Manny Ramirez entered last nights World Series opener with a 2007 postseason batting average of .441. He has hit four homeruns and sixteen RBIs during this postseason, and has a .600 on-base percentage. We have come to expect nothing less from the 2004 World Series MVP (a series in which he hit over .400 with an OBP of .500), who holds the record for most career post-season home runs (24) and last week tied Pete Rose for the longest hitting streak in LCS history (15 games) before coming up hitless in game 6. Certainly, it’s hard to make an argument for any Red Sox player that has made greater contributions to the team’s post-season success.
And yet, somehow, the media in Boston once again showed their reluctance to acknowledge Manny’s greatness last week. This, more than any other, should have been the year that we shower Manny with the praise he has rightfully earned. After returning to the team from injury, he has been tearing the cover off of the ball (see above stats) and was the only player in the lineup who hit consistently well when the Red Sox were struggling in Cleveland. Furthermore, last week we began to see Manny’s name and post-season accomplishments on the television screen with all-time greats like Pete Rose, Don Baylor, Bernie Williams (who held the HR record prior to Ramirez), Mickey Mantle, and Reggie Jackson. One would think that this might be the right time for the sports media in Boston to swallow their misplaced pride and acknowledge the fact that this guy is one of the greatest players ever to wear a Red Sox uniform. Of course, what we got instead was more of the same unfair criticism.
The Boston media have always preyed on Ramirez. His personality and demeanor make him an easy target. Also, let’s not forget, he doesn’t always run full-speed to first base when he grounds out. Fans talk about this as if it is the gold standard of a great baseball player. Forget about being a RBI machine year after year, helping catapult your team to it’s first world series title in 86 years, or being the only player to play consistently well when your entire team is on the breaking point. If you don’t run hard to first base when you ground out, we don’t want you on our team. Really, this is how people think. It’s fucking ridiculous…….Now, I’m just ranting.
Anyways, the media continued to attack Manny for raising his arms after he was the third link in back-to-back-to-back homeruns in game 4 of the ALCS. Dan Shaughnessy called this celebration “classless and obnoxious. It was an embarrassment to anyone who says they love baseball and/or the Red Sox”. This quote comes from an article that unfairly rips Terry Francona and Theo Epstein along with Ramirez and basically proclaims the Red Sox dead and gone for 2007 (Boston Globe, 10/18/2007) Shaughnessy’s sentiments about Manny’s “classless” act was echoed by sports reporters who aren’t totally incompetent like him, including Kornheiser and Wilbon on PTI (this hurt me). I just don’t get it. We’re talking about three consecutive homeruns with no outs right after the Indians have just scored seven runs! We’re talking about the first signs of a pulse from this team in about 4 days! GOD FORBID someone is fucking excited about getting some momentum in a huge playoff game! At that point, for all he knew, with no outs, we could have put up seven runs ourselves in that inning. As a baseball fan, I love to see guys showing emotion, particularly when they’re trying to fire up a team that seems like a bunch of zombies. Maybe it’s a generational thing, but to me this is ridiculous.
The day after this horribly egregious act, Ramirez made headlines by offering the following matter-of-fact quotes about the Red Sox situation “Why should we panic? We’ve got a great team.” He went on to say “It doesn’t happen, so what? There’s always next year. It’s not the end of the world.” As you might expect, the backlash to these statements was swift and harsh. The general consensus was that this is a guy who doesn’t care. Forget the fact that we know he works harder than anyone in the batting cage. Forget the fact that he’s been one of the only bright spots in this series, and forget the fact that it’s impossible to get to where he is without hard work. This guy doesn’t care. The bottom line is that Ramirez is a player, not a fan. Players can’t saddle themselves with the same type of pressure that the fans do. How would they hit? How would they field? The only way to climb out of a 3-1 hole is to first accept that possibility that you might lose, get over it, and then just focus on each pitch of each inning as they come.
Contrary to what many “experts” thought, Manny’s comments proved to be exactly what the Red Sox needed. The team that had collectively looked as stiff as a board up to this point slowly began to resemble the World Series champions of 2004. Remember those guys? Remember the team that didn’t give a fuck? Remember the team that took shots before their playoff games even though they were being paid millions of dollars to perform well on the baseball field? Remember the team that was down 3-0 to the Yankees and didn’t change their demeanor one bit? That attitude is what this year’s team was lacking and Manny helped them find it.
You can feel however you want about Manny. If you judge the quality of a baseball player by whether or not they run hard on ground ball outs or whether they decide that they’d rather be uncomfortable and hold in their piss instead of disappearing behind the Green Monster during a break, then you probably don’t think he’s very good. However, I will tell you this: there are very few players in baseball that are as mentally tough as Manny Ramirez. The long-term media scrutiny that he has faced in Boston would be enough to break most athletes (see Nomar Garciaparra). However, year after year, Manny has found a way to tune out all distractions when he steps into the batter’s box. Always focused, never chasing bad pitches, always looking to bleed the pitch count to get to the bullpen (nobody has at-bats as long as Manny), always providing entertainment for the Boston fans as only he can. I expect Manny to move on after his contract is up (I wouldn’t blame him). I only hope that the Boston fans and media will someday appreciate what a great player and huge badass he truly was.
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