Laughing at the Manny Stories

Every spring you go outside and the birds are chirping and the flowers are blooming and then come winter everything is dead and starts back up again come the spring. Manny Ramirez is one of those birds. The stories stop in the winter when he's away from the game and then they start up again come spring training. Is it really a story if it happens every single season? Is it very surprising that Manny wants to show up late for camp? He's done it before he will do it again, and it has never been a big deal with regards to his production. He goes out he clubs his 35 home gets 135 rbis and then it starts up again the next spring.

Throughout the year we're guaranteed to hear Manny Ramirez trade talks about 3-4 times none of which ever have any validity and for good reason. Manny Ramirez may be a little headache if you let him be. But its happenned so often that the Red Sox organization should be able to ignore it and just let it slide. He puts up the numbers, without him your lineup isn't very good. His impact is far greater than his numbers, without Manny's protection, David Ortiz is a much less effective hitter. JD Drew doesn't strike the fear in any manager.

The stupid part is because of Manny's odd tendencies, and being just plain weird truthfully, people label him as lazy, when in fact Manny works as hard as anybody on his craft, hitting.

So please next spring when a Manny trade rumor pops up or he wants to show up to camp late so he can go to some all you can eat buffet, don't act surprised and don't say this is the last straw. He's going to be in Boston til the end of his contract. Why? Because he's the best right handed hitter in his generation.

Numbers On Steroids: Bret Boone

Numbers on Steroids is a look at baseball players during the 90s to see if anything screams out at you. Mr. Boone was once the best power hitting second baseman in the league. How questionable was his success? Averages Say: Why the extra plateu in his mid 30s? At Bats Per Home Run Says: Lowest at Bats Per Home Runs at 37? Hmm.... Explaining It Away Yeak, this one is tough. Umm, late bloomer? He showed potential power early in his career and he just liked playing in Seattle a lot more than everywhere else? And umm, his career was kind of like a running backs in that it just all of a sudden fell off the map? Any of these convincing you? The Verdict Guy never hits more than 24 home runs in a season and then in his age 32 season he hits 37? And in SafeCo a pitchers park to boot? And he follows that up with 24, 35, 24 homer years still at SafeCo? And then he completely falls off the map in 2005 never to be heard from again? We've got a Screamer... Man Get Big Muscles In 30s. Hm...

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Comments

Anonymous said…

I appreciate manny and I would rather be in this situation where we have a guy that shows up late or whatever and comes out and performs rather than a Kansas City where their may be team unity, but team unity doesn't necessarily hit homeruns. WIth that said, the problem (I'm not complaining, just making the argument) is that you have a guy that shows up when he wants, works out on his own, and doesn't have to do anything he doesn't feel like. He may work out just as hard and he may be one of the best, but it is a cancer like TO. It eats away at the team. Spring training is something no one like to do, but is required. It was started back in the day when all the old men were out of shape (according to the PBS documentary on baseball). Is it really still needed now? The fact of the matter is when you have a guy that doesn't act like a part of the team, because he doesn't feel like it, it creates a tension and an animosity that "can" prevent a team from being a team. In the end, like you said, Manny's going to show up, put up numbers, as long as the team has a chance, and that's the end of it. What else are we going to talk about? At least he decided not to go to the auto show.

2:34 PM

I agree with Perras 100 percent.

9:19 AM

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