<p>STAMFORD, Conn. — Former Major League Baseball player and manager Bobby Valentine is taking a swing at politics, announcing Friday that he’s running for mayor of his Connecticut hometown.</p>
<p>Valentine, 70, who currently serves as the athletic director at Sacred Heart University, posted a video on social media and said he’ll run as an independent candidate in Stamford.</p>
<p>“The greatest commodity I have is my time and I want to give my time and my energy and my wherewithal back to the city that has given me so much over my lifetime,” he said.</p>
<p>Valentine, a Stamford native, was a three-sport high school star in the city.</p>
<p>He was drafted in 1968 by the Los Angeles Dodgers and played in the Major Leagues from 1969 to 1979, where he was a lifetime .260 hitter.</p>
<p>He became manager of the Texas Rangers in 1985 and also skippered the New York Mets and Boston Red Sox in addition to spending time in Japan, winning a Japan Series title in 2005 with the Chiba Lotte Marines.</p>
<p>Valentine, who owns a sports bar in Stamford, served as the city’s health and public safety director in 2011, before being hired by the Red Sox.</p>
<p>He joins a race that includes two Democrats: incumbent David Martin and state Rep. Caroline Simmons.</p>
