Real Or Fake News: Former Met Manager On Short List To Become Ambassador To Japan

I've become pretty good at distinguishing between real news and fake news.  Child pornography ring run out of a D.C. pizza parlor by Hillary Clinton: fake.  Brazen financial self-dealing, petty tweets designed to stifle dissent, and appointments of deplorable racists, misogynists, and homophobes by Trump: all too real.  But every now and then a real news item appears that seems implausible anywhere but the bizarro world we now inhabit.

On the short list for the job of ambassador to Japan is former Met manager, Bobby Valentine.  Valentine guided an over-achieving Mets team to the playoffs in 1999 and to the World Series in 2000.  While important to me and other Met fans, I don't think that is why he is under consideration.  And he was not known for being particularly diplomatic on the field.  On the contrary, he was intense, short-fused and abrasive, frequently arguing with umpires and known for insulting players. 
 
Of course, he did manage a team in Japan -- the Chiba Lotta Marines -- for seven years.  I suppose that's good enough for Trump.  Indeed, it is far more relevant experience than most of Trump's horrifying choices for high-level posts.

Still, if Trump was going to look to the baseball world for an appointment, I would have thought he would have picked someone whose offensive behavior on twitter rivals his own -- Curt Schilling.