Bobby Valentine Hired as Manager ... of Stamford, Conn., Public Health and Safety

Since Bobby Valentine's return from Japan after his stint as manager of the Chiba Lotte Marines ended in the fall of 2009, he's been linked to quite literally just about every single managerial job that's opened up the past 14 months.

According to varying reports, he was a very serious target of the Brewers, Mariners, and Marlins at several different occasions. Despite all those rumors, at this point in time the most significant job he's accepted has been as part of ESPN's new Sunday Night Baseball broadcasting team.

Valentine accepted a new post today, though, as director of public health and safety for Stamford, Conn. Seriously. This isn't one of those "Look this guy's name is the same as this other guy's name, isn't that funny, harf harf harf" jokes. Bobby Valentine, the guy who once wore a fake mustache to sneak back into the Mets' dugout after an ejection, is now Stamford's director of public health and safety.

As it turns out, Valentine's not new to public service. He's been working to reorganize the city's fire department and his work with that job impressed Mayor Michael Pavia enough to bump him up to his new post. He'll be donating his whole salary back to community services in the city and he says that since his work as a baseball analyst is mainly a night-and-weekends type thing, he doesn't really foresee it getting in the way of this job.