UNCASVILLE, Conn. — Bobby Valentine has learned a lot of things across his many years as a manager.
Among them?
How to work the media.
So it was hardly a surprise inside the Mohegan Sun casino on Friday — at the Connecticut Sports Foundation’s annual charity dinner to benefit cancer research — that the new manager of the Boston Red Sox offered very little, especially when it comes to who is now his biggest rival.
In fact, Valentine said he’s not sure what it will be like to manage Boston against the New York Yankees, and Don Zimmer says he’s not giving him any advice.
Valentine and Zimmer, a former Red Sox skipper and Yankees coach, were among a group of baseball stars who showed up at the casino for the charity and spoke with reporters beforehand. Former Yankee greats Goose Gossage and Yogi Berra also were there along with current Yankee Francisco Cervelli.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi was expected, but didn’t meet with the media.
“Is (Girardi) in this building now?” Valentine joked. “I still hate ’em.”
That was a reference to a comment Valentine made at the winter meetings, when he told reporters that he hated the Yankees and didn’t want to waste his time talking about them. He was more introspective Friday.
“I really can’t tell you what (the rivalry) is,” said Valentine, who has also managed the Texas Rangers and New York Mets as well as the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan. “I haven’t experienced it yet. These guys have experienced it much more than I have. I am looking forward to it, that’s for sure.”
Zimmer, now an advisor to Tampa Bay, said if he were Valentine, he’d be more worried about the Rays.
“I give him no advice,” Zimmer said. “Bobby’s his own man. I was there. I know what it’s about and I loved every minute of it. Managing is managing. It has its ups and downs. You’re going to get cheered; you’re going to get booed.
“You’ve got to take it wherever you go.”
But Gossage said you have to take more of it when you play in Boston. He talked about being spit on in the bullpen at Fenway Park, and having beers thrown in his face.
“There is no rivalry in sports that rivals the Yankees-Red Sox,” he said. “That playoff game in ’78 — it felt like the playoffs and World Series were exhibition games after that.”
The Yankees outlasted the Red Sox, 5-4, in the 1978 American League East tiebreaker at Fenway. Gossage notched his 27th save of the season in the win on Oct. 2, 1978.
Berra said he enjoyed the ride to Connecticut and liked meeting the Boston fans. Even though an annual Quinnipiac University poll last summer found there are slightly more Yankees fans in Connecticut than Red Sox fans.
Forty-three percent of baseball fans surveyed in the poll, which had an error margin of 2.6 percentage points, supported the Yankees. Thirty-eight percent said they were fans of the Sox.
“It will probably go about 10 percent to the Yankees,” joked Valentine, who was born and raised in Stamford, “with my presence.”
MLB NOTEBOOK: New York Yankees reliever Joba Chamberlain made 15 throws in his second session on a half-mound at the team’s minor league complex, part of his rehabilitation after elbow ligament replacement surgery. Chamberlain said he was “happy with the progress and feeling good,” after throwing off the 5-inch mound Friday. Derek Jeter is set to hit on the field for first time Monday and is looking to “pick up where we left off last year” when his batting average increased from .260 to .297 after he returned from a strained right calf on July 4. Righthanders Phil Hughes, Ivan Nova and Cory Wade threw off bullpen mounds. New York’s pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report for spring training on Feb. 19. … The Royals have agreed to terms with 12 players who will be making their way to Arizona for the start of spring training later this month. Right-handed pitchers Nate Adcock, Kelvin Herrera, Jeremy Jeffress, Sean O’Sullivan and Blake Wood agreed to terms, the team said in a statement Friday. Also agreeing were left-handers Everett Teaford and Ryan Verdugo, catcher Manuel Pina, first baseman Clint Robinson and outfielders Jarrod Dyson, David Lough and Derrick Robinsion. There are 12 unsigned players on the 40-man roster with fewer than three years of service time: right-handers Louis Coleman, Greg Holland, Vin Mazzaro and Luis Mendoza; left-handers Tim Collins and Danny Duffy; infielders Alcides Escobar, Johnny Giavotella, Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas; catcher Salvador Perez; and outfielder Lorenzo Cain.