When Manny Ramirez once stole second base, then trotted back to first for some reason, it was written off as Manny being Manny.When Ramirez was an Indian back in the disasterous 1999 ALDS against the Red Sox, he raced back to the wall and jumped as high as he could in pursuit of a flyball that ultimately struck him in the foot. That too was Manny being Manny.
When Manny blows little kisses to his teammates, or does his five-year-old-girl wave to them after getting a single, it is more of the same - Manny being Manny.
The same is true when he mashes seemingly impossible-to-hit pitches deep into the night, or makes back-to-the-plate or shoetop catches when he's in his give-a-damn mode out in the outfield.
Manny gets a free pass because he is a space cadet. And I am sick to death of it.
The antics following his game-tying homer in the fifth inning Saturday night were as over-the-top as it gets.
After hitting the ball, which landed only about six rows deep in some weird triangular seating area that juts out into centefield, Ramirez flung his bat.
and then stood and watched the ball for about four seconds
before rounding the bases, blowing kisses and waving his finger as if he'd not only just won the World Series but also found the solution for world hunger.
About ten minutes later, upon reaching the dugout, he dove into the arms of some unsuspecting teammate.
Ramirez has been getting away with this kind of crap for way too long and it's time for someone to do something about it.In football, when the fine line between impromptu celebration and turn-the-spotlights-on-me-hotdogism is crossed, they throw a penalty flag.
In the NBA, where such behavior is the norm, they could - if they wanted to stop it - instruct the referees to assess a technical foul.
In baseball there appears to be no appropriate penalty. You certainly can't take a run off the board, and ejecting the player also seems a bit much.
Which brings us to the way baseball used to handle such matters.
If Manny comes to the plate sometime this series when the game is clearly no longer in the balance, he should get a high hard one right in the ear hole of his helmet.
And if the Tribe doesn't get the right opportunity during this series, there's always spring training.
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4 comments:
love it, unfortunately i don't think anyone is gonna knock him down. and as much as i dislike him, the scary part is he'd probably turn on the pitch and go yard.
I work with some Yankee fans and they get very tired of the "Manny being Manny" stuff. I love the story in Our Tribe about how he sent the clubhouse boy out to get his car detailed and he had something like $5k in his glove compartment.
Manny reminds me of the story of a young Ted Williams who was working on his swing while standing out in LF. He was so busy with his swing that he didn't get a very good jump on a ball hit his way.
It hard to say what goes through his head, but no one can deny that he works hard at what he does at the plate. I guess to Manny the rest of the stuff if just a necessary evil. And, yes, he does excel at being a jackass when he hits a HR.
Nice to see that Manny can also be a jackass when his jack draws the team to within 4 runs.
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