OT: Manny Ramirez: 'No one wants to sign me'

[eisenreich8]

I had a hard time finding this Gerry Callaham piece which appeared in the Boston Herald as Manny was leaving Beantown. The story was archived by the Herald so I had to cut and paste from another forum.

As far as Manny's bat goes, I will agree he's among the greatest. In every other category as a player and person, well, YOUR team can have him, and if you don't follow the Boston sports scene, you really can't appreciate the magnitude of what a cretin this guy is. Here's the column:


"No Dodging it: Manny Ramirez just a bad, bad man
By Gerry Callahan, Boston Herald
Friday, August 1, 2008 - Updated 2d 2h ago
A number of Red Sox [team stats] players were asked if they could make the short walk to a tent that was set up just outside the ballpark and say a quick hello to the kids.
There were 32 teenagers on the trip to Fort Myers this year, all big Red Sox fans, all battling cancer. Two of them had just lost a leg to the disease. Many were making their first trip to Red Sox camp, and some would never be back.
Most of the players didn’t hesitate to visit the kids because that’s what most players do - the decent thing, the right thing. Jason Varitek [stats] went down, so did David Ortiz [stats] and Kevin Youkilis [stats] and, of course, Tim Wakefield [stats], who quietly and selflessly does anything the folks at the Jimmy Fund ask of him.
They signed a few autographs and posed for photographs. They brought smiles to the faces of some kids who hadn’t had many reasons to smile. It was no big deal for the players, but a very big deal for the patients.
Of course, there was one Sox player who couldn’t be bothered to visit the kids because he never can be bothered. The kids loved him, but he didn’t give a damn about them. That’s how it works in Manny Ramirez [stats]’ world. You serve him or you serve no purpose at all.
The tent was no more than 90 feet from the ballpark, which means Ramirez could have been there in 5.7 seconds, even going his usual half-speed.
But he declined this year, just as he has declined for the last six. And, as always, no one was surprised. Why should he care about a bunch of sick teenagers when he doesn’t care about his teammates or his manager or the fans who enabled him and apologized for him for 7 1/2 years?
Well, you can say goodbye to the bad guy now. Good riddance to bad rubbish. Maybe Jason Bay will not be quite the cleanup hitter that Ramirez was (then again, maybe he will be), but we know this much before he even takes the field for the Red Sox: He is a better fielder, a better baserunner, a better teammate, a better person.
He probably won’t fake a knee injury, or slap a teammate, or throw a 64-year-old man to the ground because he couldn’t make tickets magically appear. He won’t give the manager ulcers or spit in the owners’ eye or treat the paying customers like suckers.
Just a guess here, but the kids from the Jimmy Fund Clinic are making the trip to Chicago next week. Bay will probably say hello.
There was always something uneasy about the love and adoration that Red Sox fans showered on Ramirez. The hard-hitting half-wit was born with the ability to put a bat on ball better than most mortals, but that’s where his virtues end. He doesn’t play the game right. Too often he doesn’t play the game hard. He cares about his contract and his hair and not much else.
He didn’t care about the wounded troops at Walter Reed Army Medical Center this past February. When most of his teammates, including all of the big stars, made the trip to Washington, he stayed behind. Probably no one on the team had the ability to make a down-on-his-luck Sox fan smile like Manny Ramirez did, but as usual, Ramirez couldn’t be bothered. As usual, teammates, fans and media made excuses for him. Again, the great hitter was allowed to be a rotten human being.
In a way, Ramirez represents the worst of professional sports - a man who is idolized because he has one, God-given physical skill. Some fans who would boo a player for popping up with the bases loaded had no problem cheering Ramirez days after he assaulted Red Sox traveling secretary Jack McCormick, a terrific gentleman who is almost 30 years older than the slugger.
According to his old high school coach, Ramirez promised to buy bats and balls and uniforms - things he could have gotten for free - for his needy alma mater. Last we checked, 17 years after he left school for the pros, the kids were still waiting. Their idol, their hero, the man who has made almost $200 million since he left George Washington High School in the Bronx, just couldn’t be bothered.
Red Sox owners treated Manny the Mutt like Leona Helmsley treated her Maltese. This season, reigning National League MVP Jimmy Rollins has been benched twice by the Phillies for violating team rules. As far as we know, Manny has never been benched or suspended by the Sox. The owners literally knocked down walls for him, making the Sox clubhouse more comfortable for this spoiled child.
And how does he repay them for their love and loyalty? By calling them liars and backstabbers. By saying they don’t deserve a player like him.
And in the end, he was right about that. The Red Sox [team stats] deserve better, and yesterday they got that in Bay. Maybe not a better hitter, but a better all-around player and a much better teammate.
In a way, Jason Bay has it easy. He is replacing a Hall of Famer, but when he walks into the clubhouse today, 24 players and one very relieved manager will welcome him like schoolgirls greeting Zac Efron. They’ll be happy to see him and even happier to see the bad guy gone.
Everyone can just relax and play baseball now. Manny is where he belongs. He’s a Dodger. The team formerly known as “Dem Bums” just got the biggest bum of them all."



No matter what team you pull for, I hope if you want Manny on your team you get him, at any price, and oooooooooh and ahhhhhhhh when he hits yet another majestic and meaningless (to your team's chances) long bomb, as it'll just be you, your ticket stub, and Manny. Love the Red Sox or hate them, they are the success story of the past 9 years in Baseball in that they came from the hateful Tom Yawkey era and morphed into a genius braintrust which has rarely misfired.

A previous poster jeered me as a non-fan because I appeared to not be grateful for the 2 world championships Manny brought to Boston. Hogwash. They won 2 titles DESPITE Manny's egocentric and manipulative and destructive presence.

Another pointed to Ortiz's struggles after Manny left. Huh? The guy had a virtually unusable wrist for most of the season, and although he surely missed having Manny around, don't you think it affected him to see Pedro go too?

Unfortunately, the Sox have taken and lost some gambles. Some mega egos got in the way of good chemistry and some contract issues were distractions. But I applaud them mightily for their determination to not kiss the bums of notable holdouts like Damon, Pedro, Varitek, Lowe and others. There are a few bumbles too like passing on O. Cabrera and not keeping Millar for another year or two.

Whoever gets Manny, enjoy whatever comes your way. But make sure if you love his brand of baseball, you take the good with the bad. Try to see that the Red Sox organization knows more about Manny than the Dodgers do.

[frikativ54]

I had a hard time finding this Gerry Callaham piece which appeared in the Boston Herald as Manny was leaving Beantown. The story was archived by the Herald so I had to cut and paste from another forum.

As far as Manny's bat goes, I will agree he's among the greatest. In every other category as a player and person, well, YOUR team can have him, and if you don't follow the Boston sports scene, you really can't appreciate the magnitude of what a cretin this guy is. Here's the column:


"No Dodging it: Manny Ramirez just a bad, bad man
By Gerry Callahan, Boston Herald
Friday, August 1, 2008 - Updated 2d 2h ago
A number of Red Sox [team stats] players were asked if they could make the short walk to a tent that was set up just outside the ballpark and say a quick hello to the kids.
There were 32 teenagers on the trip to Fort Myers this year, all big Red Sox fans, all battling cancer. Two of them had just lost a leg to the disease. Many were making their first trip to Red Sox camp, and some would never be back.
Most of the players didn’t hesitate to visit the kids because that’s what most players do - the decent thing, the right thing. Jason Varitek [stats] went down, so did David Ortiz [stats] and Kevin Youkilis [stats] and, of course, Tim Wakefield [stats], who quietly and selflessly does anything the folks at the Jimmy Fund ask of him.
They signed a few autographs and posed for photographs. They brought smiles to the faces of some kids who hadn’t had many reasons to smile. It was no big deal for the players, but a very big deal for the patients.
Of course, there was one Sox player who couldn’t be bothered to visit the kids because he never can be bothered. The kids loved him, but he didn’t give a damn about them. That’s how it works in Manny Ramirez [stats]’ world. You serve him or you serve no purpose at all.
The tent was no more than 90 feet from the ballpark, which means Ramirez could have been there in 5.7 seconds, even going his usual half-speed.
But he declined this year, just as he has declined for the last six. And, as always, no one was surprised. Why should he care about a bunch of sick teenagers when he doesn’t care about his teammates or his manager or the fans who enabled him and apologized for him for 7 1/2 years?
Well, you can say goodbye to the bad guy now. Good riddance to bad rubbish. Maybe Jason Bay will not be quite the cleanup hitter that Ramirez was (then again, maybe he will be), but we know this much before he even takes the field for the Red Sox: He is a better fielder, a better baserunner, a better teammate, a better person.
He probably won’t fake a knee injury, or slap a teammate, or throw a 64-year-old man to the ground because he couldn’t make tickets magically appear. He won’t give the manager ulcers or spit in the owners’ eye or treat the paying customers like suckers.
Just a guess here, but the kids from the Jimmy Fund Clinic are making the trip to Chicago next week. Bay will probably say hello.
There was always something uneasy about the love and adoration that Red Sox fans showered on Ramirez. The hard-hitting half-wit was born with the ability to put a bat on ball better than most mortals, but that’s where his virtues end. He doesn’t play the game right. Too often he doesn’t play the game hard. He cares about his contract and his hair and not much else.
He didn’t care about the wounded troops at Walter Reed Army Medical Center this past February. When most of his teammates, including all of the big stars, made the trip to Washington, he stayed behind. Probably no one on the team had the ability to make a down-on-his-luck Sox fan smile like Manny Ramirez did, but as usual, Ramirez couldn’t be bothered. As usual, teammates, fans and media made excuses for him. Again, the great hitter was allowed to be a rotten human being.
In a way, Ramirez represents the worst of professional sports - a man who is idolized because he has one, God-given physical skill. Some fans who would boo a player for popping up with the bases loaded had no problem cheering Ramirez days after he assaulted Red Sox traveling secretary Jack McCormick, a terrific gentleman who is almost 30 years older than the slugger.
According to his old high school coach, Ramirez promised to buy bats and balls and uniforms - things he could have gotten for free - for his needy alma mater. Last we checked, 17 years after he left school for the pros, the kids were still waiting. Their idol, their hero, the man who has made almost $200 million since he left George Washington High School in the Bronx, just couldn’t be bothered.
Red Sox owners treated Manny the Mutt like Leona Helmsley treated her Maltese. This season, reigning National League MVP Jimmy Rollins has been benched twice by the Phillies for violating team rules. As far as we know, Manny has never been benched or suspended by the Sox. The owners literally knocked down walls for him, making the Sox clubhouse more comfortable for this spoiled child.
And how does he repay them for their love and loyalty? By calling them liars and backstabbers. By saying they don’t deserve a player like him.
And in the end, he was right about that. The Red Sox [team stats] deserve better, and yesterday they got that in Bay. Maybe not a better hitter, but a better all-around player and a much better teammate.
In a way, Jason Bay has it easy. He is replacing a Hall of Famer, but when he walks into the clubhouse today, 24 players and one very relieved manager will welcome him like schoolgirls greeting Zac Efron. They’ll be happy to see him and even happier to see the bad guy gone.
Everyone can just relax and play baseball now. Manny is where he belongs. He’s a Dodger. The team formerly known as “Dem Bums” just got the biggest bum of them all."



No matter what team you pull for, I hope if you want Manny on your team you get him, at any price, and oooooooooh and ahhhhhhhh when he hits yet another majestic and meaningless (to your team's chances) long bomb, as it'll just be you, your ticket stub, and Manny. Love the Red Sox or hate them, they are the success story of the past 9 years in Baseball in that they came from the hateful Tom Yawkey era and morphed into a genius braintrust which has rarely misfired.

A previous poster jeered me as a non-fan because I appeared to not be grateful for the 2 world championships Manny brought to Boston. Hogwash. They won 2 titles DESPITE Manny's egocentric and manipulative and destructive presence.

Another pointed to Ortiz's struggles after Manny left. Huh? The guy had a virtually unusable wrist for most of the season, and although he surely missed having Manny around, don't you think it affected him to see Pedro go too?

Unfortunately, the Sox have taken and lost some gambles. Some mega egos got in the way of good chemistry and some contract issues were distractions. But I applaud them mightily for their determination to not kiss the bums of notable holdouts like Damon, Pedro, Varitek, Lowe and others. There are a few bumbles too like passing on O. Cabrera and not keeping Millar for another year or two.

Whoever gets Manny, enjoy whatever comes your way. But make sure if you love his brand of baseball, you take the good with the bad. Try to see that the Red Sox organization knows more about Manny than the Dodgers do.

Sounds like a bitter, bitter fan/writer. I would like to know what/if any charity work Manny has done...is he always like this? Is there another side to the story? Is there a reason why Manny has become like this?

[skyking26]

Manny makes me sick.

[eisenreich8]

Les,

I thoughtlessly left out that Gerry Callahan is a columnist for the Boston Herald and also a daily cohost of the Dennis and Callahan sports talk show in Boston.

Callahan recently survived throat cancer and was treated before this piece was published. Could serve as a disclaimer for Callahan's rancor. But he certainly spills his guts. Not every fan's cup of tea for sure but they give him the back page so he gets a lot of readers.

[frikativ54]

Les,

I thoughtlessly left out that Gerry Callahan is a columnist for the Boston Herald and also a daily cohost of the Dennis and Callahan sports talk show in Boston.

Callahan recently survived throat cancer and was treated before this piece was published. Could serve as a disclaimer for Callahan's rancor. But he certainly spills his guts. Not every fan's cup of tea for sure but they give him the back page so he gets a lot of readers.

Thanks for that information; that better contextualizes the acerbic comments. A piece with real merit would have gone through Manny's history with Boston, Cleveland, etc., and have showed his attitudes toward charity work and autograph signing. That would have been interesting to read. However, this writer has little more than a grudge against Manny for actions that a lot of us find to be unreasonable.

[metsbats]

We can't blame just Manny for rejecting 25 million

[Rob L]

Manny being Manny is precisely why nobody else has taken a long hard look at him. The Dodgers were smart (Gosh, I hate saying that) in only offering a 1 year contract. It is the only sure fire way that a team has for him to be the player that he can be. If he took their original offer of 2 years with a third year option, he would end up being unhappy because he couldn't get the contract he feels he deserves (5 years). Signing him to a contract year assures he will perform.

That being said, I still want to see a Manny - Vlad combination

[suicide_squeeze]

Thanks for that information; that better contextualizes the acerbic comments. A piece with real merit would have gone through Manny's history with Boston, Cleveland, etc., and have showed his attitudes toward charity work and autograph signing. That would have been interesting to read. However, this writer has little more than a grudge against Manny for actions that a lot of us find to be unreasonable.

Well put, Les. I got the same (obvious) impression.

Look......I'm not claiming I know anything about Manny Ramirez and his off-the-field antics.

I do know that if Andrew Lang says he had an "experience" while meeting Manny that was less than memorable.....I believe him.

But as a Dodger fan, I am perplexed.

WHY would the Dodgers make Manny a one year offer?

YES, the money is tremendous. But it's ALWAYS been about the LENGTH OF TIME the offer would be....Manny was looking for a MULTI-YEAR deal.

So one has to draw the conclusion that the Dodgers did that as a negotiative ploy...now maybe they can get Manny for 3 years instead of 4? I'm not sure.....maybe it was one last "Up YOURS" to Boras who originally wrote off the Dodgers 2-year offer for $45 Mil as "We'll wait to entertain some SERIOUS offers" in retribution?

But if that were true, why would you want to shed your possible team leader and superstar in the light the Dodgers have just done, by making him look greedy by turning down an offer they surely KNEW he wouldn't accept because of the TIME FRAME alone? How does that build up a good relationship with a guy you are trying to sign?

Man....the whole thing is a mess.

And on top of that.......I have to keep beating all you MANNY HATERS back with my own bat!!

We'll see....this is going to be an interesting few weeks before spring training.....

[allstarsplus]

Look......I'm not claiming I know anything about Manny Ramirez and his off-the-field antics.

I do know that if Andrew Lang says he had an "experience" while meeting Manny that was less than memorable.....I believe him.

But as a Dodger fan, I am perplexed.

And on top of that.......I have to keep beating all you MANNY HATERS back with my own bat!!

We'll see....this is going to be an interesting few weeks before spring training.....

Steve - Well said, and I only know about my 1 encounter with Manny and his guys. If you want to call me, I will give you the summary. Like I said, I don't think it is fair to re-hash it here as Manny doesn't have the opportunity to respond.

On the Manny signing, selfishly I want him to stay with the Dodgers so the Washington Nationals can sign Adam Dunn because supposedly Adam Dunn is waiting to see what the Dodgers do.....

Another soap opera!

[skyking26]

Well put, Les. I got the same (obvious) impression.

Look......I'm not claiming I know anything about Manny Ramirez and his off-the-field antics.

I do know that if Andrew Lang says he had an "experience" while meeting Manny that was less than memorable.....I believe him.

But as a Dodger fan, I am perplexed.

WHY would the Dodgers make Manny a one year offer?

YES, the money is tremendous. But it's ALWAYS been about the LENGTH OF TIME the offer would be....Manny was looking for a MULTI-YEAR deal.

So one has to draw the conclusion that the Dodgers did that as a negotiative ploy...now maybe they can get Manny for 3 years instead of 4? I'm not sure.....maybe it was one last "Up YOURS" to Boras who originally wrote off the Dodgers 2-year offer for $45 Mil as "We'll wait to entertain some SERIOUS offers" in retribution?

But if that were true, why would you want to shed your possible team leader and superstar in the light the Dodgers have just done, by making him look greedy by turning down an offer they surely KNEW he wouldn't accept because of the TIME FRAME alone? How does that build up a good relationship with a guy you are trying to sign?

Man....the whole thing is a mess.

And on top of that.......I have to keep beating all you MANNY HATERS back with my own bat!!

We'll see....this is going to be an interesting few weeks before spring training.....

Suicide/Frik: Hey, we are all fans here...certified baseball nuts. I love the game. I've read many a negative column about Dave Kingman through the years. I've known him since 92 and have yet to have a negative experience, but that is me. I understand your devotion to a guy like Manny, etc. That said, no need to continue to question the "Manny Haters" if you will. The piece about Manny's refusal year after year to speak for 60 seconds to a child with cancer (that he has to walk past) speaks volumes... In my book it's a nuff-said no brainer.

You both go on, wave your flags, and say your prayers that your man will get his zillion dollar contract til his last breath....all the while Americans lose their jobs D-A-I-L-Y. I'm a proud US citizen, and I believe you can promote whatever you wish. I don't have to believe in it, and I think I'll find many backers herein...