Manny from Heaven
Posted on July 31st, 2008 in Uncategorized | 23 Comments »
The Red Sox have traded slugger Manny Ramirez to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Here’s my question about Jason Bay, the outfielder with basically equivalent stats the BoSox got in return. He’s been rookie of the year and an All-Star (twice).
So why has he now been traded four times?
And here’s the question AL East watchers will want to know the answer to: Is this basically good or bad for Boston?
A final note: Hours after the trade has happened, there is nothing on the Boston Globe website. (And no, Boston.com doesn’t count.) Pathetic. Or maybe just sad.
A final, final note: It is very Yankee-like of the Red Sox to simply eat $7 million of Manny’s contract.
23 Responses
7/31/2008 8:58 pm
Bostonglobe.com is designed as the Globe’s “today’s paper” site. Breaking news updates and such are never updates on bostonglobe.com-rather, they’re posted directly on boston.com. Check again: you’ll see that the articles covering the trade are all written by Globe staff writers.
7/31/2008 9:01 pm
OK, I’ll take the bait. First of all, what do you mean “traded four times”? Looks to me like he started the majors with Pittsburgh in ’03, played 3 games for San Diego at the end of that season, was back in Pittsburgh in ’04, and has been there ever since. There must be a story there, but when two of the three teams he has been with are the same team, and he has played his entire major league career for that team except 3 games, it doesn’t sound like he has left a stinking reputation behind him at every step.
I know nothing more than that the stats show, but damn right this is good for Boston. You relieve yourself of a huge negative influence at a pivotal moment in the season (see my comment on the item below) and you get AT LEAST the equivalent back statistically. Even if he’s a pain in the neck, which no one but you so far has suggested as far as I know (your innuendo notwithstanding), it will take a couple of years before that becomes evident.
Meanwhile, the guy has already hit more home runs than Manny this season, he’s 6.5 yrs younger, and he’s a right handed hitter who’s been hitting those homers in a field where its 325′ down the left field foul line, 389′ to left center. Odds are he’s going to love hitting in Fenway.
I’d say the only question is can he handle playing in a town where people actually care about baseball (unlike Pittsburgh these days). JD Drew had a rough time coming over from la-la land, though he’s bounced back this year.
And — I am no fan of the Globe, but I don’t understand your third question. I was watching Boston.com, which was more up to date than the sports-proud Herald. It would never occur to me to go to the Globe web site; that’s what I thought boston.com was. I follow the link from Boston.com to the “Today’s Globe” site only when I want to find something the way it was printed in this morning’s paper. If I misunderstand the difference, that’s evidence for something, but I think it would be something other than what you are suggesting.
7/31/2008 10:00 pm
Correction. In the majors, he played briefly for San Diego BEFORE coming to Pittsburgh for the remainder of the ’03 season, ’04, ’05, ’06, ’07, and until now, ’08. Boston is his third major league team. Richard, when you say four “trades,” you must be counting his brief minor league stints with Montreal and the Mets. Gee, a prospect being traded by the bankrupt Expos somehow doesn’t sound like something for which a bad attitude would be the most likely explanation.
7/31/2008 11:12 pm
RB- Even though you wrote a book about baseball, you just got taken to school by Harry Lewis. Harry Lewis!
Your knowledge of current baseball is embarrassing. For example, you write, “It is very Yankee-like of the Red Sox to simply eat $7 million of Manny’s contract,” as though this is the first time Boston has ever done so despite prominent examples of this in the recent past (Renteria, etc). And you continue to pretend that the Rays — who, not to put too fine a point on it, are in first place in the AL East — don’t exist, when part of what made this deal happen was Tampa’s pursuit of Bay for themselves.
8/1/2024 8:43 am
Most recent anon, you need to calm down a little. It’s hot to get all worked up like that—you’re going to hurt yourself.
That said…
There’s no shame in being “taken to school” by Harry Lewis, despite the inference of your exclamation point. This blog is not a competitive space. Your “gotcha!” tone points up a problem Harvard folks sometimes have: seeing the learning process as competitive rather than mutual, hierarchical rather than democratic. But that’s a longer discussion.
I know this isn’t the first time the Sox have eaten a contract. Doesn’t mean it isn’t Yankee-like.
Yes, Bay has now been traded four times: From the Expos to the Mets in 2002, From the Mets to the Padres later in 2002, from the Padres to the Pirates in 2003, and now from the Pirates to Boston. Might mean something, might not.
Yes, I am trying to forget that the Rays (who should still be called the Devil Rays) are in first.
8/1/2024 10:29 am
Sorry-make that the “implication” of your exclamation point.
8/1/2024 12:01 pm
Your self-correction is all the more reason for your blog to re-acquire a preview function for its comments. Along with time-stamps.
8/1/2024 12:05 pm
Time-stamps! God, how I miss time-stamps. Oh time-stamp how I love thee.
12:06pm (kissy)
8/1/2024 12:06 pm
12:07 (slobber)
8/1/2024 10:05 pm
Richard says “there’s no shame in being taken to school by Harry Lewis, despite the inference (implication?) of your exclamation point. Your “gotcha” tone points up the problem you Harvard folks sometimes have: seeing the learning process as competitive rather than mutual”…and so on. Richard and Harry Lewis and Richard Thomas could take all of you to school on attitude, manners, grace, humour, intelligence and any number of other areas. He’s not kidding?…you really are Harvard folks?..you Anony-mouses? Surely not. If so, I’m appalled. You embarrass yourselves and Harvard.
8/1/2024 10:57 pm
Time-stamp 10:55: looks like a pretty good trade so far, Richard!
8/2/2024 8:48 am
As a Yankee fan, I’m happy to see Manny on the West Coast. It was never comforting to see him come to the bat. But perhaps more importantly, as a Boston area father I’m happy to see him gone. I got very tired of having to explain to my 4-year-old son that this terrific batter was actually not worth admiring as a ballplayer or a person. Perhaps I won’t be any happier as a Yankee fan about Jason Bay. Last night’s performance suggests that possibility. But the interview afterwards seemed to suggest that as a father this is a trade I can be very happy about.
Sean
8/2/2024 10:40 am
Manny tried to change his mind, an hour after he was traded! Unbelievable.
Gordon Edes, Aug 2
8/2/2024 12:36 pm
lmpaulsen- “Harry Lewis and Richard Thomas could take all of you to school on attitude, manners, grace, humour [sic], intelligence and any number of other areas.” I would absolutely concede that! But I think it’s very funny that those same folks could also take Richard to school on baseball, which he just wrote a book about, when that it hardly their area of expertise. That’s all.
As for Prof. Kelly, I think it’s funny for someone who’s published on Heidegger to express concern about the private behavior of public figures.
8/2/2024 1:00 pm
Anonymous says:
As for Prof. Kelly, I think it’s funny for someone who’s published on Heidegger to express concern about the private behavior of public figures.
But I don’t see why it should be funny at all. Does my having written on Heidegger somehow imply that I can’t be concerned about the private behavior of public figures? I’d have thought quite the opposite.
sdk
8/2/2024 1:28 pm
What I meant was this: I haven’t read your work on Heidegger, but having devoted some of your attention to him, I assume you believe that his work has some merit or at least that it repays study in some way. This is, I presume, despite the fact that he was a Very Bad Man.
Now, while Manny has referred to himself as “a Very Bad Man,” his sins are somewhat less than Heidegger’s, no? So one might think that one could appreciate his talents and performance (or fear them as a Yankees fan) while still deploring his venal sins.
I presume if your son also becomes interested in philosophy, you wouldn’t discourage him from studying Heidegger for fear that he’d become a Nazi, right? So why worry about his admiration for Manny’s athletic feats? It makes your son no more likely to shove Harvard’s travel secretary.
8/2/2024 3:58 pm
I take it that Anonymous is not a parent.
If it were only Manny’s athletic (by which I mean batting) feats that my son admires I wouldn’t be concerned. But it is quite a sophisticated skill to admire some of the things a person does while scorning others. By the time he is old enough to admire whatever (if anything) is admirable in Heidegger’s work, I hope he will be more capable of making that distinction. Or at least more capable of confronting the need to do so. As it is, however, the powerful phenomenon of the cult of Manny can present difficult issues for the parent of a young, baseball obsessed, boy.
sdk
8/2/2024 4:44 pm
And besides, Heidegger never would have changed his mind like that.
8/2/2024 4:49 pm
Would that Heidegger *had* changed his mind…
sdk
8/2/2024 10:34 pm
An Anonymous a few Anonymouses ago…if you’re going to quote me, quote me correctly. I said “Richard and Harry Lewis and Richard Thomas could take you all to school on attitude etc.” You think it’s “funny” that HL and RT could take Richard to school on a game he just wrote a book about. Not to take anything away from Richard’s current knowledge of football, he wrote a book about an era and a specific game and its heroes. The amount of research and work that went into that book is staggering…if you had read it you would know that. I’m betting you didn’t. And if you were a regular reader of this blog, you would know that Richard has a whole new professional life now…and he has said that he only has time for the blog for a very short time before he goes to work…and in spare moments at work. He no longer has the time to spend researching for material for the blog that he used to have. Many days there is no spare time at all. That includes researching current baseball statistics. That’s why I’m glad to see people like Harry Lewis and Richard Thomas and yes, even Standing Eagle contribute to the blog…I’m sure Richard appreciates it. And I see a few new “names” which is great. And that’s why, Anonymous, I can take you to school on this blog…and I don’t appreciate your somewhat snarky comment that Richard is being taken to school on a subject he wrote a book about. He has all the qualities I mentioned except time.
8/3/2024 12:59 pm
Oh, good lord. I like you, Impaulsen. But take down a notch.
8/3/2024 1:26 pm
Impaulsen,
While Richard being a man with some very nice qualities, but is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. Believe me. None of us are. I enjoy his blog, but I doubt he is as offended and hurt by some posts as you seem to think. He seems to have a pretty thick skin. So to quote Richard - you need to calm down a little. It’s hot to get all worked up like that—you’re going to hurt yourself.
8/3/2024 11:54 pm
You’re right…he is not perfect…and none of us are. And there you went again, assuming you know what I think. I don’t think he is very hurt and offended by some posts…he has said a number of times that it comes with the territory. And I believe that…he’s been there and done all that. I know that and you apparently don’t. I’m not defending him as much as I’m setting the record straight. Again.
But I’m done now…am quite calm…I’m just a stickler for the truth. It’s a thing with me…but nobody’s perfect, right? No way am I going to get told what I think.