Bobby Valentine New Red Sox Manager?, Adele again

Hello,

It seems very likely that the Boston Red Sox will name Bobby Valentine to be their new manager today. Honestly I can't say I'm overly excited about this. I spent a few minutes trying to track down what his overall record as a manager was. I'm only considering the time he spent in MLB. The information I found is incomplete. There are a few years in the late 80's I can't find what his managing record with the Texas Rangers was. He was fired midway through the 1992 season so it can't be too good. The best I can tell with the limited information I have is his overall managing record is 431-378. Although I'm guessing the missing Texas years will bring his record closer to .500.

He's managed the Mets to the NLCS in 1998 before losing to the Braves 4-2 in the NLCS. In 1999 the Mets went to the World Series where they lost to the Yankees 4-1. He also finished second for the Manager Of the Year Award when he managed the Rangers in 1986.

So he's had some highlights, but I'm still not overwhelmed that he'll be managing the Red Sox. To me it seems the recycled old white guy syndrome. Instead of taking a chance on some young up and coming manager (Ryne Sandberg for instance) they go with a safe choice. It seems part of the corporate America cya thinking.

Obviously time will tell. He does have some experience and some success. Also when you have a team like the Red Sox do there should be a measure of success no matter who's managing them. I think this job is more about managing egos rather than x's and o's. It would also help if they can keep Jacoby Ellsbury long term and find some durable starting pitching.

Regular readers of this blog will know I'm a humongous fan of Spotify. I love nearly everything about it. I love how it's free, that I can listen to it any time I want for as long as I want. I love the more than 17 million songs available. I've saved a lot of money by listening to Spotify because I listen to CDs on Spotify before buying them. Also I've stumbled across bands I never would have any other way. Without Spotify I might not have ever heard of The Horrible Crowes. Of if I heard it might have only been in passing and I wouldn't have discovered the good songs they have.

My only complaint, and it's relatively minor, is that threes some music that they don't have. Although I'm not a big Bob Dylan fan, their fraction available of his music is a glaring omission. They also don't have the new Red Hot Chili Peppers "I'm With You" CD available. (By the way "I'm With You" as a CD title? Is that not the wimpiest CD title? A funk rock band should title their CD something like "Blood Sugar Sex Magic".) In fact, they don't have "Stadium Arcadium" available either. I also wanted to listen to the new Blink-182 CD "Neighborhoods" the other day, but it wasn't there. It has been added now though. That shows they are working hard to get all music on Spotify.

For some reason it seems Spotify has a problem getting live CDs. They don't have the live CDs from many prominent acts. For instance, they don't have Taylor Swift's "Speak Now World Tour Live" or "Adele Live At The Royal Albert Hall". They also don't have Roger Water's " Wall: Live in Berlin 1990".

But other than those minor quibbles I love Spotify. Thanks Spotify for all the great, free music.

Thankfully the "Adele Live At The Royal Albert Hall" was streaming at rolling stone.com. I listened to this CD about 3 times yesterday. She has such an amazing voice and this is another one of her inspired covers. This is the Steel Drivers (yeah I've never heard of them either) "If It Hadn't Been For Love":

The clip from Royal Albert Hall wasn't available, but the one from the iTunes festival is. I love this clip because we get to see a bit of her personality. She seems like she's very funny and unaffected. Of course Adele has that big voice. She may have to be added to my list of greatest voices ever.

From her Royal Albert Hall concert this is "Rolling In The Deep":