ddA

Farewell Manuel

'Manny' Aristides Ramírez - Thank you for the memories.

It was a beautiful thing to watch. Excuse me, this is a little emotional. My favorite player on my favorite team is no more. The model for my relaxed and powerful wiffle ball swing. A guy who has gotten on base 40% of the time. The man who has hit more rbi in a single season than anybody since the 1930's. A surefire first ballot hall of famer. That is who left town in cloud -no, a shit storm - of vitriol. I wont go to quite so far as to say he was run out of town on a rail, because there was fault and greed and a lack of tact on both sides. I guess thats the worst part of it all.

I mean, really this spat between Scott Boras / Manny Ramirez and Theo Epstien / John Henry was remarkably stupid. Both sides have made alot of money for each other, and stood to make each other even richer. This contract was on the books for along time, and we've all seen this scenario playing out various ways. I was starting to think with the free agent market robust once again, Manny's $20 mil options for the next two years were looking great. And of course I was hoping he would stick around after that, maybe play some first base, win a few more rings, hit a hundred more home runs, and retire and go in the Hall a Sock (a Red Sox?).

I can understand if that option was not available, but it seems as though the front office should have had some foresight and worked to move Manny earlier. The Sox and Boras have a pretty good working relationship, the recent Varitek and Drew contracts are evidence of that. A sign & trade perhaps? That would keep him from the Steinbrenner's. The last thing i want to see is Manny cutting off his dreds and donning pinstripes. uhg. Its not like there wasn't rumored interest. The Dodgers were said to be interested in trading Matt Kemp for Manny.

THE BISON! Matt Kemp! the freeakin' bison. damn. It would have been nice to get another player to root for... for years. The dudes a freaking tool shed. 23 years old now, and 2 years from arbitration! He Hit 342 last year, can play everywhere in the outfield, is in the midst of a 16 game hitting streak and they'd supposedly have traded him because of his attitude (He didn't get along with Jeff Kent). I mean hes one of those 'special players' (the contact and speed are there, the power and patience are developing).

This was a rumor reported repeatedly. Including the days before the deadline.

To see Manny leave town with dignity, would have been priceless instead of this colossal ugly mess, engendering resentment between a huge part of two long awaited World Series championships and the team and fans he won them for.

We will miss you, Manny. We'll miss those walk offs. We'll miss those 'Manny Moments'. We will see you mash for the Dodgers. We'll see you destroy Red Sox pitching. We will probably never hear Fenway as loud as when you came to the plate, close and late. We'll be sad, it already hurts you're gone. We will be happy for you. We will call it getting Ramirez'd, when somebody gets high before any event. We will laugh about how you could barely ever hear your always controversial batting entrance music. We'll get high.

Styles P - Good Times (I Get High)
Uploaded by keyzz

Peace, Manny.