Valentine not quite sure what to expect

Bobby Valentine has learned a lot of things across his many years as a manager, including how to work the media.

So it was hardly a surprise at the Mohegan Sun casino on Friday — at the Connecticut Sports Foundation's annual charity dinner to benefit cancer research — that the new manager of the Boston Red Sox offered very little, especially when it comes to the team that is now his biggest rival.

In fact, Valentine said he's not sure what it will be like to manage Boston against the New York Yankees, and Don Zimmer says he's not giving him any advice.

Valentine and Zimmer, a former Red Sox skipper and Yankees coach, were among a group of baseball stars who showed up at the casino for the charity and spoke with reporters beforehand.

Former Yankee greats Goose Gossage and Yogi Berra also were there, along with current Yankee Francisco Cervelli.

Yankees manager Joe Girardi was expected, but he didn't meet with the media.

"Is (Girardi) in this building now?" Valentine joked. "I still hate 'em."

That was a reference to a comment Valentine made at the winter meetings, when he told reporters he hated the Yankees and didn't want to waste his time talking about them. He was more introspective Friday.

"I really can't tell you what (the rivalry) is," said Valentine, who has also managed the Texas Rangers and New York Mets, as well as the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan. "I haven't experienced it yet. These guys have experienced it much more than I have. I am looking forward to it, that's for sure."

Zimmer, now an adviser to Tampa Bay, said if he were Valentine, he'd be more worried about the Rays.

"I give him no advice," Zimmer said. "Bobby's his own man. I was there. I know what it's about, and I loved every minute of it.

"Managing is managing. It has its ups and downs. You're going to get cheered; you're going to get booed.

"You've got to take it wherever you go."

An annual Quinnipiac University poll last summer found there are slightly more Yankees fans in Connecticut than Red Sox fans.

Forty-three percent of baseball fans surveyed in the poll, which had an error margin of 2.6 percentage points, supported the Yankees. Thirty-eight percent said they were fans of the Sox.

"It will probably go about 10 percent to the Yankees," joked Valentine, who was born and raised in Stamford, "with my presence."