Manny Being Manny
I will never deny that I am a Manny Ramirez apologist. When Manny eventually takes off his Red Sox pajamas for the last time, carefully disguised as a uniform, no one will be as disappointed as I. Immensely talented, quirky to the extreme, wonderfully playful at times, maddening indifferent at others, the one thing the Manny era has never been is predictable. Manny being Manny means never being boring.
And yet, love Manny or not, you are mistaken if you believe he’s an idiot. He’s unique, he doesn’t subscribe to baseball’s unwritten codes, and he doesn’t care what you think, but he’s no fool. Somewhere along the line lazy writers (and announcers) decided “Manny Being Manny” meant Ramirez was stupid.
Here’s Jim Caple, senior ESPN writer, writing about Manny recently:
And speaking of those home runs, Manny Ramirez’s home plate pose and leap into David Ortiz’s arms after his homer made it 7-3 was the equivalent of a linebacker dancing after a sack while trailing by three touchdowns in the fourth quarter. Then again, Manny being Manny, he may not have known what the score was, or for that matter, even that his team was behind.
Jim Caple has been on a Boston sucks kick for a while, but you’d expect more from an ESPN senior writer. If he actually believes Manny didn’t know the score, he’s a moron. If he thinks he’s being funny, he failed. But writing is hard, especially for Jim Caple, so falling back on tired cliches is an easy way to fill another lame column. These days it seems the only subject Jim Caple writes about is Manny Ramirez.
Even worse Bill Simmons, noted Boston fan and writer, published this email from random reader Mark:
When Manny went deep, my first thought was, ‘Quit posing, Manny, we’re still down 7-3.’ Then it dawned on me that Manny probably had no idea what the score was. In fact, he probably isn’t aware that baseball games are determined by which team scores more runs. Manny’s only point of differentiation comes when, after hitting a home run, he sees his teammates waiting for him at home plate — it’s at that point he knows it’s time to go to the strip club.
Remember when Bill Simmons was funny and a little cutting edge? Instead he’s publishing an email that lamely regurgitates what has been said a thousand times before. The Sports Guy should go back to pimping out his wife on ESPN.
If you hate Manny’s antics, that’s fine. But lately, mostly due to lazy writers unwilling to look for new angles, Manny being Manny has morphed from describing his tendency to do the unexpected to treating him like a mentally challenged hitting savant. That’s a shame. Anyone that’s paid attention knows that’s far from the real Manny. That’s ignorance on their part, and more importantly, an injustice to one of the greatest hitters of our time.
