As The Boobirds Get Louder and Louder

Let's just say Bobby Valentine isn't inspiring a lot of confidence right now.

He was booed lustily (love that adjective) by the Fenway Faithful in the 8th inning after leaving Franklin Morales in too long in the 8th, another head-scratching move in a long series of head-scratching moves The Smartest Guy In The Room has made in his first 12 games.

Another loss, a 6-3 one to the scary-good Texas Rangers and their one-man Red Sox wrecking machine, Mike Napoli.

Positives last night? Josh Beckett pitched seven solid innings, allowing three runs. Kevin Youkilis hit his first home run of 2012 in the second inning. The Sox came to life in the ninth, getting the tying run to the plate before Jarrod Saltalamacchia lined into a DP to end the game.

Before the season, I said the Red Sox needed to get off to a good start to at least push the memories of 2011 off to the side and not have them shoved into their faces every five minutes. (I guess 4-8 is better than last year's 2-10 start, right?)

Right now, all we've had is more embarrassment. The Smartest Guy In The Room, who will have two radio shows and a TV show every week to shoot his mouth off on, is bound to say something so incredibly stupid and piss off another Red Sox player (Kevin Youkilis is only the first of many I'm sure), it's just a matter of where, when and at whose expense it will come on.

It makes me wonder if Valentine will survive the season. Management will give him tons of rope, but if he loses that clubhouse (if he hasn't already, as Dustin Pedroia's defense of Youk was very telling) and teams fortunes slip quickly, I don't see how they can't act.

This is Valentine's last best shot at managing a winner. If he screws it up, he'll only have himself to blame.

And BTW, my friend Sully has a good column today with a theory as to what Terry Francona's real reason for going to tomorrow's 100th anniversary celebration is after initially declining. I have to agree with him. Worth the time to check out.