Bobby Valentine, the American Tsunami

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Bobby Valentine is so popular in Japan that a beer and a hamburger have been named for him there. But Valentine, the former New York Mets manager who once put on a fake mustache and returned to the dugout after being ejected, would prefer to be known for nudging Major League Baseball out of its global myopia. More than two dozen stars have left Japan for the United States since Hideo Nomo arrived in 1995. Valentine was managing in Japan that year and is back there now, beginning the fourth season of his second stint with the Chiba Lotte Marines, whom he led to a league title in 2005. He is pushing for the international growth of baseball, and the startling $51.1 million fee the Boston Red Sox paid for the right to negotiate with pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka is not what he has in mind.

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[Full Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/sports/playmagazine/04play-talk.html?_r=1&ref=baseball&oref=slogin]

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