So you wanna be a general manager, eh? Specifically, you wanna be the general manager of the Boston Red Sox. After all, you’re a child of New England: a New Hampshire native, a graduate of Amherst College with a master’s degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

You get a job with the Red Sox in 1999, become a temporary co-general manager in 2005 after your boss flees Fenway Park in a gorilla costume, revert to assistant general manager when he returns in more suitable clothing three months later, then get the job for real last month after he is lured to Chicago with a lot more money and a bigger title.

As you move into your new Fenway office, you think life can’t get any better than this. Weeks later, though, you discover that it can get a lot worse.

It’s one thing to be the general manager with your boss, the hands-on – and he has very large hands — Larry Lucchino, looking over your shoulder and hovering overhead. But to be caught between Lucchino and the new manager, Bobby Valentine, who loves to moonlight as general manager, is more than a rookie general manager should have to tolerate.

Consider the ingredients of this mix:

• Theo Epstein, the recently departed general manager, has never acknowledged it, but it is widely believed that he walked away from the g.m. job in 2005 as the result of differences with Lucchino.
• In the Red Sox search for a new manager, Cherington reportedly favored Dale Sveum but was overruled by the team’s ruling triumvirate: principal owner John Henry, chairman Tom Werner and Lucchino.
• Valentine was supposedly Lucchino’s idea and Cherington had to interview him and like him, whether he wanted to or not. It was after Halloween, and there were no gorilla costumes lying around.
• Valentine has a history of wanting to control more than the lineup on the field. When he tries it in Boston, maybe Lucchino will block his efforts, or maybe Lucchino will join his efforts and tell Cherington what to do.

All of this, remember, comes with the backdrop of the team’s disastrous September saga (20 losses in the final 27 games and the loss of a 9-game lead over Tampa Bay, the wild-card winner), the non-announced firing of manager Terry Francona and the eagerness to let Epstein go west.

When the Red Sox announced that Francona would not return next season, they did not say they had fired him; they did not say they were not exercising the 2012 option in his contract. Instead they got Francona to play the good soldier and say he felt it was time to leave.

And days later, derogatory disclosures about Francona were leaked to the media, and someone in the front office was the primary suspect.

With Epstein, owner Henry, who had previously expressed his affection for him, said they wanted him to stay. But the Red Sox let Epstein know they wanted him to leave by giving the Cubs permission to talk to him. If a team doesn’t want to lose someone it has under contract, it simply denies permission for other teams to talk to him.

I don’t know what Lucchino or Henry said to Epstein, but it was nothing that encouraged him to stay and serve the last year of his contract, as in, “If you hear that the Cubs asked for permission to talk to you, it’s true, but we said no.”

On the other hand, I do know what Lucchino said and didn’t say to me last week in a brief telephone conversation. He did answer two questions, and he didn’t say his answers were “off the record.”

I asked him the status of the team’s search for a manager and he declined to answer, saying instead that ownership had decided that Cherington would speak for the organization. “We’ve had too many voices speaking,” Lucchino said.

I then asked a second question: how did Lucchino think Valentine’s interview went? “Bobby did a terrific job when he was here,” he said.

Except for Lucchino asking me what I thought of Valentine and my brief answer, that was the extent of our conversation. In Tuesday’s Boston Globe, however, columnist Dan Shaughnessy wrote “Lucchino thought he was speaking off the record….’’

That prompted me to send this e-mail to Lucchino:

“Congratulations. Not on hiring Valentine but if Shaughnessy’s column is correct – and I have no reason to think otherwise – on being the first and only person in my 52-year career to accuse me of using something that was supposedly said off the record: “Lucchino thought he was speaking off the record…”

“Nothing in our brief conversation was off the record. You didn’t utter those words, and neither did I. If you had said you were talking off the record, what you said would have been off the record. You didn’t, and it wasn’t.”

Lucchino, in a reply, disagreed. “That was not my understanding nor is it my recollection,” he wrote.

Readers also wrote in one of the biggest responses this Web site has had. Sixty-nine percent wrote favorably of the column, many expressing their own view of Valentine, and 31 percent criticized the column, some saying I did have a vendetta against Valentine, I was a bitter old man and I should stop writing and find something else to do. My wife likes the last suggestion.

All of the e-mail was written before the news that the Red Sox had chosen Valentine, and some readers, including Red Sox fans, hoped that the column might deter the team from making that decision.

”Fascinating story,” David wrote. “It will be interesting to see if it, by itself, sinks Valentine. Could well happen…what you write is pretty impossible to ignore.”

“Thanks for the insight on Valentine,” James wrote. “I’m afraid, very afraid.”

Dave offered, “The last thing Boston needs is more selfish egotists. I hope they hire Gene Lamont.”

“Loved the article,” Eric said. “Being a Sox fan, obviously this subject holds great interest for me. I’ve had a disturbing feeling in the lower part of my stomach when I heard he was being considered. There is something about him that I just don’t like. Nothing really to do with baseball. Just the man.”

Karen wrote, “As a Red Sox fan, I wish to say thank you for your column on Valentine. The current ownership is very much afraid of public opinion, as evidenced by their recurring disinformation campaigns against anyone who voluntarily leaves town or who involuntarily goes to the cornfield, so maybe it will help. Valentine and management of a baseball team is a poor mix.”

“I’ll take it from former players and managers – I hope that the Sox don’t sign Valentine,” Nicholas said.

To which Sean added, “As a Red Sox fan I hope they don’t hire that boob Valentine. Great article.”

“V is a poseur,” Greg said, “and not what the Red Sox need, horrible fit for Gonzo, Youk, Ellsbury, Carl, Pedroia…he will blow up by midsummer and we’ll be back to ground zero. This guy loves himself and is a mess.”

“I’m a 50 year old, lifelong Sox fan,” Glenn wrote in threatening to take extreme measures. “If the Sox hire this …hole I’m becoming a Yankee fan. Honestly.”

The Red Sox front office is in “complete disarray,” another reader wrote, and the choice of Valentine “is evidence of a regime in panic.”

“Just read your piece on Booby V. and wanted to say thanks,” Chester wrote.“As a diehard Sox fan I’ve been really worried the Sox brass are going to fall back on him as their manager.”

But Edward, after calling Valentine “a very obnoxious guy,” said, “However, I think it will help him get the job with the Sox. They are not looking for another Francona. I think he fits in fine with a very obnoxious team.”

Brian is a huge Red Sox fan. “Hell, I’d bleed red if it wasn’t already the color of blood,” he wrote. “Bobby V is a complete jerk, and I love it. It is exactly what Boston needs. Tito was a great manager, but Boston needs a manager with some chutzpa.

“These players need to be treated like children when they are acting like children. Bobby V can keep them in line. No beer in the clubhouse until after games (only wins), No damn fried chicken, and no more BS. There should be massive repercussions after this September collapse.

“Bobby V is the right fit. The only thing I do not agree with is his public disparaging comments about players and organizations. Keep it in the clubhouse.”

Nathan wrote, “Thank you for another insightful exposé of the ever disagreeable Bobby Valentine. As a Braves fan, I have always had a visceral dislike for the man. Apparently this is a common reaction to him.”

Michael feels that way, too, writing, “Thank you for this article, since it confirms everything I have believed about Valentine.”

Bob added, “Thanks for the insights. Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Bobby V will be easy columns for all the writers up here.”

“Your criticism is backed up by real, actual experience covering games,” Tim said. “I wish all content on the Internet contained that.”

Jason wrote, “It’s pretty amazing that despicable people still get work and high paying jobs based on a false premise. I do think Bobby V is good on ESPN. He should stay there and keep people out of his dramas.”

Then there are the critics, most of whom criticized me rather than defend and support Valentine.

“You loser,” Sal said succinctly.

“Seek help and move on,” Bret wrote.

“I’m no Bobby Valentine fan but your arguments are embarrassingly inept,” Onel wrote.

Ozzi called it “a cheap shot article” and said, “You have a personality conflict with the guy. I would rather have a manager that’s disliked.”

“It was unfair because the events disclosed are 15+ years old,” Michael wrote, ignoring the fact that the comments and events in the Valentine column were from the last 15 years, “and there was zero allowance for the possibility that he is not the same person or manager today as he was in the late 1990s.”

Another reader, who didn’t give his name, wrote, “You know what im not a fan of bobby v, and im sure not a fan of yours either ur not a good writer and your facts are far from right.”

The writer did not say which of my facts were wrong, nor did he say what the correct facts were.

On the other hand, Doug wrote, “Everything you write may be absolutely true, yet, it sounds 100 % personal.”

Finally, a reader who defended Valentine, “I was sorry to see Bobby V let go by the Mets,” Edward wrote. “To me he was a hard competitor and a knowledgeable baseball man. He was bad with the press – which may have gone deeper than I knew about, if your rant is even half accurate, which I imagine it is.”

My favorite e-mail came from a former major league manager, whom I will not identify any more than I have used last names of other readers.

“A great article, he said, “Thanks for writing it. It sure hit my ‘home page.’ I’ve had that opinion for a number of years. Saw some of the traits when I was working and he hasn’t done anything to change my opinion of him. Been retired for 15 years and still feel the same way.”