Bobby Valentine, "Crawford Doesn't Fit the Image of the Red Sox 3 Hitter"

I was shocked last night to hear Bobby Valentine, on ESPN 2, claiming that Boston fans would never accept Carl Crawford as the number 3 hitter on the Red Sox because he doesn't fit the IMAGE of what their number three hitter.
After stammering over himself, for a bried second or two, Valentine went on to state that Red Sox fans remember Ted Williams and Carl Yastrzemski, and can't have a person like Crawford battig third in their order because he wasn't a "pure" hitter.  But this qualification only only came after he must have realized he was calling the entire Red Sox fan base racist xenophobes who could not think that a black man that gets on base at a historic rate could succede in Boston just because he doesn't fit the image of Ted Williams.

Now, Bobby Valentine has never been one to always say the right thing, or the properly worded thing for that matter.  He's been a successful manager of all races of man in both America and Japan so I am not calling him racist or bigoted at all.  Yet I am astounded how ESPN can allow someone with no filter between their brain and mouth on the air time and again.

There was no call for Bobby Valentine to begin the thought process of trying to claim that an entire fan base is so rooted in historical precedent that a slot in the lineup cannot be filled by someone other than an white bread high average hitter with a smooth stroke.

And the moment he said it, Valentine began to cover for himself, which of course only ever makes things worse.

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