Bobby Valentine managed restaurants and the New York Mets. Can he run the city of Stamford as mayor?

As a successful baseball manager and longtime restaurant owner, Bobby Valentine is arguably the best-known person in his hometown of Stamford.

After a lifetime in sports, the 71-year-old celebrity is now trying to switch gears by seeking a completely new profession — becoming Stamford’s next mayor.

For those not interested in sports, Valentine is also known for having his name on a downtown Stamford restaurant for a generation — starting in 1980. The popular Bobby V’s opened in the days before Stamford exploded into a major corporate and downtown residential destination — remaining open for 38 years before closing and then reopening nearby in an upscale, larger venue with Valentine’s baseball uniforms hanging on the wall as a new generation of customers walk in the door.

Aside from the advantage of having widespread name recognition as the former manager of the New York Mets and the Boston Red Sox, the question is: can Valentine win?

He is the beneficiary of an era when television and movie celebrities can gain immediate support from voters. Donald Trump, who had never held public office, became president of the United States. Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger became governor of California. And Valentine believes he can become mayor of Stamford.

Former state economic development Commissioner Joseph McGee, who has closely followed business development in downtown Stamford, said that Valentine must convince voters that he can transition from being a highly successful restaurant owner to being mayor of a steadily growing and thriving city with an annual budget of more than $600 million and more than 3,000 employees.

“He can make a good hamburger. The question now is he’s got to be able to run a city,” McGee said. “Managing the Mets and running a restaurant are great, but making hamburgers and running the city are two different skills. ... I think the jury is very much out on that. He’s got to make that case.”

Another key issue is that Valentine, who is running as an unaffiliated candidate, lacks the large party apparatus that Democrats and Republicans have — with an army of volunteers and passionate supporters. Two political giants with high name recognition — Lowell P. Weicker and Joseph I. Lieberman — were the only candidates in recent state history who were able to win major races as independents — Weicker as governor in 1990 and Lieberman as senator in the general election in 2006.

“His personal ID overcomes the third-party problem,” McGee said of Valentine. “Everybody in Stamford knows Bobby V. The question for Bobby V — different than for Lowell Weicker or Joe Lieberman — is they had records. They were involved in government. This is now a new avenue for Bobby V. It doesn’t mean he can’t do well, but he’s going to have to really define himself as mayor. That’s going to be his critical issue.”

But Valentine says he is up to the challenge and prepared to overcome any obstacles by hiring the best team possible. Before becoming an ESPN television analyst and then later athletic director at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Valentine said he was a newcomer who needed to learn quickly.

“I knew very little about the restaurant business,” Valentine said in an interview at his campaign office. “I knew very little about the TV business. ... When I started the restaurants, I hired the best I could find. When I was a manager, I hired the best hitting coach and best pitching coaches because I wasn’t going to teach hitting and pitching. . ... I expect that I’ll do something similar in this job.”

Valentine is already off to a fast start by raising $300,000 in the quarter ending June 30 — more than either of his two opponents. He is running against Democratic incumbent David R. Martin, who has served as mayor since 2013, and state Rep. Caroline Simmons, a Democrat who has served in the state legislature for the past six years. Republicans, who have only 19% of the registered voters in the heavily Democratic city, have not yet announced a candidate.

When asked, Valentine declined to criticize the incumbent mayor in detail, noting that some Democrats are clearly unhappy with Martin.

“The reason I’m running is because his party has decided to primary him,” Valentine said. “They already took a deep dive [on Martin’s record], and they’re not too happy with what they found. His party thinks a change is needed.”

State Democratic Chairwoman Nancy DiNardo questioned whether Valentine’s background qualifies him to run for mayor.

“He wasn’t a very good coach,” she said. “Is his coaching indicative of how he would run Stamford? ... It’s a year-round, 24-7 job as opposed to nine innings at a time. He’s not the first person who has no experience to try and run.’'

Baseball career

As the manager of the New York Mets and later the Boston Red Sox for one unsuccessful season, Valentine is a national figure in the sports world. He gained earlier success as the American League manager of the year with the Texas Rangers, but the team took a downturn and Valentine was fired in 1992 by baseball-loving co-owner George W. Bush, the future president. Bush has remained friends with Valentine, becoming one of the financial contributors to this year’s campaign. Valentine also received contributions from professional wrestling executive Linda McMahon and former White House press secretary Anthony Scaramucci, among others.

Long before those days when he brought the Mets to the “Subway Series” in 2000 against the New York Yankees, Valentine made his mark as a star athlete at then-Rippowam High School in Stamford.

He became one of the most famous high school athletes to be raised in Connecticut — being chosen as the No. 5 baseball draft pick at the age of 18 in 1968. Valentine was back in the news recently in comparisons when East Catholic High School pitcher Frank Mozzicato was chosen seventh in the draft – the best since Valentine more than 50 years earlier.

Valentine was the roommate in college of Billy Buckner, the famed first baseman for the Boston Red Sox who will be remembered for an error in the 1986 World Series against the New York Mets. Valentine also served as the manager of Hall of Fame players like pitcher Nolan Ryan, all-time base-stealer Ricky Henderson, catchers Pudge Rodriguez and Mike Piazza. He also played under Hall of Fame managers that included Tommy Lasorda and Walter Alston of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

A colorful celebrity in the city

Valentine’s celebrity status is unmistakable.

His campaign office in downtown Stamford is on Bedford Street — one of the city’s busiest avenues in a restaurant-filled area with outdoor tables on both sides of the street. With a large glass window facing the street, the campaign placed a table and chairs near the window so passersby could see Valentine in the office. In a short timespan on a recent afternoon, two sisters walked in the door and started chatting.

“We looked in and saw Bobby, and I said, ‘I’m going in,’ " said Karen Boginski, a family friend who lives nearby. “Bobby’s mom used to place bocce with our mom.”

Boginski and her sister, Jody Barbesi, then both signed Valentine’s petition to get on the ballot. He needs only 188 signatures, representing 1% of the voter turnout in the last race for mayor four years ago. Supporters are still gathering signatures before an Aug. 4 deadline so that Valentine’s name will be on the ballot, but the campaign says it already has more than the number that is necessary.

“Good luck, Bobby,” Boginski said as she was leaving.

“Thanks for stopping in,” Valentine said.

As soon as he walked out the door of the campaign headquarters, Valentine was approached by various people who had seen him on television or in person.

“Are you Bobby Valentine? I recognized you,’' said George Castro of Stamford, who said later that he had worked in Valentine’s restaurants in Stamford and Norwalk for 17 years.

“I remember you,’' Valentine responded. “Good to see you.’'

As they talked about the old days together during their encounter, Valentine said, “You make me cry with the memories of my father.’'

A longtime Republican, Valentine refuses to be pigeonholed politically. He volunteers that the first candidate who he ever voted for was liberal George McGovern.

As for Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont, Valentine says, “I think he’s doing a good job. I’m a fan of his work. I appreciated his leadership during COVID. I like his initiatives. I like his candidness. He seems to be rather transparent. I like what I see.”

After managing the team that won the Japanese version of the World Series, Valentine became a well-known figure in the country and even has a street named after him as “Valentine’s Way.” That recognition led to his name being mentioned as a possible U.S. ambassador to Japan under then-President Donald Trump, but that did not happen.

Stamford roots

A native son, Valentine mentions several times that his family has been in Stamford since 1910. Even with his national celebrity, Valentine never permanently moved away from the city. He was a baseball manager in Japan, Texas and other locations, but he always returned to his hometown.

Once a commuter town with fewer than 75,000 residents when Valentine was born in 1950, Stamford has exploded and now has a population of nearly 130,000, more than Hartford, the capital city that had peaked with 177,000 residents in 1950.

In 2011, Valentine got a taste of public service when he served as director of public safety under Republican Mayor Michael Pavia. In that role, he was featured on WCBS-AM 880 radio for getting out of his car during a snowstorm in January 2011 and directing traffic on an I-95 ramp in Stamford during a four-hour traffic delay caused by a disabled tractor-trailer. Some of the motorists recognized Valentine and asked about the upcoming baseball season, according to the radio report.

In that same role, Valentine was also heavily criticized for flying to Texas as an ESPN baseball analyst when they said he should have remained behind in Stamford during Tropical Storm Irene, which caused heavy flooding along the East Coast in August 2011. Stamford officials knew that the storm, which at one point was a hurricane, was coming before Valentine’s departure for Texas.

On a driving tour of the city with campaign manager Dan Miller at the wheel and the candidate in the back seat, Valentine narrated the multiple changes in Stamford in recent decades and showed the explosive growth in the South End near the water. The tour ended up at BV’s, a huge, $7 million bar and restaurant bearing his initials that is filled with gigantic TV screens to watch sports.

Valentine does not own the bars that bear his name in Stamford and Windsor Locks, but he licenses his name in a partnership with Sportech Venues that takes bets on horse racing, dog racing and Jai Alai. The bar is expected to handle bets when the National Football League season begins on Sept. 9.

Despite playing 10 years in Major League Baseball, becoming a manager in the World Series and leading the top team in Japan over the course of five decades, Valentine still thinks of himself as a hometown product who wants to lead the city he loves.

“I’m just an ordinary guy,” he said. “I’ve been really lucky.’'

Christopher Keating can be reached at ckeating@courant.com.