gammons on manny

The deal that had to be done

Monday, July 28, 2008 | Print Entry

The text message from Alex Cora came not long after the deal was done. "I am very sad," wrote Cora, one of the game's best and brightest people. "I am happy for him because he wanted it, but he is a great guy. He taught me a lot. I will miss him."

That is what's so sad about the way the Red Sox had to spend $7 million, and trade two very good young players named Brandon Moss and Craig Hansen, to be able to trade Manny Ramirez to the Dodgers so they could get Jason Bay from the Pirates. But the way the past month had gone, there was no chance -- none, zilch, nada -- that Boston could make the playoffs with Ramirez on the team. In his mind, he had completed his obligation for the guaranteed $168 million the Red Sox paid him, and he was waiting to go on the market and collect the $100 million over the next four seasons he believes he is going to get, which would pay him through the age of 40.

He insulted ownership and everyone in authority, and one player who really cares for Ramirez said he knew Ramirez could sit the last two months, collect his final $7 million and ride off into the $100 million sunset. The Red Sox knew that, as well. They already had threatened him with an unpaid suspension, but in a world in which the union fights for those who don't work, the last two months were going to be a living hell of sit-down strikes, followed by suspensions. It would have been a half-season of what the past two weeks have been, namely a choke hold on the team's baseball culture.

Ramirez tried to sit, citing his knee. Problem is, after Felix Hernandez and Joba Chamberlain had come and gone, the Red Sox ownership and medical staff ordered him to take an MRI. If Ramirez hadn't forgotten which knee was bothering him, he would have been more convincing, but he got mixed up. Massachusetts General Hospital performed MRIs on both knees and found nothing, and the next day, ownership served Ramirez with a written notice that if he did not play, he would be suspended without pay.

Someday, when we really understand the whole 1980-2005 steroids era of which one admitted user says, "The only guys who didn't do them after 1994 were either stupid or scared," we might ask the question: Was it worse to take performance-enhancing drugs to perform better and win, or to decline to play and steal money?

That is a question for another decade. The suspension threat was this past weekend, hence the "woe-is-me" stuff on Sunday and the absurd statements about a team that protected him time after time after time after time. But as soon as the deadline passed, if Ramirez were still with the Red Sox, there would have been one incident after another with Ramirez secure in knowing that he didn't have to play, hustle or give any regard to winning to collect his remaining $7 million. Anyone who was watching John Lackey's run at a no-hitter continue in the seventh inning Wednesday when Ramirez jogged to first in 5.7 seconds, realizes that he is one of those rare, gifted athletes who cares nothing about winning, about the integrity of the game or about his teammates. He can hit.

Oh, there had been attempts to rid the club of Ramirez. At first, it was about the contract Jeff Moorad snookered from Dan Duquette when no one else was bidding, a contract Ramirez decided he wouldn't abide by in the eighth year. The Sox put him on waivers. No one claimed him. They tried to trade him for Alex Rodriguez, but the union killed that. They tried to trade him to the Mets after the 2004 World Series, then at the 2005 deadline for a package that included Lastings Milledge and Clifford Floyd, but those deals fell through.

And they won two World Series with him.

But this season became a nightmare when Ramirez's attention span turned to the next four years, to the next contract. General managers said this past weekend that Red Sox GM Theo Epstein had begun calling around trying to get interest in the hitting machine, but by Wednesday night, there were but two teams, the Marlins and Dodgers. The way Boston looked at it was that, fine, Ramirez was gone, and Bay seemed the best replacement with his season averages of 32 homers and 102 RBIs. To get him at the end of the season would have cost more than Moss and Hansen, so they did the deal now. Their feeling was that if Bay adjusts to Boston right away, and they settle their bullpen, they will contend. They do not think they would have contended with their $20 million player on strike.

Florida made every honest effort to get him. On Wednesday night, the Marlins thought they were getting Ramirez and Pirates reliever John Grabow for Jeremy Hermida, second baseman-third baseman Chris Coghlan and left-handed pitcher Taylor Tankersley, who would have gone to the Pirates with a Boston prospect for Bay. The Red Sox had agreed to add $2 million, so they were paying $9 million plus a prospect to do Ramirez-for-Bay.

Pittsburgh wanted more in the deal, while Florida never wavered. The Pirates wanted another package, which was filled by getting Andy LaRoche and right-handed pitcher Bryan Morris as well as Hansen and Moss. It was a very good package for Bay, a package that frees cash to sign top draft pick Pedro Alvarez. Hansen and Moss were this year's Matt Murton, without whom the Red Sox could not have made the Nomar Garciaparra deal in 2004 that led to a championship.

Ramirez should be great in L.A. The Dodgers need the bat. Joe Torre and Don Mattingly are perfect for him. He helps maligned young players such as Matt Kemp and James Loney. The Dodgers essentially got Ramirez and Casey Blake with the Red Sox and Indians paying their salaries.

Ramirez will be there for only two or three months, and Torre won't have to live with the compromises that ate at Terry Francona. It'll be a nice stop en route to Cooperstown. Ramirez can blame Larry Lucchino as the reason for not running out ground balls or ducking Hernandez and Chamberlain or sitting out the last five weeks of 2006 when David Ortiz and his teammates needed him, and some of the L.A. media will sympathize.

The Angels continually prove that baseball is not a computer game but a human sport, and the gap between Ramirez's numbers and performance widened this season as he became obsessed with his next contract. It is sad, sad that he trashed Francona and those who tried to coddle him to the point that one of the best managers of his time lost weight and sleep trying to live with what he had to allow Ramirez to do, including deck the traveling secretary. It is sad because most of us will always like Manny Ramirez, because the best people on the team -- guys such as Cora, Ortiz and Mike Lowell -- tried to make it work and cared. In the end, though, Ramirez listened to and cared about no one when it came to the next $100 million.

He "tased" the 2008 team because management wouldn't pay him $100 million for four years. Now he has a chance to be happy, his back turned on the team with which he won two rings, a team that on Thursday turned the page and, in many ways, is morphing into a team far, far different from the Idiots of 2004, one built around Josh Beckett and Kevin Youkilis and Dustin Pedroia and Jonathan Papelbon and Jon Lester.

manny to florida

could it be true?

looking ahead

last series of the year is against, you guessed it, the new and improved yankees.

I-Rod to the yanks

looks like they picked up ivan rodriguez for kyle farnsworth.

sabermetrics to the rescue

some reassuring numbers: according to the mlb.com standings, the sox expected won-loss record is 62-44. rays are at 56-48. and yankees are at 57-47. so we've actually played better than advertised, though it does point to a bullpen weakness. meanwhile, espn.com gives the sox a 71.3% chance of making the playoffs. rays are at 50.7% and yankees are at a startling 39.5%.

run, manny!

big game against the yankees: manny just hit a line drive out to left and didn't run out of the batter's box. i've about had it with him and i hope they don't pick up the '09 option.

manny back

looks like manny's in the lineup again today.http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

last night's game was heartbreaking. i was feeling what lowell was when he got ejected. he put up a battle in that at bat and it might've worked out if the umpire hadn't been generous with the strike zone all night. i think the pitching matchups favor us from here on out but we'll see.

go sox.

ballpark food

speaking of the times, here's their assessment of ballpark food around the country. at fenway, they like the turkey sandwich and the kettle corn. what? no clam chowdah?

at yankee stadium, they're into the cuban sandwich. at shea, they say, "trust us, stick to the dogs."

bleacher bar

some new food & drink options at fenway

zink

almost missed a great ny times feature on charlie zink from last month.

A visit to New York

stopper & closer

great article on how beckett works out in the off-season w/ the college team from his alma matter trinity university.

bob ryan notes in the globe today, "Is anyone concerned that the Red Sox' closer has given up seven hits and three runs in his last 4 2/3 innings, not counting the admittedly cheesy, error-aided run he gave up in the All-Star Game?" yes! i am...

After a game

ESPN.com's Page Two portrayed the scene at Fenway after a game.

My favorite part?

"10:30 p.m.: A bagpipe player in a black T-shirt and shorts plays magnificently as a group of five teens in VARITEK T-shirts chant, 'Yankees suck! Yankees suck! Yankees suck!' He takes a break, but they continue."

Public Service Announcement

Boisterous Sox fans beware: 

Massachusetts General Laws, Ch. 272, sec. 36A:

 

"Whoever, having arrived at the age of sixteen years, directs any profane, obscene or impure language or slanderous statement at a participant or an official in a sporting event, shall be punished by a fine of not more than fifty dollars."