Bobby Valentine has finally been fired -- why didn't this happen months ago? -- and that's a very good thing for the Boston Red Sox. It's not the solution to the many problems that exist with the franchise, but it was a move that had to be made if they were serious about starting over, hitting what Larry Lucchino referred to on Thursday as a "reset button" -- and yes, it's fair to wonder why Lucchino should be around after that button is pushed.

There will be a blizzard of stories over the next 48 hours or so telling you that it wasn't all Valentine's fault, that it was doomed from the start, that he was never given a chance to succeed. 

Why is there always this need to preface every criticism of Valentine's tenure with the understanding that it's not all his fault? I've been guilty of it too, it should be noted. It's never just the manager to blame, obviously. Baseball is, more than any other sport, about the players. Terry Francona couldn't win in Philadelphia, won a bunch in Boston and probably won't win in Cleveland. Why? Players. Casey Stengel was a genius with the Yankees and a dope with the Mets, Joe Torre a failure in St. Louis and a Hall of Famer in New York. It'll never change -- pitching, pitching, pitching is everything. If we didn't know this 189 games ago we do now, right?

That's not the point with Valentine and his embarrassing year in Boston. The expectations that existed in spring training changed with the all the injuries, with the underperforming stars and the lousy attitudes. No one thought Valentine should have managed this team to the postseason. No manager in history would have done that. Not a fair ask by any standard.

If Valentine had finished, say, 74-88 but had showed an ability to communicate with his players, hadn't come across as a paranoid, insecure, petty, 12-year-old in dealing with the media, hadn't thrown his coaching staff under the bus, hadn't thrown dozens of pity parties for himself, wasn't always obsessed with being the smartest guy in the room and had actually displayed some of the in-game mastery we had been told about when he was hired he would still be the manager of the Boston Red Sox today and would be in 2013. No question about it. 

You want to blame the players? Of course you should. When I heard about the revolt in spring training when Valentine had the audacity to yell at Mike Aviles I had the same reaction you probably did -- spoiled, coddled players who learned nothing from the collapse in September 2011 and all that followed. They wanted Terry Francona but didn't have him, and they didn't have him because they quit on him. 

So in a perfect world the players would suck it up and adjust to Valentine. But thanks to Marvin Miller and Donald Fehr and a generation of gutless owners that's not how it works anymore. The days of Earl Weaver and Billy Martin are finito. The great managers of the last quarter century, at least the most successful ones -- Joe Torre, Franonca, Tony La Russa -- took the blame even when it wasn't deserved, kept things in house, understood that babysitting was as important as any other aspect of the job. I'm sure they didn't love always love it, but they knew they had to adjust if they wanted to keep working. Valentine never grasped that. The next guy better, or he'll be gone in a year or two -- it's the reality of major-league baseball in 2012.

(And don't tell me it's an age issue, or a generational thing. It's a Bobby Valentine thing. Joe Torre is 10 years older than Valentine, Joe Maddon is only three years younger. And it's because Valentine was out of MLB for a decade, either. He wasn't frozen in carbonite, OK? Davey Johnson -- seven years older than Valentine -- hadn't been a manager for 11 years when he was hired in Washington last year. Looks like he figured it out.)

Now it's up to Ben Cherington and Larry Lucchino (you really think he signed a new deal to sit this stuff out?) to find that guy. Maybe it's John Farrell -- who has been a flop in Toronto, also for reasons not all his own -- and maybe it's one of the guys that didn't get the job last year. Who knows? But it has to be clear, even to a Sox front office that has bungled just about everything over the last year, that there is no need to hire a big name just because he's a big name. All the fans want right now is competence from the manager, the understanding that he won't play a very significant role in turning the organization into a punchline.  

I have zero confidence that Cherington and Lucchino are the right guys to find the right guy. People seem to take comfort in the fact that the general manager of a 69-93 is now (we're told) in charge of the hiring process. What has Cherington done exactly to earn this trust, other than not be named Larry Lucchino?

These are your decision makers, it would seem. And there is pitching to fix and personnel moves to be made and coaches to fire or re-hire and all of that matters a great deal, but first up is making sure the next manager isn't the worst possible fit for the job. 

Because the last guy was. Bobby Valentine, finally, is gone. 

And he has only himself to blame for it. Valentine sure isn't the only reason the 2012 Red Sox were 69-93, but he's the only reason he isn't going to get another shot to manage this team.