Well, it’s finally over.
After eight seasons of monster numbers and baffling behavior, the strange and unforgettable Manny Ramirez era in Boston has ended. His childish campaign to get traded this month finally paid off with a three-player deal that sends him to the Dodgers.
Manny’s out. Jason Bay is in.
A couple months ago, when Manny was chasing 500 home runs and giving fans high-fives during defensive plays, most Red Sox fans hoped the Manny era would never end. Now, I suspect most are glad it’s finally over.
Does it stink to lose a future Hall-of-Famer? Someone who protected David Ortiz in the lineup? A batter whom Yankee fans feared more than any other? What foolish questions - of course!
Will a mid-level All Star like Jason Bay replace all those RBIs, never mind force pitchers to throw Papi strikes? I’m not holding my breath.
Not to mention, the team also had to dump other young players in order to unload Manny.
Thanks, Manny! Every other team added depth the trade deadline. The Sox get thinner.
Maybe the team will rally together now that this foolish distraction is over. Maybe it’ll be addition by subtraction, like the Nomar Garciaparra trade in ’04…. Maybe that’s just wishful thinking.
But that’s precisely the situation this man-child forced upon the team - and the fans who routinely accepted his selfish flake-outs as a rite of summer.
What other athletes would ask out of critical games against the team’s chief rival with a ghost injury? He said this week the team didn’t deserve someone like him - What if Roger Clemens or Pedro Martinez said something like that DURING THE SEASON? During a week when the team began slipping against the league’s best teams?
It’s really sad that the final image from Wednesday night was a clownish Manny holding up a sign joking that he’d been traded for Brett Favre. Did he realize the team was on the verge of getting swept again? Does he realize people take this team seriously? Does he realize how good he had it?
He had a career unlike anyone else in Red Sox history, and was a critical part of two World Series wins. And I KNOW the Yankees are glad to have him out of the league.
It’s sad how this ended, and infuriating that the team had to lose one of its stars while the window slowly but surely closes on a great nucleus. But it’s hard to shed tears over this today. Hey, I’m not Kyle Farnsworth! Time to retired number 24 at Fenway - FOR DWIGHT EVANS!
Am I ranting? Am I bitter? Maybe just a little.
Thanks, Manny!
-- DENNEHY
Comments (8)
For Dwight Evans??? You guys love those players who never won anything and had marginal talent. Oh yeah, as long as they are white. manny is probably in the top 5 players you have ever had in that franchise.
The proof is in the eating. The Red Sox let Nomar G. go and they broke the dry-spell for World Series wins that very year. Nomar has proved that his injury-prone tendencies have dominated in LA. The RedSox let Pedro go to NY Mets (4 year contract when Bsn only offered 2, maybe 3 years). Pedro proved that he gave one Pedro-like years and 3 more years of 33% Pedro. Manny is now gone. You had to see his poor attitude. He was attempting to negotiate a contract extension when he lost focus and started proving that he should make less-than-half that amount in 2009. We will see how that turns out.
I missed Nomar, but the move was smart. I really missed Pedro, but that move was smart. I now miss Manny, but the Red Sox have improved their outlook for the rest of 2008 and all of 2009. I don't care anything about anyone's skin color, Manny was behaving extremely poorly.
GOOD BYE MANNY AND TAKE YOUR BIG MOUTH ATTITUDE WITH YOU. U ARE CANCER TO A TEAM WERE EVER YOU GO! GOOD DONT GIVE YOU THE RIGHT TO BE AN JERK ! EDWARD THE RACE CARE SHOWS US YOU ARE AS DUMB AS HE. GROW UP AND LIVE LIFE.
$20M a year for essentially a "one trick pony". Yea, he can hit but his defense can't hold a candle to the way Yaz played left field & he rarely hustles the way Pete Rose did. Those guys never saw this kind of money - where does this guy get off?
Good luck Joe Torre - you'll need it.
Here's a guy getting paid an incredible amount of money, refusing to play, and making little effort when he does, and we're supposed to applaud him? Sure he's talented, but that does little good when he won't work. Other people - many who make less in a year than Ramirez does in one night game - get fired for such behavior. Skin color has nothing to do with it. I can't see Jim Rice doing this. The team paid him well and they needed, and he owed them, his best effort. Being in the top 5 does not give you a license to stiff your team mates.
The real problem with Manny, and why the Sox let him go, is that his bat speed isn't what it used to be, so why put up any longer with the nonsense. If any club pays him megabucks over several years at this point in his career, it will be a monumental mistake.
Where did the quote about retiring dwight evans #24 instead of Manny go? Interesting that it is gone
Not, still a racist rant