Manny to the Dodgers - Boston Herald

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No Dodging it: Manny Ramirez just a bad, bad man

By Gerry Callahan
Friday, August 1, 2008 - Updated 2h ago

A number of Red Sox [team stats] players were asked if they could make the short walk to a tent that was set up just outside the ballpark and say a quick hello to the kids.

There were 32 teenagers on the trip to Fort Myers this year, all big Red Sox fans, all battling cancer. Two of them had just lost a leg to the disease. Many were making their first trip to Red Sox camp, and some would never be back.

Most of the players didn’t hesitate to visit the kids because that’s what most players do - the decent thing, the right thing. Jason Varitek [stats] went down, so did David Ortiz [stats] and Kevin Youkilis [stats] and, of course, Tim Wakefield [stats], who quietly and selflessly does anything the folks at the Jimmy Fund ask of him.

They signed a few autographs and posed for photographs. They brought smiles to the faces of some kids who hadn’t had many reasons to smile. It was no big deal for the players, but a very big deal for the patients.

Of course, there was one Sox player who couldn’t be bothered to visit the kids because he never can be bothered. The kids loved him, but he didn’t give a damn about them. That’s how it works in Manny Ramirez [stats]’ world. You serve him or you serve no purpose at all.

The tent was no more than 90 feet from the ballpark, which means Ramirez could have been there in 5.7 seconds, even going his usual half-speed.

But he declined this year, just as he has declined for the last six. And, as always, no one was surprised. Why should he care about a bunch of sick teenagers when he doesn’t care about his teammates or his manager or the fans who enabled him and apologized for him for 7 1/2 years?

Well, you can say goodbye to the bad guy now. Good riddance to bad rubbish. Maybe Jason Bay will not be quite the cleanup hitter that Ramirez was (then again, maybe he will be), but we know this much before he even takes the field for the Red Sox: He is a better fielder, a better baserunner, a better teammate, a better person.

He probably won’t fake a knee injury, or slap a teammate, or throw a 64-year-old man to the ground because he couldn’t make tickets magically appear. He won’t give the manager ulcers or spit in the owners’ eye or treat the paying customers like suckers.

Just a guess here, but the kids from the Jimmy Fund Clinic are making the trip to Chicago next week. Bay will probably say hello.

There was always something uneasy about the love and adoration that Red Sox fans showered on Ramirez. The hard-hitting half-wit was born with the ability to put a bat on ball better than most mortals, but that’s where his virtues end. He doesn’t play the game right. Too often he doesn’t play the game hard. He cares about his contract and his hair and not much else.

He didn’t care about the wounded troops at Walter Reed Army Medical Center this past February. When most of his teammates, including all of the big stars, made the trip to Washington, he stayed behind. Probably no one on the team had the ability to make a down-on-his-luck Sox fan smile like Manny Ramirez did, but as usual, Ramirez couldn’t be bothered. As usual, teammates, fans and media made excuses for him. Again, the great hitter was allowed to be a rotten human being.

In a way, Ramirez represents the worst of professional sports - a man who is idolized because he has one, God-given physical skill. Some fans who would boo a player for popping up with the bases loaded had no problem cheering Ramirez days after he assaulted Red Sox traveling secretary Jack McCormick, a terrific gentleman who is almost 30 years older than the slugger.

According to his old high school coach, Ramirez promised to buy bats and balls and uniforms - things he could have gotten for free - for his needy alma mater. Last we checked, 17 years after he left school for the pros, the kids were still waiting. Their idol, their hero, the man who has made almost $200 million since he left George Washington High School in the Bronx, just couldn’t be bothered.

Red Sox owners treated Manny the Mutt like Leona Helmsley treated her Maltese. This season, reigning National League MVP Jimmy Rollins has been benched twice by the Phillies for violating team rules. As far as we know, Manny has never been benched or suspended by the Sox. The owners literally knocked down walls for him, making the Sox clubhouse more comfortable for this spoiled child.

And how does he repay them for their love and loyalty? By calling them liars and backstabbers. By saying they don’t deserve a player like him.

And in the end, he was right about that. The Red Sox [team stats] deserve better, and yesterday they got that in Bay. Maybe not a better hitter, but a better all-around player and a much better teammate.

In a way, Jason Bay has it easy. He is replacing a Hall of Famer, but when he walks into the clubhouse today, 24 players and one very relieved manager will welcome him like schoolgirls greeting Zac Efron. They’ll be happy to see him and even happier to see the bad guy gone.

Everyone can just relax and play baseball now. Manny is where he belongs. He’s a Dodger. The team formerly known as “Dem Bums” just got the biggest bum of them all.

wow that is a strong indictment to manny's terrible character.

what an ass

i hope he gets hurt and doesn't get a big extension

I love these red sox and yankees players whining about money...who the crap else can pay them? they'll try the open market? really? what are you going to do, call up Kansas City? or the Rays?

idiots.

unfortunately, Manny will get 100 mil or so for 4 years after this season is over. it sucks that no one teaches these guys a lesson, but the reality is that someone will pony up the dough to add the future hall of famer.

I'm really sick of his antics though. I wish teams would all agree to not put up with this kind of crap

they sort of did that with Bonds. Infact, i find that more than amusing.

the sad thing is if bonds wasn't probably headed to jail someone would have signed him much earlier this year

Well I think the Dodgers will take a few antics here and there if they get more performances like last night...

On top of that, I can't think of any guys, with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th needing a clutch hit, I would take over Manny. Either he's too stupid to realize the pressure or he is just plain clutch, but everything he did for Boston in the last few years speaks volumes.

He's not there for the leadership, he's there for the bat.

i don't understand how that guy hits so damn well. he looks like he's cutting down a tree with every swing.

dimaggio had the most graceful right handed swing i have ever seen. Ramirez is so far the opposite i dont' understand how both will be sitting in the same HOF someday.

He doesn't even have the ugliest swing in the state though...that honor goes to Vlad.

Griffey Jr. is tops for me. So effortless and fluid...I want to make love to his swing.

griffey in his prime had the best swing of his generation. albert pujols is probably my favorite hitter right now, even though I have to root against his team. His stats are unbelievable, and he never seems to slump