to smile he seemed surprised, since Alvin like a lot of people, seemed to assume I'm from California. Then I told him it meant I was going home & he understood why I was happy."
Mets Playing Career: Valentine was thrilled to be playing back in the tri-state area near his Connecticut home.
Quotes- Bobby Valentine: "It's a homecoming a renaissance. I've always hit well at Shea Stadium even against pitchers like Tom Seaver & Nolan Ryan, when he was with the Mets & I'm sure I'll do fine here now, regardless of where I play."
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Unfortunately at the time the Mets were in last place & he was struggling at the plate. On June 17th, Bobby Valentine debuted as a Mets player pinch hitting for Pat Zachry, drawing a walk in a 7-1 loss to the Astros at Shea Stadium.
Multi- Hit & HR Game: On June 29th at Shea Stadium, Valentine hit his first Mets HR, coming off the Phillies Jim Lonborg. He collected two hits in the 5-3 win over the Phillies. It was Bobby's second & only Mets HR of the year.
On July 15th he played both ends of a double header split with the Pirates, collecting an RBI in the 6-1 night cap win,
Valentine would play eleven games in August collecting three hits. On August 12th he drove in his 13th run of the season in a loss at Pittsburgh. In September an injury limited his playing time to just one game.
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Valentine only hit .133 in 42 games for the last place Mets going 11-83 with one HR & three RBIs. Defensively Bobby V. was the Mets ultimate utility player, playing every infield position in his Mets career. He would play at second base (45 games) first base (15 games) short stop (14 games) & third base (13 games).
1978 Season: Bobby came into the season as a reserve player & would see action at second (45 games) & third base (nine games).
Multi-RBI Games: On April 18th in St. Louis, in the bottom of the 7th inning of a tied game Valentine came up as a pinch hitter with two outs & the bases loaded. Bobby doubled to left field off Eric Rasmussen bringing home Lee Mazzilli & Willie Montanez with what turned out to be the games winning runs in the 3-2 win over the Cardinals.
On April 29th in a 14-7 loss to the Reds at Shea, Bobby drove in two runs with 1st inning two run single. The next night, he hit another two run single off Tom Hume in the Mets 6-4 win over the Reds giving him back-to-back multi RBI games.
On May 11th in Montreal, Valentine tied up the game in the 6th inning as he grounded out allowing Willie Montanez to score from third base. Later in the top of the 8th with two on, he singled off Stan Bahnsen scoring Steve Henderson with turned out to be the games winning run in a 3-2 victory over the Expos.
Bubble Gum Champ Trivia: Bobby was a long-time bubble-gum fan, in the summer of 1978 Valentine won the Mets - Dodgers Bubble gum blowing contest. Bobby V. would be famous for blowing bubbles throughout his playing & managing career.
From August 23rd to August 30th, Bobby hit .333 with seven hits, three multi-hit games & three RBIs over six games.
On the 1978 season he raised his batting average 136 points from the past year, to a respectable .269 in 160 at bats. He had 43 hits, seven doubles, one HR and 18 RBIs with a .346 on base % & .677 OPS.
The Mets finished last for the second straight season at 66-96 under manager Joe Torre.
1979: At the end of Spring Training he Mets released Bobby V. at the end of Spring Training. Two weeks later, he ended up signing on with the Seattle Mariners.
In Seattle Valentine played in 62 games batting .276 with six doubles, seven RBIs, 22 walks, a .405 on base % & .742 OPS for the sixth place Mariners.
On the field he played 161 games at short, 128 games in the outfield, 120 games at second base, 106 games at third 23 games at first base & even two games at catcher.
Mets Career: In his brief Mets playing career, he played in 111 games over two seasons. He batted .222 with 54 hits with 2 HRs 8 doubles 25 runs scored 21 RBIs & a .295 on base %.