Bobby V: 'Think I'm coming back' in 2013

Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine said that he has not discussed his job status beyond the 2012 season with team owners. For now, he suggested, he continues to expect that he will be back next year.

"My gut feeling is that they haven't told me yet," said Valentine. "There hasn't been any dialogue. We've talked, but [not about the job], which makes me think I'm coming back. I don't know."

Valentine -- prior to the final Red Sox home game of the 2012 season -- said that he had not considered the possibility that this could be his last day of work at Fenway Park until the question was posed to him during his pregame session with the media. As was the case last month in New York, when he said that he didn't believe he was doing a good job based on the performance of the team, Valentine reiterated that he did not feel that his performance had been up to his own standards. 

"Obviously it wasn't what I set out to do. When you don't accomplish what you set out to do, you feel like you haven't done a good enough job. Simple," he said. 

Asked if the job was the same one that he thought he was accepting -- or if so much about the Sox had changed during the season that it was a different undertaking -- Valentine shrugged off the gap between those two elements. 

"All those variables are things I think I'm prepared to handle. When I come back next year, I'll think I'm prepared to handle them. Hopefully we'll have better results," he said. "Not much I would have done differently, I don't think. Other than I think I would have kept the beer in the clubhouse. I think I could have used it after a few of these games this year," he noted with a laugh. 

Asked if he'd learned anything about himself over the course of a challenging season during which the Sox already have suffered more losses than in any season since 1992, Valentine suggested, "I don't know about learning about myself. I have the gas masks. I can handle the chemical weapons. The bullets penetrated but they didn't kill me. I guess I'm, what do I know about myself? I'm almost a year older. I know that. And it's gone quickly."

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