Much Ado About Manny
by Dan Mathers
It’s that time of year again when Boston’s Knights of the Keyboard get up-in-arms about Manny being late to spring training. According to Manny’s new caddy, Julian Tavarez, Ramirez won’t report to camp until March 1. That has the newspapers and sports radio waves buzzing about Manny being a bad teammate and being selfish and lazy. And what has some reporters in even more of an uproar is much of Sox Nation continues to give him a pass – you know, it is just Manny being Manny. Dan Shaugnessey, the Boston Globe’s infamous Curly-Haired Boyfriend, yesterday said fans have “lost their minds” for giving a pass to Manny.
Of course, Shaugnessey and his Band of Mediocre Columnists, miss the point. Nobody in Red Sox Nation likes it when Manny shows up late to camp. It drives fans nuts when he jogs to first, barely getting thrown out on a botched double play that shouldn’t have even drawn a throw. We pull out our hair when he sits down for weeks with a phantom injury. But I would love Shaugnessey and his columnists to instead of simply whining about Manny, suggest an alternative.
You see, fans have resigned themselves to the facts: Manny will do things that drive you nuts, but you can pencil him in for a .315 average, 35 homers and 120 RBIs every year. If we could replicate that with someone else who would not drive people crazy, everyone would be on board with that plan in a second. But it won’t happen. You can’t trade him, because you won’t get equal value. Benching him or talking to him doesnt’ seem to work. And, quite frankly, the whole showing up late for spring training thing is old news. Maybe it is something Shaugnessey can whine about if this is year 2002 or 2003, but we’ve been down this road many times before. It is a non-story by now . . . except for columnists in Florida tired of the Matsuzaka storyline with nothing better to write about. See you in March, Manny.
RED SOX & MLB (by FANS ON THE FIELD .net) 