"What an embarrassing thing to say," Valentine responded. "If I were there right now, I'd punch you right in the mouth. Ha, ha. How's that sound? Sound like I checked out? What an embarrassing thing.

"Why would somebody even, that's stuff that a comic strip person would write," Valentine said. "If someone's here, watching me go out at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, working with the young players, bringing in the right relief pitchers to get a win, putting on a hit and run when it's necessary, talking to the guys after the game in the food room. How could someone in real life say that?"

Asked before the Red Sox's game with the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday night if he was joking about punching Ordway, Valentine said, "Of course. Didn't I say, 'Ha, ha?' "

But Valentine wasn't joking about defending the effort he puts into his job.

"If anyone in this room wants to question my integrity, I will ask someone to referee," he said. Moments later he added, "I don't think physical violence is necessary for a 60-year-old.

"But I think I made the point, though, that there are lines that should be drawn in the sand when someone is trying to be professional and sounding unprofessional. It's better to be abrupt and then let everyone know you're kidding."

Valentine also grew upset when informed during the radio interview that reporters noted he showed up at around 4 p.m. for a 7:10 p.m. PT game Friday against the Athletics in Oakland. He addressed the topic with reporters in his pregame media session Wednesday.

Valentine said his workday starts at 4:30 p.m., and "I got there at 4:04," although he acknowledged that's later than he usually arrives at the park on a game day.

Last Friday, Valentine said, he was across the bay at San Francisco International Airport at 9:30 a.m. to pick up his son, whom he was to see for just the second time this season. The flight was late, his baseball papers were back in his hotel, and he said his mistake was in going back to the hotel before going to the Coliseum because he ran into traffic.

"So I got to the stadium a little later than normal -- not late," Valentine said, adding that he had checked in with the training staff and submitted that night's lineup while in his car.

"But if anybody cared about it and felt it was important enough to write seriously about it, you could have asked me what the situation was and I would have been happy to tell you."

Valentine said he thought the media crossed a line.

"When you talk about a man's family or a man's integrity, you've drawn the line," he said. "That's where I draw the line."

Valentine said that after taking the job on Dec. 3, he worked daily on behalf of the team straight through to spring training with only two days off for Christmas, and he said he'd only had two days off during the season.

"If that's not enough work for anyone, that's all I have," he said. "I go every day, all day.