Manny being manipulated
That’s the title of a Bill Simmons e-ticket on espn.com. It is a long read and well worth it if you are Manny fan, but especially if you are no longer because of his exit behavior. I found I was shaking my head in agreement a lot as I read this today. A lot.
You might remember that I posted about missing Manny not too long ago, but this reinforced my thinking about it after it was shaken a bit by Schilling’s comments. I should have known better than to let that (now) useless blowhard shake by belief with the idea he might have brought new information to the table. I resisted posting when he inserted himself into the news for a few days a few weeks ago, less we forget he exists. After reading this new piece, I can’t help but comment about that too. Fact is, 38pitches and others in the clubhouse are part of that “Respects-The-Game” clique in the clubhouse.
As an aside, you know who those guys are. Captain divorce-my-wife-before-I-get-my-next-contract probably being the guy throwing Manny under the bus to Lou Merloni with the Jurassic Carl comment. Let’s be clear, there aren’t many perfect players in that clubhouse and if the rumors are true, the captain ain’t one if he’s tapping Heidi (Barbie) Watney (or one of those NESN chicks). I had numerous search hits here for him linked to Hazel Mae and Kathryn Tappen. (Even the Google search box type-ahead for “Varitek Watney” has plenty of options.) Now, it could have been Wakefield dropping dime to Lou, but I am using Tek to point out that they all have baggage and cause distractions, whether there’s truth to it or not, and if there is, where is Schilling and his mouth about this one? (Did I just become the Inside Track?)
Now, I don’t knock them for wanting respect for the game. I think that is important and Boston can certainly appreciate guys that take a workman’s approach to their job, but what is also important is that a guy do his job. Am I about to suggest that Manny was doing his job those last few weeks of July? No, not wholesale I am not, but he wasn’t totally dogging it either. Fact is, Simmons brings up a lot of valid points about why Manny suddenly changed between February and June/July. It has to be Boras. No two ways about it. But it wasn’t entirely him, was it.
If anything changed other than Boras getting a “Special Guest Star” tag in Manny’s ongoing sitcom, it was an ever-evolving 25-man roster: more happy-to-be-there youngsters and businesslike veterans, considerably fewer Latinos and free spirits — guys who seemed woefully ill-equipped to handle Hurricane Manny. For most of this decade, Boston’s veterans and managers looked after Manny the same way you’d look after a dog: Keep remembering to feed him, walk him, rub his belly and occasionally smack his snout and he’ll be fine … and if you forget to keep doing those things, it’s your fault when he craps on the rug. Manny’s 2008 meltdown wasn’t much different than the ones in 2003, 2005 and 2006, only nobody kept him in check this time around. It was just a different team. When Coco Crisp charged the mound in June and got summarily pounded and sucker-punched by a swarm of angry Rays, not a single Boston player had his back or seemed especially perturbed about what happened. I thought it was the most telling moment of the season. If they weren’t sticking up for Coco, they certainly weren’t standing up to Manny Ramirez.
Other than that, I appreciated the Manny Being Manny stories contained in his story. Some I have heard, some I haven’t. I especially appreciated his bashing of Boras:
Let’s pretend you were Boras last spring. First, grow fangs and imagine you sleep in a coffin. Second, divorce yourself from all parameters of human decency. (Concentrate on those dollars signs. Keep concentrating. Block everything else out.) Third, convince yourself the relationship between a player and his fans, no matter how long it has been cultivated, doesn’t matter even remotely. Fourth, keep reminding yourself, as long as you can weasel Manny out of that ’09 option with Boston, you’re looking at a four-year contract elsewhere for $80-100 million … as well as a big fat commission for yourself. You feeling it? You feeling like Boras yet? (Touch your new fangs to be sure.)
I can’t quote everything either, so you should read up for yourself. Really. Take the time to read it. It is still fanboy type stuff, but it is hard to not expect that from Simmons. At first, I thought it was going to be a more journalistic approach, and to a certain extent it was, but it also had that personal interest feel to it and it definitely resonated with me.
So, will Manny be in pinstripes next year? I thought early on that would come to pass, but I am not so sure. I think it will come down to how bad Hank wants to win again. Is that organization willing to sacrifice some of their rules to accommodate a free spirit like Manny? I have heard there is no way that will happen, but then, this is the first year since 93 they haven’t made the playoffs, right? He’d seem to be a natural fit. They need a guy that produces and can split time between the outfield and DH. Four years at a $100 mil doesn’t seem like a stretch for them and Manny has expressed a desire to play in NY in the past.
Yes, I am aware that Jason Bay provided the two runs needed to win last night’s ALDS Game 1. I still like Bay and I think he’ll be fine going forward, but I wonder if he’ll match post-prime Manny numbers. We’ll see, but for comparison:
Bay (49 games): 184 AB, 54 H, 22 BB, 39 R, 9 HR, 37 RBI, .293 AVG, .897 OPS
Manny (53 games): 187 AB, 74 H, 35 BB, 36 R, 17 HR, 53 RBI, .396 AVG, 1.232 OPS
Anyway, for a third time, check it out.
Posts ::
This post has 10 comments (now closed):
Ed
Sat :: 04 :: Oct :: 2008 :: 01.10 pm
I don’t have much to say as I really am not much of a Manny fan and believe that Simmons is writing as a fan and not a journalist (which – he really is not one – if anything, he’s a columnist or entertainment journalist – meaning he peddles in opinion and not necessarily fact).
That said, nobody should expect Bay to equal Manny. That wasn’t the intent of adding Bay. The Red Sox aren’t idiots. They are not going to get rid of Manny’s production unless there was a definitive problem – most likely a sum total of issues that we never saw. Seriously, this is business. Why do that to yourself. Bay was added not to be the next Manny but to help solidify the concept of team. That whole “respect the game” clique you mentioned. There’s another word for that. It’s called team. If Manny wants to plan a solo sport, take up golf. He really should toss on the pinstripes as he’s perfect for that team – with its long, sad history of multimillionaire individual players. He’s fit in perfectly with Steinbrenner’s fantasy team logic in assembling a squad.
Anyway, after Game 2 and Bay’s continued contributions, I say we’re doing just fine without him.
You and I differ on this so it doesn’t make sense to argue it. You’ll never waiver and neither will I. You also hate Schilling yet I grant him a lifelong pass for letting them fuse tendons to bone and give us our first World Series in 86 years. The guy can promote 38 Bitches all he wants. I’ve got his back. Same goes for Pap. I know you hate him but not me.
Noelle
Sun :: 05 :: Oct :: 2008 :: 09.52 pm
I just want to add that I have Papi’s back, if he ever needs me! 😉
Sean
Mon :: 06 :: Oct :: 2008 :: 12.59 am
@Ed: I agree with you on Simmons. He’s a blogger first and definitely not a journalist. I was fooled when I started reading that this might be a serious piece since it was under the e-ticket banner and not Page2 Sports Guy World. Well, it might as well have been.
Anyway, you are right that we’ll never agree about these players in question, but based on your comment, I have to ask; did you read the full Simmons article? In it he talks about the Red Sox front office business, that baseball is not necessarily a team sport and neither one of us suggested that Bay would replace Manny. I like Jason Bay, and if you look at what he did in Game 1 & 2 against the Angels, he’s doing just fine… which, even after I put up the comparison numbers with him and Manny, he’s still pretty close across the board, but again, I’m not trying to compare them straight up.
Juice
Tue :: 07 :: Oct :: 2008 :: 01.59 pm
I don’t really care about who Varitek slept with, what Schilling blogs about or for that matter Manny is out drinking with Enrique Wilson on his own time. I care about what happens on the field.
It’s a fact that Manny is one of the best hitters to ever play baseball, but when he decided that his knees were hurt and he would not board a plane to Seattle, he effected how the game was played between the foul lines. When he said he needed to be put on the DL one week before the trading deadline and his MRI’s came back negative, it was the last straw.
Let me say that Red Sox Nation as a whole, from management to coaches to teammates to fans all enabled this behavior. No matter how egregious his actions to that point, everyone defended him as “Manny being Manny”. So why couldn’t they have co-existed after the trading deadline? They had every other year he pulled this act. Who knows, but baseball is a business. Manny getting more years of uncashed checks to stick in his locker, glove box or to use as cigar lighters is business to him.
Manny, Schilling, The Captain and the rest are celebrities as opposed to role models. They are men playing a kids game and getting paid plenty for it. We toast them for bringing us Championships along with the Celtics and Pats (And I pray before I become Lawn fertilizer I get one Bruins Stanley Cup). At best they are examples of how to or how not to act.
Let’s treat athletes how they should be, as purveyors of entertainment. By not playing or giving 100% he wasn’t living up to his contract and we are all to blame.
Now he had to perform to get the big deal and he did it in LA. So Frank McCourt will gush and give him 20-25 Million for 3-4 Years and “Mannywood” will be alive and well in SoCal for awhile. He would have had to do that had he not been dealt. Ownership gave in to his, Scott Boras’ or L’Montro’s demands out of Boston and now we could be 10 days away from his return as The Dodgers version of Annakin turned Darth Vader.
Ed
Tue :: 07 :: Oct :: 2008 :: 03.29 pm
There may be entities within baseball who do not view it as a team sport (i.e. the front office of any club (Boston, NY, etc) who can afford to buy top-tier talent) but I tend to harbor a romantic belief that there are players, and good ones at that, who still do look to the game as one played with their brothers-in-arms.
I know you don’t like him but I think Schilling made a good point this morning when he talked about voting playoff shares to various club personnel and he said that he has been sickened on numerous occasions where some guy making 5, 10, 12 million a year would vote against giving a share to a groundskeeper (as example). It’s that mentality – that true team mentality – that makes me love this game. Sure, I stand in awe of the long ball and have pumped my fist numerous times over Manny’s late-inning heroics but in my conscience… I’ll sacrifice the added pop for the team player any day of the week.
As Justin said, what they do in their off-time is meaningless. I agree. At the same token, what they do on the field is a trickier subject. We want the best of both worlds. The World Class Mercenary who decides to sign up with your army once he ambles over.
I think the bottom line here is in the world of big business… absolutely EVERYONE needs to be scrutinized. Everyone’s got an angle. Manny’s got one. Boras too. John Henry. Theo. Bill Simmons. Heidi Watney. They all have angles. You digest it all and then determine what percentage to ingest. I like Simmons but I can’t help but read his piece and think some of this comes from blind fanboy fervor. We all hate to see our heroes rendered mortal.
In this particular case – I like Manny. I enjoyed Manny for what he brought to the team. But once upon a time I had Garciaparra on my back. And now that shirt collects dust in a closet.
One of these days, I really ought to throw that out. Time to move on.
Sean
Tue :: 07 :: Oct :: 2008 :: 08.13 pm
@Both: First off, nicely written comments. Thanks for them! But…
…right or wrong, my feeling is just that Manny doesn’t start being difficult unless under the influence of someone else, and in this case, probably Boras, who apparently needs even more money.
As for between the lines, I don’t think Manny dogs it when on the field, at the plate or preparing for the game. I think he does his job there without question, but sometimes it is a little odd with water bottles in back pockets, headphones in sunglasses or disappearing into the wall. That said, he pulled extra crap this season, not quite like past ones, and I think that was more scripted/planned for him than him on his own. Look, I’m sure in the past there were games he didn’t want to be in and begged out or faked an injury, but this year, it was way over the top from past performance, so I have to chalk it up to influence. Am I apologizing for him? I don’t know, I might be enabling him like Juice says, but as Simmons says, why not suspend him or fine him or both? That makes a better statement than just giving in to a baby, right?
Now, right or wrong, they pulled the same crap other athletes/agents have pulled when they want out of their agreements, contracts, whatever. I think that is total crap that they think this is okay, but it is the times and unfortunately, more often than not, they win out. The Sox fought back, but as far as I am concerned, the wrong way. Why not give him what he wanted and tell him they wouldn’t pick up the options? Well, probably because they wouldn’t get Bay for next year and beyond to “replace” him. But, maybe they get a free agent that is better than Bay, like Teixeira, who can protect Papi. I think Manny falls back in line for the rest of the season, like he has in LA, because he wants that next contract.
Anyway, I think I am starting to debate the point, and I know I shouldn’t bother, so I’ll just leave it here.
(I didn’t even mention 38bitches.)
D’oh… but actually, I have to. That guy can make himself out to look like a saint all he wants with the playoff shares because he is probably right, most guys on the team don’t need that money. That said, that dick should give back his salary this year, or donate it all to one of his charities, because he defrauded the Sox with that shoulder injury. He knew it was bad during the off-season, so why not have the surgery then or simply retire? Oh… one more check maybe? Is that much different than Manny? (Okay, a lot, but it still boils down to money, except we know Schill his driving his car and Manny is in a kiddie seat in his.) Yeah, I think the Sox tried to low-ball him expecting him not to take it, but then he did, so I wonder why… oh, to make it look good for the fans that they tried to bring back their beloved bloody sock. I don’t think they always run it like a business. There is a little too much catering to “The Nation” for my taste. And no, I’m not suggesting they ignore the fans either.
Juice
Tue :: 07 :: Oct :: 2008 :: 09.00 pm
Manny floundering like a fish out of water in the outfield 3 days before he was traded was one of many plays that were unprofessional. The two big one’s I remember are him not running out a grounder in Tampa when he didn’t even leave the batter’s box and another when he jogged out of the box and then when the ball was booted picked up the pace and was out by half a step. I know there are more than a few others.
Bottom line whether Boras put the ideas in his or not, he had to do it….He’s a man and needed to act and play like one and live up to his contract, option years included.
Schilling is a self promoting character himself and says things just to keep people talking about him, largely because he knows his playing days are numbered. Heck he calls in to sports radio and Butch slapped Fox’s Stearn’s (and he deserves to be slapped) because he likes the noteriety. But in the end every 5th day when he took the ball I knew I was getting 110% and that’s what I want in the players I wear jersey’s off. Beckett, Papelbon, Pedroia, Lowell and Youkilis give that effort every day. That’s all I ask on the field. Off the field we all have our own moral violations, we are all human.
Manny will be a first ballot hall of famer, and he is one of the major reasons the only curse reference I hear these days relates to Glen Wesley and not Babe Ruth. I also know his .314 lifetime Batting avg would be higher if he worked during the game time as much as he did hitting in the cages only when he wanted to.
He showed he can and has turned it on and off whenever he wants and thats why though the Sox are a better lineup with him, they know what they are going to get everyday without him.
Sean
Tue :: 07 :: Oct :: 2008 :: 09.13 pm
@Juice: Not running out a ground ball? Really? Better trade Papi too.
I kid, but c’mon, too many players don’t run them out anymore, if only to make Joe Morgan cry, and I’m for that! But seriously, Manny was probably told to turn it up a notch towards the end there, so I’m not surprised. I was speaking more towards his play prior to, let’s say, that last month.
Juice
Thu :: 09 :: Oct :: 2008 :: 01.54 pm
I agree not everyone hustles….but why was he clocked on avg at 5.0 Sec running from home to first and in LA has been clocked at 4.46? He runs hard now for his contract. Boras, Manny, Heidi or Shcilling have anything to do with that….just manny being manny.
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