Valentin Up For The Challenge

Anthony DiComo at Mets.com writes about Jose Valentin and how he doesn’t mind the challenge of getting back to playing:

"I know it's not going to be easy, pushing myself," Valentin said. "I have to work a little harder than anybody else."

It won't be easy, but that's precisely the type of challenge that ignites him. In a game full of freakishly proportioned pitchers and massively muscled sluggers, Valentin is the baseball equivalent of a runt. A nobody. He's not particularly tall, not particularly fast -- not particularly anything, in fact. In his mind, he became a 16-year Major League veteran not because of his gene pool, but in spite of it.