Bobby Valentine made some incredibly idiotic comments on Wednesday about the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. In short, he felt it necessary to say that the New York Mets were more visible in the days after the tragedy and did more to help the community than the New York Yankees. Later in the day, Yankees president Randy Levine ripped Valentine for his remarks.
“Bobby Valentine should know better than to be pointing fingers on a day like today,” Levine told ESPNNewYork.com’s Andrew Marchand. “Today is a day of reflection and prayer. The Yankees, as has been well documented, visited Ground Zero, the Armory, the Javits Center, St. Vincent’s Hospital and many other places during that time. We continue to honor the 9/11 victims and responders.
“On this day, he would have been better to have kept his thoughts to himself rather than seeking credit, which is very sad to me.”
After taking a night to think it over, Bobby V. stuck to his guns. Rather than apologizing like he should have and acknowledging that the 12-year anniversary of 9/11 had absolutely nothing to do with baseball, the Yankees or the Mets, he reiterated his stance.
“It was an emotional day,” Valentine told Erik Kuselias on the NBC Radio Network. “I don’t know if I was trying to take credit for the team. I was trying to make a fact. After 12 years of hearing what was done and hearing it reported incorrectly, I just thought I’d state for the record that there weren’t any Yankees out there that week.”
It got worse from there.
“And if there were, Mr. Levine could just come up with a photograph of someone who was at a funeral or someone’s house,” he continued. “All I remember is people asking for the Yankees and me making excuses for them not being there.”
This guy can’t be serious. He really thinks Levine should present photo evidence that the Yankees reached out to the community after the Sept. 11 attacks? Even if Valentine is right about the Mets “helping out” more than the Yankees, no one wants to hear it. The fact that he thinks on those terms — even after having a chance to reconsider his stance — is truly disturbing. Here is the audio of Valentine defending himself:
