I wrote the following when Johnny Damon signed with the New York Yankees:
“I’ve fallen love with Boston. Hopefully I’ll be here for a long time.” - Johnny Damon. In light of Damon’s defection to the hated Yankees let’s look at nine positive aspects of the decision.
9. Damon is a very good player. He’s not a superstar. Don’t be confused. He may have built himself up into one, but he’s not.
8. Bernie Williams’ steep decline began around age 32. Damon is 32.
7. Red Sox Nation can clear some of the dead weight off of the bandwagon. Johnny Damon fans, you know who you are. And yes, most of you don’t have a y chromosome.
6. At least it’s not Nomar. I’ve come to grips with his decline as a player and his exile from Boston. But Nomar in Yankee pinstripes would reduce me to wandering around aimlessly, speaking like Keanu Reeves.
4. Sox fans can now openly lament the insidious presence of Human Growth Hormone in Major League Baseball without secretly worrying that Damon will get busted.
3. Sox fans can now openly mock Damon’s intelligence or lack thereof. Have you ever caught a Damon interview?
2. Sox fans can now openly mock Damon’s throwing ability.
1. Damon can cut his hair, shave his beard, and discuss the merits of selling one’s soul with Jason Giambi.*
In hindsight I don't really understand #5. #6 makes no sense if you are not in your mid to late 20s. #4 was both unnecessary and unfounded. #s 3-1 probably fall into the unnecessary category as well and point to a certain amount of bitterness I was harboring at the time. #7 was obliterated by the arrival Jacoby Ellsbury and another championship. And it's unclear why I did not openly worry about Damon's body breaking down.
Ultimately I'm okay with the fact that the Sox did not want to give Damon $52 million over 4 years, even if he did finish 15th in the 2006 MVP race. As as side note, I did not realize they kept track of that many. Nor did I realize Troy Glaus tied for 30th. Troy Glaus?
But back to Damon. I was intrigued by this old Buster Olney column about the deal. Given the fortunes of the two franchises over the last few seasons it's hard to say that not re-signing Damon was a "colossal mistake", as Olney argued at the time. Of course that's a lot easier to say in 2008 than it was in 2005. More importantly, the move does speak to an issue with Boston's front office. Make no mistake Boston has made a number of excellent moves. David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia, and Jon Lester are the first of many that come to mind. At the same time the positives of letting Damon walk were overshadowed by the decisions that followed - trading away Kelly Shopach for Coco Crisp (catcher position has to be a cause for concern moving forward) and the outrageous contracts extended to Julio Lugo and J.D. Drew. The latter speaks to something Manny Ramirez danced around at the time of his exit. Manny was the latest Sox star to leave disgruntled. Mo Vaughn, Nomar Garciaparra, and Pedro Martinez were the previous. Even lesser players such as Derek Lowe. Granted all of those guys had their issues. But I can see how the hometown guys would get upset about the organization highlighting their flaws while giving big money to flawed outsiders. Along those lines I'm interested to see how management handles negotiations with Boston's young core - Lester, Pedroia, Jonathan Pabelbon, Ellsbury if he can consistently get on base, etc. - in the years to come. And to be honest I'm a little concerned.
* Giambi's mustache went a long way in restoring some of the respect I used to have for him. If he signs with the A's next year and returns to his old ways (minus the roids) after taking a great deal of money from the Yankees while not winning a championship, I'll have to revisit the matter further.
After a somewhat promising start at the ROOMOFZEN I disappeared off the face of the map for a while. And though I’ve been attempting to jump back into the mix I’ve had trouble with 2 aspects:
1. A serious case of writer’s block.
2. I just don’t watch as much football – college or NFL – as the regular contributors. Yes, I watch the Patriots. But beyond that I feel like a fish out of water.
So to get back in the swing of things I'm going with a bunch of random observations instead of a coherent post.
- I’ve read a lot of different arguments and viewpoints about the 2008 New England Patriots. All I’ll say is this: it’s important for New England fans to keep watching no matter what happens from this point forward. I’d hate to see us associated with other famous bandwagon collapses. The post Jordan Bulls ban base comes to mind.
- Recently I started exercising again, mainly because 4 years after the end of my football career it did not make a lot of sense to walk around weighing like an offensive lineman. Now I’m not as well versed as Babcock and LaRocque when it comes to music. In fact my knowledge and views of the subject are amateur at best, embarrassing at worst. Still I feel confident saying that James Brown is awesome. He can definitely kick start a workout. Thankfully Jim Brown went by “Jim” and not “James”. That would have made an incredibly difficult debate over who was the alpha James Brown. Granted I would have gone with the ridiculous running back/lacrosse player. But the “Hardest Working Man in Show Business” deserves your respect. And yes I realize he's dead. I'm less clear on whether or not this is actually him:
- We’re closing in on two months since the Manny Ramirez trade and I’m not entirely sure how I feel about the Manny Ramirez era. This Curt Schilling stuff didn’t help. Granted Schilling is a loud mouth and a non-factor at this point. But that doesn’t mean I can discount everything he says. More importantly Terry Francona, of all people, took some thinly veiled shots at Ramirez following the deal. Does Francona ever do that? Ultimately I can deal with the disagreements with ownership, the jogging on the base paths, and the lax defense. But the phantom injury claims might just be too much.
- The coverage of sports is so overwhelming that I’ve completely given up on watching sports on TV, outside of the games themselves. When pregame shows, post game shows, SportsCenter, etc. actually made me start to dislike sports a bit, I had to step away from the ledge. Remember when Baseball Tonight was one of the best shows on television, SportsCenter was about highlights, instead of talking heads and human interest stories, and in general networks seemed to understand the less is more concept a bit? Thankfully blogs and podcasts are filling the void. And of course the following happened. - I’ll preface this by saying I don’t like USC. So that’s out there. Meanwhile, I stayed up late to watch the Trojans play Oregon State and was rewarded big time. The Beavers took it to a team that is loaded with talent and USC came off as a bunch of front runners. Jacquizz Rodgers ran 37 times for 186 yards, was thrown around stonewalled at points, and refused to back down. Factor in the Beavers TD at the end of the half and the late Trojan rally and it was an instant classic. One final point. Heading into the game I didn’t know anything about the Beavers, outside of the fact that Penn State thrashed them. I assumed they’d have to play with a spread offense and try to outscore the Trojans. Not the case. Oregon State used some trick plays and ran plenty of screens. But the offensive line fired off the line and played smash mouth football. Just an awesome, awesome game.
Before we really get in to the meat of this post, I feel it necessary to proclaim my unconditional platonic love for Manny Ramirez one last time. I don't care how bad things might have gotten since the All-Star break, my feelings about Manny won't change. I have liked him for too long to change the way I feel. He has entertained me too much. I have defended him too many times (in fact, the first ever roomofzen post was one I wrote defending Manny after he came under harsh criticism during the 2007 ALCS. It may well have been this criticism that finally pushed us to start this site) to suddenly cave and join those very people to whom I had been defending him. I still love Manny, and I can't change that. He has meant too much to me. And, more importantly, he has meant too much to the Red Sox.
Obviously, I'm far from objective in this case. There is a short list of athletes about whom I simply can't be objective. It includes Manny, Pedro, Paul Pierce, Randy Moss, Eli Manning, Rodney Hampton, Taliek Brown, Kevin Freeman, and Carlos Quintana. I believe that the front office is at least partly to blame for Manny's departure. I also think that when he told the team he couldn't play in Seattle because his knee was bothering him, they should have diffused the situation by simply saying after the game "Manny said his knee was bothering him. That's fine. We don't want him playing if he's hurt." And then they should have done the same against the Yankees. I'm not saying Manny's totally innocent here. I just think the Red Sox could have handled the whole ordeal more tactfully.
What's done is done, and I need to move on. I'm happy to have Jason Bay here, and I'm also glad that I happened to be in attendance at Manny's final game in a Red Sox uniform (in which he went into the green monster for one last piss. He must have known a trade was coming). I wish Manny the best of luck in LA. Much like Pedro, I'll always want to see him do well.
Some final thoughts on this matter:
- I can't help but laugh whenever I picture Manny in LA. It's the perfect place for him. If Manny comes out and says "If it doesn't happen, so what? There's always next year. It's not the end of the world." in LA, the fans will probably just nod in agreement and say "yeah, he's right. If they lose tonight, we'll just go to the beach tomorrow. And, as he pointed out, there is always next year. Pass me some more guacamole" (I'm convinced the abundance of avocados is the main reason why everyone is so happy in California).
- Along those same lines, I don't think any athlete has ever been in a situation that would lend itself better to a major reality show. I would watch a reality show of Manny in LA instead of any other show on television. I'd upgrade to the highest level of cable. I'd even get a dish if I had to, even if the show was in Spanish (as long as there were subtitles). Somebody forked over the money to make Bonds on Bonds. I have to believe somebody out there wants to make this.
- I wasn't surprised to hear Manny thank the Boston fans. I remember being at the 2007 World Series parade and seeing him yelling that Boston fans were the best fans in the world and inviting everyone to his house for a party (I don't know if anybody ever took him up on that). I knew that what happened was between he and the front office and did not reflect the way he felt about the city itself.
- It will be interesting to see what happens with Manny's dreads. Joe Torre told him to cut them , but as of now (I just watched a highlight of him hitting a homerun in the second inning) he has not. The ball is in Torre's court now. Will he force the issue? He should know that Manny does not take well to being asked to conform. He should also know the the fans in LA will not support his neo-fascist bullshit like they did in New York. They shouldn't. I hate hearing about this stuff in professional sports. It reminds me of when Ben Wallace clashed with the Bulls, who had a no-headband rule (it should be noted that after the Bulls signed Wallace, they put up a big billboard outside the United Center of him wearing a headband. So it's not hard to see why he was confused about the rule). Manny, if you're reading this, please don't cut the dreads. You're an American citizen and you're a millionaire. You can wear your hair however you want.
- Finally, I just want to say that I don't think there are many jerseys out there more badass then the white Dodgers #99 Ramirez jersey. I've spent a lot of time this week convincing myself not to give in to the temptation.
Now, before we move on, you may want to crank this:
All cultures are different. I know, for example, that in Germany it isn't strange for somebody you know to come up to you and just say "you really look like shit today". They are just very blunt and honest with each other. I'm not sure what the culture in China is like, but I have to believe that it's similar. A difference in customs is the only way I can possibly figure out the way Yao Ming publicly handled his team's acquisition of Ron Artest. Judging by American standards, he could not have handled it worse.
Let's look at that quote again. When asked about the addition of Artest, Yao said.............
"Hopefully, he's not fighting anymore and going after a guy in the stands."
I really can't think of anything worse that he could have possibly said. Calling his mom a slut, calling his mom a whore, making some type of racial slur. None of these would have been as bad. Think about it. Is there a darker moment in NBA history than the brawl at the Palace? Nothing even comes close. I'm sure there are ex-NBA fans who stopped watching professional basketball that night. This was a full-blown disaster. I'm sure Ron Artest has tried extremely hard to make people forget about what happened in Detroit. And now, his newest teammate has brought it right back into the news.
When I first heard that Yao quote, I assumed that this potentially great move by the Rockets might be doomed before the team ever got a chance to practice together. However, Artest has handled the situation very well. There is no response he could have given that would have been as inappropriate as Yao's. But, I would have liked to see some type of dig. Maybe "yeah, and hopefully Yao won't dominate for the first half of the season and then break his leg or injure his foot AGAIN causing all of the media to scrutinize Tracy McGrady and wonder why he can't get out of the first round on his own." But, even that isn't the same.
As I said, I think Yao's comments were the result of cultural differences and the language barrier, which is evidenced by this quote after he apologized to Artest:
"If something I said would make Ron feel uncomfortable, I apologize," Yao said. "I'm really sorry about that".................Uncomfortable? Why? You just brought up the most sensitive issue surrounding the league's most vulnerable player, who happens to be your teammate. In fact, you should say it again straight to him when he first arrives to Houston. He'll love it.
As for the move itself, I think it's great for the Rockets. In terms of impact, I think that this was the biggest transaction of the off-season. I've always liked Artest. I actually really wanted the Celtics to pursue him when he was coming back from his long suspension. If they stay healthy, this could be the best defensive team in the league next year. In Artest they've acquired a guy who is not only a top tier defender, but also a 20 point per night scorer (averaged 20.5 last season). Considering what a strong defensive team Houston was already, the sky is the limit for this team.
LeBron James made the announcement that he would be willing to play in Europe for a salary of 50 million dollars per year. People have been discussing this all over tv (of course ESPN is trying to make it into a huge issue). But, I have to wonder if it is really news. I guarantee you 75% of the guys in the NBA would say the same thing. Who wouldn't go to Europe short term for that type of money?
I'm sure that if an offer of that magnitude comes to LeBron once his contract with Cleveland is up, he will have somebody crunching numbers to determine whether he will make more playing a max contract in America with endorsements or playing for that huge contract in Europe (which would probably bring a whole new lot of endorsements).
There is no salary cap in Europe, which means that these European teams have a bargaining advantage with NBA superstars. All it will take is one top tier NBA player (someone better than Josh Childress) to really make commisioner Stern worried about losing his most marketable names overseas. There are two ways that he could deal with this:
Option A (which I hate): Would be to lift the salary cap to ensure that American teams can offer contracts that are competitive with the Europeans. This would set the league back in my opinion.
Option B (which I love): Stern could expidite his plan to expand the NBA overseas. I'm sure that many of these teams would be thrilled to join the NBA. They would no longer have to overpay to get NBA talent in their arenas, they would have it there every night. Stern has already talked about doing this. If he feels the threat of LeBron leaving the United States in 2010 is real, he may want to stop talking about this plan and start taking real steps towards executing it.
One thing that seems very apparent in all of this is that LeBron does not have any interest in remaining with the Cavs after his current contract is up. I'm glad about this. Mike Brown's offense is horrible for him. It's almost like Brown is attempting to set up obstacles to LeBron's scoring to see just how high a degree of difficulty he can pull off. He never gets the ball in good spots. The system relies totally on his athleticism.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As I'm typing, it just came across that Brett Favre has been traded to the New York Jets. I'm sure people are sick of hearing about this story, but let's just all take a minute to acknowledge what a unique saga it was. This story was unlike anything that I have ever seen. Never in my life would I have imagined that the Green Bay Packers would be doing everything in their power to keep Brett Favre away.
Suddenly, I have to wonder whether or not this Jets team can challenge New England. At the very least, I expect them to be in the mix for the playoff spots up until the very end of the season. Remember, the Jets added a lot of talent on the offensive line and on the defensive side of the ball. They already had a strong backfield and good wideouts. The only problem was that they didn't have a quarterback.
How long will Brett Favre play? If he improves the Jets tremendously, don't you have to believe he'll come back for one more season? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A lot of Celtics fans have expressed concern over the news that Paul Pierce was handcuffed in Las Vegas this week. Obviously I wasn't thrilled about the story, but there are a few things that we need to remember here. First, the reason for Pierce being pulled over has been clarified. He changed lanes illegally. While it is a violation of traffic laws, it's certainly nothing to be concerned about. Second, if you're like me then you had already heard the news on the radio, so you just skimmed the article and noticed the name Cassell. You suddenly said to yourself "oh my god! How long have Paul Pierce and Sam Cassell been in Las Vegas?!" I thought of the pictures of the two of them, among others, celebrating in Vegas over a month ago, and assumed the worst.....
However, upon closer reading, it appears that Cassell is actually just the name of the police officer. Sam Cassell was not involved. Third, Pierce passed a field sobriety test and a breathalyzer. Finally, in a conversation thread over at Green Bandwagon, Weeks informed me that Pierce has trained in Vegas in the offseason for the past few seasons. He has always shown up to camp in great shape. Until he does otherwise, I don't think we need to worry.
So to recap-
this whole thing was because of an illegal lane change
Pierce was not over the legal alcohol limit so he was not violating any laws or putting people in danger
Cassell was the name of the officer and not of the point guard who tried to sabotage this team over and over again.
Pierce was not out with teammates partying, he spends summers training in Vegas.
Now, if he comes in out of shape, then we can all start worrying. The truth averaged 36 minutes per game last season, and the Celtics will most likely need more than that out of him this year if they want to repeat.
I don't know who Tangent5000 is, but this live Bob Seger footage might be the most impressive Youtube video I have ever found. Amazing quality for being from 1980.
I began thinking of this when Manny switched his number to 99 upon being traded to the Dodgers and as my mind wandered, I began to see further parallels between the two. Here they are in no particular order:
The Numbers:
Rodman donned the number 91 jersey when he joined the Bulls prior to the 1994-1995 season (Sidenote: He was acquired in a trade for WILL PERDUE! What a bargain.) He switched to 91 because his number, 10, had been previously retired by the Bulls, and also, he pointed out at the time, they are the first two numbers you dial in case of an emergency. In my mind, I remember this as a very strange thing... the only other person I can remember wearing a 90s number in basketball is George Mikan (Also, the great PJ Brown's #93 this year, and yes I just said "The Great PJ Brown"). I thought it was crazy at the time, but then again I also think I was wearing bright red Roos sneakers during those days. I have yet to hear why Manny chose 99, my initial reaction was "what a crazy asshole."
The One Dimensional Game:
Both of these players have hall of fame worthy numbers and careers, but neither one could be said to be a "complete" player. In defense of Manny, I have never felt he was as bad defensively as people made him out to be. In defense of people, Dennis Rodmanwas as bad offensively as people made him out to be. But the fact is both guys are known for doing two things as well or better than any one else in their respective sports: Manny can hit for power and average, and Rodman could play defense and rebound. They know this too. Manny can roll around on the grass with the ball nestled in his grundel and Rodman could kick out an easy, uncontested layup to an unshaven Tony Kukoc and yet they know that the fans will laugh it off after the next clutch rebound or towering homerun. You can think of specific critical situations in both baseball and basketball where you would not want either of these guys on the field/court if you could help it, which is strange to say about HOF caliber athletes.
Outbursts of Violence, Distractions to the Team:
Rodman famously headbutted a referee and attacked a sideline cameraman, Manny slapped Kevin Youkilis and threw down a 60 something year old travelling secretary. There's no such thing as an edge in this category, because it is all relative, but I cant picture Manny wearing a wedding dress to a book signing, but, like I said he is making a late career surge towards theridiculous and he is now residing in LA so lets wait and see.
The Hair:
Both Rodman and Manny entered their respective professional leagues as relatively clean shaven young gentleman. Over time this morphed into something much more. Rodman was really the first to take the tattoos and piercings to the next level in the NBA, and the hair completed his ensemble. I can remember looking forward to Bulls games just to see what kind of hair style Rodman would sport on a given day. Manny has also continued to adapt his hair style; his dreadlocks growing in length and color combinations each season.
Coachable?
Both of these players seem, on the surface to be nightmares for a coach. They are so good at what they do that they can get away with certain things (on the field antics, quirkiness with the media, etc...) that lesser talented players simply cannot. Coaching such "free spirits" certainly seems like a trying endeavour. And yet, both of these players consistently produced for their teams. I have to think, ultimately this made these guys bearable to work with, but it must be a strange to see your power forward naked on a book cover or your left fielder taking phonecalls in the Green Monster and then counting on them to produce in crunch time.
Women:
It is obvious that both of these guys can pull some serious tail. Manny's wife is smoking hot, and we all know that Rodman's ex-wife Carmen Electra, is a fairly attractive woman as well. Rodman now seems to subsist on a steady diet of prostitutes and bi-sexual strippers, while Manny plays the role of family man. But, in Manny's case we can't be so bold as to rule out a future divorce and subsequent bachelorhood that might make Scott Baiojealous, and would make for some far more compelling Reality TV than the latters' miserable attempts under the wing of that dude who played the older brother in The Wonder Years. Either way, Rodman BROKE HIS PENIS having sex with Carmen Electra, I just wanted to point that out. I'm not sure if that's awesome or not.
I be interested to see if we could come up with more, or expand on the ones above...let me know.
The vindictive part of me says, "Good luck hitting in Chavez Ravine. Say hi to Nomar. You two deserve each other. And I'd bet my life against you getting another $100 million dollar deal." Of course I don't really feel that way. The funny thing is I was always one of the most ardent Manny/Nomar supporters, right up until the day they were traded. And even after both trades I couldn't quite believe it. However, both punched their tickets out of town. With Nomar it was the infamous sit on the bench and sulk incident in Yankee Stadium. That was complicated by the fact that Derek Jeter, the shortstop he was at one time most frequently compared to, dove head first into the stands. With Manny it's not so simple. Did he take three strikes on purpose in New York? Maybe. However, he definitely said he'd play in Iraq, pushed the traveling secretary*, sat out a few mysterious games recently (one of which was against the hated Yankees), blatantly dogged it at times in the Angels series, mixed it up with Kevin Youkilis on the bench, was slow to join his teammates in the Coco Crisp/Rays brawl, and said the organization did not deserve him. In fact Manny's been so bizarre that this post by Babcock made complete sense to me.
Of course the question has to be asked, "Did the Red Sox organization and its fans bring about this development by enabling Ramirez with the Manny being Manny movement?" I'd say yes and no. There's no denying the fact that Ramirez was enabled. Guys should run hard and be focused on defense, although I'd argue that Manny was never as bad an outfielder as some people would have you believe. And the bulk of Red Sox Nation either accepted or championed Ramirez's eccentric ways. At the same time a crucial part of the Manny being Manny line of thinking was that he was one of the most feared bats in baseball. Look at his stats from last year. Or consider how many fastballs were blown by him this year. Can he still get it done? Maybe. He may go on an absolute tear in LA over the next two months and make those Bay/Ramirez comparison seem absolutely ludicrous. Or he could be just average. Either way, unlike the Nomar/Orlando Cabrera trade the Sox did not get a clearly better player in return this time around.
Of course it's important to consider ownership/management's role in all of this. LaRocque got the ball rolling with a post about a meeting Manny was promised that never happened. On top of that there's no denying the fact that three of the four biggest stars in recent Red Sox history - Nomar, Pedro, and Manny (with David Ortiz being the 4th, currently unaffected by all of this) - have left the team on bad terms. And if Curt Schilling were not such an ass I'd probably work him into that argument as well. It's difficult because the Red Sox are up against a philosophy in baseball where guys get paid for what they have done, not what they are going to do. That may be changing but it's nowhere near the mindset NFL teams operate under. Meanwhile, if we've learned anything from the success of the Red Sox, Patriots, and Celtics it has to be that winning leads to difficult decisions and players getting overpaid, by the hometown team or someone else. Furthermore, Manny, Pedro and Nomar were on the wrong side of their careers. Can you imagine if Pedro were still in Boston given his extensive injury history as Met and diminishing stuff? Yet those guys were not dumb. They saw Theo Epstein and company completely turn off some of the biggest stars the organization has ever known and simultaneously give ridiculous contracts to Matt Clement, Edgar Renteria, Julio Lugo, and J.D. Drew. In fact Manny recently came out and said the former, "The Red Sox did the same with guys like Nomar Garciapara, and Pedro Martinez, and now they do the same with me. Their goal is to paint me as the bad guy. I love Boston fans, but the Red Sox don't deserve me. I'm not talking about money. Mental peace has no price, and I don't have peace here." If that's not reminiscent of the time Dr. Dre fled Suge Knight and Death Row records for peace of mind, leaving his all-important master recordings behind in the process, then nothing is.
In then end both sides are to blame. Ramirez's behavior over the last month or so was inexcusable. Yet I'd argue that ownership and management have a tendency to act in arrogant ways. It's definitely one of those trades that made me wonder if I'm too old to care about sports this much. With everything that's going on in the world right now why should the goings on of a bunch of wealthy people living the dream have a major impact on me?
Six closing points:
1. It's odd that Ramirez will now play for Joe Torre after all these years. Say what you want about Ramirez's production in his glory days but I couldn't picture him playing for the Yankees dynasty. Would he really have pulled a Johnny Damon and tried to fit in?
2. Will this go down as the ultimate example of the addition by subtraction philosophy? Consider how much the Red Sox hate getting rid of prospects. Yet they dealt Craig Hansen and Brandon Moss. I'll pass on trying to determine their ceilings as players. In addition, the Red Sox will pay the remaining $7 million on Ramirez's contract. And when did these trade talks start? Remember the Marlins deal fell apart. It appears as if the Red Sox scrambled to beat the deadline. Add it all up and it screams of just wanting to get a guy out of town.
3. This whole thing has a Lakers/Shaq/Kobe feel to it. Ugh.
4. You have to wonder what if any role the Boston media and fans played in all of this. I would grow tired of certain prominent reporters real quick. And the hours upon hours of phone calls to sports talk radio can't help either. Overall the level of scrutiny, this blog post included, is outrageous.
5. It's unfair to put all the blame for Boston's recent struggles on Manny. The Red Sox have other issues right now (relief pitching, hitting in general come to mind). Still I can't imagine playing on a team with a guy making $20 million that does not go hard. So I'm intrigued by how the other players respond. Remember they did not exactly mourn Nomar's departure.
6. Speaking of focusing on Manny. All that and I didn't even touch on Jason Bay. He's not going to know what hit him. He's going from baseball irrelevance (the Pirates have a 15-year losing streak) right into the chaos that is Red Sox baseball. I'd be ecstatic if the Sox just landed the 2005 Jason Bay. As is I'll wait and see.
* I'm guilty of making every excuse under the sun for Manny. Yet even I was appalled by the "hey the traveling secretary is 60 but he's not a frail, close to death invalid" argument that made the rounds. My dad is 60, works out, can handle himself, and I'm still a little afraid of him. Still if a professional athlete in his mid 30s took a run at him I'd be furious and unforgiving.
Rob Bradford had a great piece in the Herald today about Manny. The following excerpts really stood out to me :
on the issue of the team option (note that Legacy is the organization that handled Ramirez' affairs before Scott Boras):
"Still focused on the uncertainty of his future, according to Ramirez’ camp, the slugger was ensured by Red Sox president/CEO Larry Lucchino that some sort of meeting would take place after last season. However, no such meeting occurred, with Sox general manager Theo Epstein again explaining to Legacy that the team wasn’t ready to make any definitive decisions regarding Ramirez."
If Manny went to ownership at the end of last season in search of some sort of meeting as to what the club was thinking in regard to his contract situation, was promised by Lucchino that a meeting would take place, and then denied that courtesy, it makes it much easier to understand his frustration. If we heard this story from a non-celebrity at a more conventional job, we'd say that they have every right to be upset. Clearly their company does not value them very much as an employee.
Dale and Holley addressed this today, and said that Theo is the one who put a stop on the meeting. They said that it is part of a long trend in which he refuses to allow ownership to intrude on baseball matters. He wants to handle the baseball side of things, and they handle the business side. That Lucchino and John Henry sign the checks, and therefore should have as much involvement as they want is undeniable but unimportant here. The fact is that, as good of a job as Theo has done of bringing talent in, he has not always done the best job of keeping up relations with players while they are here. Johnny Damon and Pedro Martinez come to mind. Now, the club didn't really want to re-sign those guys. They may feel the same way about Manny, and it is very easy for them to spin it as "this was all Manny's doing." Well, that's probably not the case.
I'm not trying to excuse Manny here. But, I think we tend to place all blame on him because of who he is. In this case, it seems like the blame may be more shared than we originally believed. Professional athletes are pampered. It's true. But, requesting to meet with a team in the off-season to discuss your contract certainly does not seem like an unreasonable request.
Another part that stuck out to me:
"Take, for example, the fact that Manny Ramirez [stats] has told some of his confidants that doctors diagnosed his right knee with what was 'probably tendinitis.' The Red Sox [team stats], however, have made no such statement......................"It was a relationship that only worsened when Ramirez took offense to the fact that the Sox didn’t believe his right knee was truly injured. He has told some that the ailment was tendinitis, which a team-issued MRI (that came up clean on both knees) might not pick up. Sox officials did not comment last night when asked about the alleged tendinitis diagnosis, reiterating Epstein’s pledge not to discuss the Ramirez situation on or off the record."
Again, not excusing Manny. But, I think that we should all remember that things are not usually as one-sided as most people in the media have made this whole thing out to be.
"Of the many adjectives applicable to Williams, "dependable" hasn't been one of them. So far, however, the former Heisman Trophy winner and NFL rushing king has been the definition of responsible.
The front office and coaches have raved about his offseason dedication. Parcells has taken a particular shine to him because of Williams' commitment to the conditioning program. Williams has been explosive and focused in open workouts.
He hasn't rushed for 1,000 yards since 2003, but he looks as though he could do it again. He's 31 years old with low mileage, having carried only 283 times (more than a third of those in the CFL) over the past five years."
- While the quarterback controversy sorts itself out, Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown could be a dangerous duo on the ground.
I’ll tell you what is going on with Manny Ramirez, and really, it should come as no surprise. What we have here is a clear cut case of a stoner quitting cold turkey, with catastrophic results. In just the past month Manny has engaged in fisticuffs with Kevin Youkilis, thrown a 60 year old man to the ground, and is hitting in the low .200s. This is not Manny being Manny. Where has the “Hey, whatever man” attitude gone? Where is all the head rubbing and home run admiring? The daydreaming in left field? Manny’s actions paint him as irritable, moody, tempermental, and hence, barring the possibility that he has somehow or another become the first human male to menstruate, I conclude that he has given up pot.
Manny isn't High and neither is his Batting Average.
Now, sure, you’re thinking, “How would you know that Manny used to be high all the time?”, and rightfully so. The truth is that I have never hung out with Manny, or stood near him, or discussed my favorite Allman Brothers album with him over a Burrito and a large Mountain Dew, though god knows I want to. If that was going to stop me from making ridiculous claims about a total stranger’s drug use then…well, there would be no Babcock Report to speak of.
The case:
First, we all remember a while back when Manny put his grill up for sale on ebay. This should have been our first warning sign that something was wrong. It has been scientifically proven by a number of unbiased medical publications that a disinterest in grilling is one of the top five warning signs of Marijuana withdrawal. I don’t know what the winning bid for the grill was but I wonder if whoever has it now can sleep at night knowing that they own a shiny stainless steel flavorizing piece of Manny’s soul. May all your steak tips be overdone, and your chicken dry and stiff like the leather of my grandfather’s shoes.
Julian Tavares during the great Visine shortage of 2006.
Secondly, we all know that throughout history all great Stoners have come in pairs: Cheech and Chong, Simon and Garfunkel, Jay and Silent Bob, Ricky Williams and his depressed Indian alter-ego Richard Williams, and not to be outdone, Manny and Julian Tavares. When the Red Sox designated Tavares for assignment this spring they broke up one of the greatest pairs to burn one down since Bob Dylan and John Lennon shared a J back in the 1960s. How can we expect Manny to be a dominant player again when there is no Bill to his Ted? I can remember fondly the days when Manny would sit quietly in the dugout nonchalantly stroking Tavares’ head, make his way to the batters box, and promptly deliver a timely 2 run double. This begs the question…was Tavares Manny’s dealer? One thing is for certain, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Curt Schilling.
God Damn Hippies!
Finally, the recent outbursts of physical violence make it clear to me that Manny could not possibly be smoking pot. Take the Youkilis incident. I’m pretty sure that if you were high you would want to stay far away from Kevin Youkilis. He is way too intense for a stoner to handle. He also has a shaved head and a hardcore goatee, not exactly a stoner-friendly countenance. If Manny had been stoned during the altercation he would probably have reacted differently…that is to say that he would still have watched the bench-clearing brawl from the dugout, but when Youkilis approached him wondering why he wasn’t involved he would have already forgotten that the fight had happened and would have shrugged and then asked a batboy for a slurpee and a small soft serve vanilla ice cream in one of those little helmets. I am sure of this, don’t ask me why, just trust that I have a sense for these things.
Furthermore, I have scoured the annals of history and I could not come across one single incident where a stoned professional athlete has attacked a 60 year old Traveling Secretary over 16 tickets to his own baseball game. It has never happened. You may think I am crazy but it is the truth.
The Good Old Days
Also, after doing an intensive statistical analysis I have concluded that Manny’s Runs Batted In (RBIs) decline in direct proportion to his Righteous Bonghits Inhaled (RBIs). In addition I also noted the same trend with his AVG, (that is Acquired Video Games) and his OPS (Open-faced Peanutbutter Sandwiches). I know not all of you are familiar with Stonermetrics, but I assure you that several Major League ball-clubs have hired Stonermetricians and are implementing these very same statistical analyses into their player evaluation systems. Simply put, we have all felt that Manny was not hitting .420, and now I have the statistics to prove it.
Will Manny ever return to form? Red Sox fans, myself included, can only hope. I miss the fun-loving Manny. I never imagined that in my lifetime Manny would be involved in two physical altercations with members of the Red Sox organization, or two physical altercations of any kind for that matter. But Manny, for your sake, ask JD Drew to pass that shit, because I don’t know if you’ve checked lately but his SLG (Serious Latenight Gorditas) is through the roof.
