It's over.

Our kind of long and not really national nightmare is finished. Bobby Valentine is going to manage the Red Sox in 2012. And, yes, if you had walked up to me on September 1 and told me that I wouldn't have known what language you were speaking.

And so ends a process that was totally and completely bungled from the start. Larry Lucchino, Ben Cherington, John Henry and Tom Werner were caught in the headlights of the worst collapse in baseball history and gave us a two-month display of Amateur Hour 101 that rivaled any level of ineptitude in Boston sports history. The making of the Spider-Man musical looks like a study in precision next to this. 

Before we get into the actual pros v. cons of Valentine the manager, let's at least ask this question: Can we all agree if the other 29 teams in major-league baseball had to choose between Bobby Valentine or Terry Francona to manage its team in 2012 the final vote would be 29-0, Francona?

Francona lost the clubhouse, it's true. And back-to-back third-place finishes with a monster payroll with the disaster in September is plenty evidence for a manager to lose his job. I was OK with the firing -- and it was a firing, we all know that -- when it happened, though I thought two World Series and the best record in baseball for three months in 2011 was enough to earn one more year.

But I figured ownership had a plan in place, a slam-dunk in waiting. So when Francona has his exit press conference -- where ownership tried to sell us that leaving was actually Francona's idea, how many times did we hear the phrase "new voice" that night? -- I had faith that Lucchino, Theo and the rest had a crowd-pleaser in place.

Turns out they were clueless, had no idea what they were going to do. There was no secret plan that was going to land John Farrell or Joe Madden, no name that would have justified firing the most successful manager in the history of the franchise. Instead of Farrell and Maddon as finalists we were given 61-year-old Bobby Valentine and 65-year-old Gene Lamont, out of big-league managing for a combined 20 years.

And that's what happens when a manic interventionist is put in charge after an absurdly reactionary move. Again, getting rid of Francona is perfectly justifiable. Maybe it really was time. But I simply don't see how anyone can look at what is about to happen and think that the 2012 Red Sox are in better hands with Bobby Valentine as manager instead of Francona. If they had gone with a younger guy that they truly believed wouldn't be available again -- looking at 2015 as much as 2012, say -- that would have shown the kind of baseball courage that deserved praise. 

But instead they went the retread route. A fascinating retread, true, a polarizing retread, a NESN-friendly retread (and don't think that isn't a factor) but at the end of the day a retread. He's not the baseball equivalent of Kevin Loughery, but we're getting warm. And maybe he's learned his lessons over the last decade, maybe he'll try and keep his nose out all things front-office, maybe he won't battle with players (or maybe that's what the Sox want) and maybe teams won't blow up under his watch (see the 2002 Mets). But I doubt it. All you hear is how much Valentine has mellowed. Well, of course he's mellowed -- he's not managing. I'm thinking ESPN conference calls isn't a real test of emotional progress. Let's see how he does if this team is 7-14 and he gets 42 postgame questions about his use of the bullpen.

And his track record -- next to Francona's -- does nothing to suggest that he's worth the risk. Look, Murray Chass clearly has an agenda against Valentine, but he did make one terrific point with Dennis & Callahan on Monday -- Bobby Valentine has managed for 15 years and his teams have been in first place in September for a total of one day. For all the tales of his genius and mastery of the game -- and get ready for some pole dancing from media folks around here who have used Valentine as a source for stories over the years -- he's been, at best, a moderately successful manager. And at age 61, there is no reason to think that is suddenly going to change. 

So when Bobby Valentine is sitting next to Ben Cherington at his introductory press conference, remember that this is what it looks like when you don't take a deep breath and a step back. The Angels and Twins are the only teams that haven't made a managerial change since Valentine was fired by the Mets in spring training of 2003. Twenty-eight teams have passed, and most have passed at least twice. Valentine isn't the answer; he's the result of desperation and panic.

Terry Francona deserves plenty of blame for what happened in 2011. The collapse in the standings and in the clubhouse were on his watch. But he's the easy choice to manage your team over Bobby Valentine.

And I think 29 major-league teams would agree.