Valentine Will Add Athletic Director to His Résumé By BILL PENNINGTON Published: February 22, 2013 In October, standing next to the Yankee Stadium infield before one of his last games as manager of the Boston Red Sox, Bobby Valentine was asked what he would do next if he were fired when the season ended. Fired after a 69-93 season, Bobby Valentine will become the athletic director for Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. “I don’t know,” said Valentine, who was let go three days later. “But it will be something interesting. Those are the only kinds of jobs I take.” Valentine, the part-time restaurateur and broadcaster, former public safety official, longtime major league manager in two countries and self-proclaimed inventor of the wrap sandwich, has kept his word with another unorthodox career choice. Even by Valentine’s standards, it was a thunderbolt of the unexpected. Beginning in July, Valentine will be the athletic director for Sacred Heart University, a Division I program in Fairfield, Conn., with 31 sports. Valentine, 62, grew up in Stamford, about 20 miles away. It will be Valentine’s first collegiate administrative job. “This is what I do,” Valentine said in a telephone interview Friday afternoon. “I accept challenges, and I enjoy life. And to hell with public perception. “We’ll see if I can lend some of my entrepreneurial spirit to the job.” Sacred Heart announced the retirement of its longtime athletic director, Don Cook, in November. Valentine, who has spoken at Sacred Heart several times and appeared at fund-raisers for the university, became a candidate for the post a month later. Valentine’s renown in the area as a former manager of the Mets, Red Sox and Texas Rangers and as a businessman — he once had sports bars in several cities along the Connecticut coastline — was a significant draw for Sacred Heart, which moved up from Division II in 1999. The university, whose baseball team has appeared in the last two N.C.A.A. championship tournaments, has called a news conference for Tuesday to introduce Valentine as its athletic director. A university press officer said Sacred Heart officials would not comment on Valentine’s appointment until then. Valentine also said he wanted to say little until Tuesday. “It’ll be a very interesting thing to do,” he said. “I’m certainly not afraid of expanding my résumé.” Valentine, who also managed twice in Japan, was hired in a surprising move by the Red Sox before the 2012 season. The unconventional pick upset some of Boston’s veteran players before the regular season started. The Red Sox, troubled by injuries that turned the lineup into a cavalcade of minor leaguers, finished 69-93, their worst record since 1965. Before taking the Boston assignment, Valentine was named the director of public safety in Stamford. He also still owns a popular bar and restaurant in Stamford, where in 1982, while working as a cook in the kitchen, Valentine ran out of toast for club sandwiches and threw all the ingredients into a tortilla. “I rolled it up, and I melted a little cheese on the top to keep the tortilla from opening up,” Valentine said last year. At first he called it a “Club Mex” but later began calling it a wrap. “We put it on the menu as a club sandwich wrap: turkey, bacon, lettuce, tomato and cheese,” Valentine said. “Now, yes, I had eaten burritos. But had someone put American sandwich ingredients in a tortilla? I don’t think so.” Sacred Heart said Cook, the outgoing athletic director, would stay in the job until July, when Valentine would take over. With a little snicker Friday, Valentine said, “That gives me time to hit the ground running.”