- Boston Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine on Monday dismissed reports of a potential rift between him and general manager Ben Cherington on roster decisions, calling it "lazy journalism." "It's an easy story to write, that has no validity to it," Valentine said before his Red Sox took on the Philadelphia Phillies. "I could have written that Dec. 3.'' In the wake of several reports that Valentine and the front office were torn on whether Jose Iglesias was ready to be the team's starting shortstop, and Valentine's critical comments about Daniel Bard following his outing last week, a Boston Globe columnist suggested that perhaps there was a rift growing between the manager and general manager. Valentine said he probably has had fewer differences of opinion with Cherington than other GMs he has worked with because he's still in a learning phase with this team. "I'm watching," he said. "For the first three weeks, I'm looking. Pieces fit into puzzle. Sometimes they don't fit." Read more: http://espn.go.com/boston/mlb/story...-sox-calls-suggestion-rift-gm-lazy-journalism
