From the SF Chronicle’s Henry Schulman.
Although the Giants have centered their managerial search on Angels pitching coach Bud Black, Giants bench coach Ron Wotus, Mets third-base coach Manny Acta and Padres manager Bruce Bochy, they are clutching a list of additional candidates, some of whom might be interviewed if club officials gather enough positive feedback about them.
One name on that list is said to be former Rangers and Mets manager Bobby Valentine, who once lightened the mood in the New York dugout with the Groucho Marx bit after he was ejected.
Valentine, who manages the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan, is a logical person of interest for the Giants, not only because he has managed 2,189 major-league games and took the 2000 Mets to the World Series, but also because he and Giants closer Armando Benitez have a father-son relationship going back to their New York days.
The Giants’ peripheral list of potential interviewees is thought to feature plenty of major-league managing experience, which only Bochy has among the four core candidates.
Indeed, Valentine did have a way with Benitez, and welcomed the reliever to New York by claiming that Cal Ripken had called the drilling of Tino Martinez “one of the manliest things I’ve seen,”, which Ripken, sure enough, denied.