From a June article about his interview process with the Orioles:
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/blog/2010/06/valentine_1....
Valentine also talked about how former Orioles manager Dave Trembley is viewed as an intelligent baseball person and shared this anecdote from his meeting with Angelos.
"We were talking in this meeting, and their owner there is a kind of interesting character. And he did mention that the manager they did have (Trembley) was a really nice guy and he said he liked him a lot. He looked at me and he said something like, 'And you?' I said, 'Well, Peter, I don't think either of us are going to really have people running around the country saying we're really nice guys. But we have other qualities that work for us. And he laughed at that. I think that's a good thing in an interview."
Also interesting:
When asked about whether he'd be willing to take a managerial position where it might be difficult to win, Valentine said: "It's a big challenge. I like big challenges, but I like to have some reward too, and the reward is in the standings and their standings don't look like they're going to turn around very quickly."
We're lucky that we play in the AL West. The hill is not exactly insurmountable.
We CAN climb the standings. And the more I think about it the more I hope we get a strong personality like Valentine to lead us up those standings.
~G