|
Let bygones be bygones
Mets co-owner Wilpon wants Valentine to return
Posted: Thursday October 14, 1999 08:46 PM
| |
Managing emotions: Wilpon says statements reportedly made by Bobby Valentine were made under stress. AP |
NEW YORK (AP) - New York Mets co-owner Fred Wilpon doesn't think Bobby Valentine will be quitting after the season and doesn't take too seriously a report that his manager thinks five of his players "basically are losers."
"When your under stress and say things, you're sort of emotional," Wilpon said Thursday in the Mets' dugout while the team worked out on a windy day at Shea Stadium.
"I don't know what to make of it, frankly," Wilpon said of the story in last week's editions of Sports Illustrated. "All of this came about when we were in the losing streak."
The magazine reported that Valentine's wife, Mary, wants him to resign after the season. Wilpon gave the manager a vote of confidence during a seven-game losing streak in late September and said his co-owner, Nelson Doubleday, agrees that Valentine should return.
"There is no question in my mind that he will manage the team next year," Wilpon said. "I've talked to Nelson Doubleday about it. We want him back."
Wilpon, whose primary business in real estate, said he has learned to work with different types of people reporting to him.
"You have to be able to manage the emotions of other people, to get the most out of people," he said, using the example of a scientist who works in a lab in the middle of the night.
"We have to adjust to that, understand his psyche," Wilpon said.
And what is the psyche of Valentine, called the most hated man in baseball by a national sports magazine in a cover story last month?
"Very competitive," Wilpon said, "wanting to win very badly. I think he's well prepared."
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
| 
