Because we're Sox fans and just can't let go (see the Nomar thread), this thread for for Manny's exploits on & off the field in his new habitat, LA, or more appropriately, La-La Land. I'm neither a Manny hater or apologist, so I'd like to think this thread will examine both the good and the bad sides of the baseball phenomenon that is Mr Ramirez.

Day One. Calls his playing for the Dodger Blue "a dream come true" during his press conference. Also thanks Boston fans, which was nice. On the field goes 2/4 with no RBI and grounds into a DP in the 9th while LA is trailing by 1. Has a questionable play in the field on a triple some would say should have been kept to a double.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-manny2...40.story?page=2



As the French say, plus ca change, c'est plus la meme chose.

Or as we say, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

and the whole time he was "running" after it he was yellling "get it coco, get it coco"

Ramirez keen to finish his career at new home in L.A.

Stop me if you've heard this one before.

Yeah, I have. From A-Rod, back in 2000.

You just shouldn't ever take at face value anything any Boras client says.

I hope the Dodgers fans aren't lapping up Manny's "don't worry be happy" schtick.

He doesn't cost the Dodgers a dime this season. It's a no-risk free two month rental. Unless Uncle Omar makes a ridiculous offer, he'll be a DH in the AL at nowhere near close to what he's looking for. As soon as he signs any kind of multi-year deal, once again he becomes a high risk player whose career is on the decline.

He absolutely crushed the first pitch he saw from Petit.

HR #1 for the newest Dodger.

HA! Manny only hit a 2R HR in the 1st tonight. Bay's was a 3R HR!!!!

Substitute "athlete" for "Boras client."




Did you happen to catch Manny going from 1st to 3rd on a single to right? What's the over/under for when Manny reverts to his usual style of play?

I think it's somehow appropriate that on both plays where Manny has displayed an inordinate level of hustle and speed, other Dodgers have wound up in rundowns for outs. Guess Manny's catching them off-guard. (I also think that's why Unit was slow to cover last night.)

Not only that, but his HR was a no-doubter and he was out of the box and running down the line 0.0048 seconds after he hit it.

The interesting thing is that Manny is sprinting all over the field like a gazelle on Friday and Saturday night....remember, it was only 1 week from when he took himself out of two consecutive games citing knee pain....it is proof positive that he quit on the team and his teammates.

And taking a page out of Scott Boras' playbook, Manny announced today that 1) he wanted to finish his career with the Dodgers; and 2) he wasn't all about money and contracts.

Now we'll see how disengenous Boras/Manny are. I think there is very little chance Manny is back in LA next year, because chances are they will not be the high bidders. There's also a very steep personal income tax in CA.

At the end of the day, I say again that Manny gave us lots of thrills here and we had lots of fun in addition to 2 rings which he was a part of. While I'm sorry to see him gone, I think the front office had no other choice because he was going to be upset until those option years were torn up, which the Red Sox were not going to do. I believe we have a very good ballplayer in return, and I think the Red Sox will overcome Manny's departure. I think the fans can see even after 2 days that Jason Bay is better than some folks gave him credit for. I fully expect Manny to mash the ball for the remainder of the season, and the Red Sox will have a boat load of cash to spend this offseason to improve the team.

Absolutely and, with that, we should turn the page and look ahead. He gave us 8 great years but sadly, left town looking like an immature jerk. As I 've said before, he earned his money here and I honestly wish him well in LA.

Bonus news, 2 paragraphs from the LA Times about an hour ago:



Not one word in that article about the leisurely way he and Andruw Jones circled a flyball the other day. But yesterday he "raced down the first-base line to collect his fourth hit of the day".

I wouldn't put it past Manny (being Manny) to change his mind in another week or so and ask for another number for his jersey...

Nor am I surprised that the Dodgers and Joe Torre are beginning the enabling process with Manny from the get-go, WRT his dreadlocks. Can you see this happening under Joe Torre if Manny had become a Yankee a few years back? Or even under the militarily up-tight Joe Girardi?

Oh, yeah, one other thing,

I was watching yet another of the interminable Manny Updates in SportsCenter earlier today, and they showed a close-up of him at bat.

How on earth did he get his Dodger batting helmet so pine-tar filthy in just one week? It looks as bad as his Red Sox helmet ever did...

I miss Manny.

I really wanted to post that for some reason.

That is all.

HR

Funny...I'm increasingly not missing him. Its like its finally okay to be pissed at him for all the stuff he's done over the years and recognize him for the selfish pr*&k that he was here. I've just been trying to excuse his behavior for so long that I didn't realize how pent up it was in me.

Yeah, what he said.

He was selfish and I miss him.

As long as Bay keeps hitting, the Sox keep winning and he's with the Dodgers or any other team that isn't competing with the Sox, I wish Manny well.

Huh, even though Bay's been lighting it up I still hate that Manny's gone.

I dunno, I love that we've got a ton of home grown talent, and a deep farm system, but I really miss those 03/04 teams with Manny, Petey, Millar, Damon (somewhat), etc. Those were just fun teams that I loved to watch.

Manny's unpredictability was something I really looked forward to, although I do wish he'd left on better/different terms. Still, I really don't think that was his fault.

I realize that Manny was apparently a complete asshole and/or immature and incapable/unwilling to make mature choices, but at the same time I still wish the player had been able to stay.

Of course, I realize that 90% of professional athletes are probably complete assholes and/or immature and incapable/unwilling to make mature choices, so I guess it's harder for me to separate what we know about Manny from what we don't know about 95% of the Red Sox roster (Wakefield's the only one I'd bet on actually being as saint-like as we like to pretend they all are).

Come on. Sox I'd like to think have integrity, etc.

Lowell
Lester
Varitek
Wakefield
Drew
Ellsbury
Bay
Casey

In fact, maybe all of them except for the departed Ramirez. Who else do you think would go into the tank for their agent, who in the case of Ramirez stood to make no more money on him if the Sox just picked up his options? Now Boras stands to take a big fat cut of 3X35M$, at the very minimum, I would think.

And the propoganda machine is working just fine I see.

We've always been at war with eastasia. <--- stolen from someone around here

I would hazard to guess that the majority of all professional athletes in all sports are assholes

That being said, I still miss Manny hitting bombs ...

It's amazing how good he is, you know, when he wants to be and all ...

What is hitting now in LA? .619? 4HR's? Something like that?

Well, sure -- they reflect the general population.

very true

So, the majority of people are assholes?

Pretty much, but remember this. The Media disliked Manny. Yet they still supposedly protected him by withholding 90% of the "bad" stories by some of their own accounts.

Imagine what they are holding back from us on the guys they like.

Actually, no -- the majority of people are assholes, jerks or just idiots (or some combination thereof).

Boy, Jim Rome and Dan Shaughnessy ripped Manny on Rome's show earlier today for, as they called it, tanking that NYY AB, not running out a hit ball because his knees hurt, etc. And Jackie McMullan (on another show, obviously) was pretty adamant that Manny faked his way out of Boston. Yeah, the media is pretty down on Manny, except in LA.

Can anyone confirm something I think I heard in that program... that Selig/MLB are looking into the whole Manny-Maneuvering-Out-Of-Boston affair, to determine if any improprieties took place so that they can take steps to see that it doesn't happen again, no OTHER player can pull a "Manny" to get out of a current situation?

I think that I heard that if Selig/MLB conclude what he did hurt the team, go against MLB policy, or whatever, Manny himself will not be punished. Maybe Boras will take the heat for Manny like he did for ARod over the offseason. Maybe it'll get Boras banned for a year or two.

Increasingly not missing him? You were one of the people that wanted him gone so I don't know how your stance has changed really.

0-5
bad night finally

Every time he hits a home run, i'm increasingly missing him. But I don't really care anymore -- all I give a shit about now is making the playoffs with this team.

Yes. In fact, some of us seem to be surrounded by them.

Nope. I can't go in to details, but you can remove this man from your list.

Whoa, major tease!

Really? I have never heard a bad thing about Tek. He and his family are very well respected around Central Florida. His brother is still very active with kids baseball. I am very intrigued to read what you "heard" about Varitek and his integrity.

Yeah, me too. Jason would be a tough guy to run out of town for personal reasons, as he stands for all the right things, on and off the field. Too bad he strikes out so much and is hitting .220. Is that enough of a reason to whisper things about the guy on the Internet?

You should hear what we say about you behind your back.

I get enough of it to my face on this board. Which is fine. If you can't take criticism, stay out of the kitchen.

I'm sure you guys can figure it out.

Steroids?
Boras?
You asked him to dinner and a movie and he turned you down?

No, I can't figure it out.

Not steroids. I can tell you that unless he started taking them his Sophomore year in high school, he hasn't changed much.

Not Boras because Varitek controlled the whole situation. He went as far as to tell Boras that he was not going to sign anyhere else but Boston.

I haven't hears any gay rumors, (much to the despair of GONM).

I'm not picking on you but if you are going to make an accusation, at least make it clear.

I think the idea is not that Jason Varitek is some kind of particularly bad individual, just that he's not quite as different from most professional athletes as many fans would like to believe. If I'm right, it's the kind of factoid that is best not shared, as it is no way relevant to his ability to perform on the baseball diamond. We gain literally nothing from talking about this kind of thing about players on our favorite team without hard evidence, but anecdotal accounts that are reasonable enough can certainly make some people feel like they are "in the know" a bit more than the average fan. The fanboys would go crazy and attack the messenger, the sanctimonious posters would make sobering points about "oh, if only he were like the saints of my day" or "God will punish him!", and the "most athletes are jerks" will likely post, well "most athletes are jerks!"

I'm just not a fan of turning on a player once he's past his prime. Only kids idolize pro athletes. The rest of us understand that we don't know them and probably don't want to know them. It's okay for a team like the Red Sox to turn players out to pasture when they are past their prime. That's business. Jason Varitek is the same human being today he was four years ago when he was a hero in New England. Did anyone care if he had any flaws back then? Why now?

I understand what you are saying in this post and I would agree if he was being general as opposed to specific. Now, if anybody walked up to Varitek and mentioned my name, he would look at you like you were an idiot so I am not claiming to be some close, childhood friend. I played ball with the guy, I played ball against the guy, my dad still has a good relationship with his brother and they do a lot of work together with kids in central Florida. I am also not saying that I worship the guy or that he is above reproach. I am just wondering what his indescretions are as they seem to be so obvious that, "we all should know".

This thread has turned into exactly what sucks about the internet. Some anonymous person makes a veiled comment which offers no facts and some people read it like it's the gospel.

Edit: Also, I am NOT in the "Jason Varitek Is God" camp. I think the Sox would be much better off without his services next year. I just think that accusations of this sort are repulsive. Either say specifically what he did or STFU.

I'm sure if you write him a letter he'll apologize for not signing your program or whatever nonsense you are implying.

99% of the time this is it.

Remind me...who had that insane problem with Schilling not signing for him? If it something like that and he's being called a bad person for it that's pretty crazy. Anything autograph related is stupid. They sign a million autographs and if they come home tired and dont want to sign one theyre suddenly an a**hole. Or if they want a modicum of privacy such as not signing on their way to something, or on the day they pitch, etc... It better not be something like that that makes Tek a bad person here...

Bill Russell absolutely would not sign an autograph, even if a teammate asked. He's on Boston's Mt. Rushmore no matter. Since nobody is coming forth with any closet skeletons on Varitek (or even if they did, yawn) he's a solid citizen all the way to me.