(if the guy on the left is unavailable, perhaps the good looking chap on the right can hang around Stamford tomorrow evening?)

Former Mets/Rangers skipper Bobby Valentine was named Stamford, CT’s director of public health & safety this past January, with Mayor Michael Pavia citing Valentine’s “management and leadership skills” as justification for the appointment.  With Hurricane Irene bearing down on Connecticut,  you can safely assume Bobby V. would prefer to stay home and supervise emergency efforts, but alas, he’s made prior plans to work tomorrow night’s Angels/Rangers game in Arlington, TX, as the Stamford Advocate’s Jeff Morganteen explains :

Mayor Pavia said he and other cabinet-level city executives, City Attorney Michael Larobina and Director of Operations Ernie Orgera, will be in the city during Hurricane Irene to oversee emergency response operations.

Valentine told city representatives during his confirmation in March he could not be in the city Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights because of his obligations to ESPN in Bristol.

During a news conference Friday afternoon, Pavia called Hurricane Irene one of the largest and potentially most destructive storms to hit the city in his lifetime. New York City on Friday took the historic precaution of ordering 300,000 residents to evacuate flood-prone areas.

Asked after the news conference about whether he would be in the city Sunday night during the hurricane, Valentine said: “That’s a stupid question. I just changed my flight.”

Pavia said city officials will have a direct line to Valentine during the 8 p.m. game. He said Valentine plans to return to the city Monday.
“In the event we need to get him we’ll have direct access,” Pavia said.

I don’t know about you, but I’m most certainly gonna tune in to tomorrow night’s AL West clash, if only to hear Valentine awkwardly making a segue from Josh Hamilton’s drug problems to fielding catastrophe-related phone calls on his Blackberry.  And in Valentine’s defense, who ever heard of a natural disaster occurring at any time besides Wednesday-thru-Saturday?