Manny Just Being Manny...

As much as I'm sure you'd love to read another article about Brett Favre, I refuse to grant you that luxury. I'm tired of turning on ESPN to see them talk about Favre's reinstatement to the NFL. For 3 days or so, the top story was that he might be reinstated. We get it. Brett Favre wants to come back. There's no need to put a 15 minute segment on each show for three days in a row, suggesting that its probably going to happen. Just let me know when he's actually reinstated. How about a highlight of some games instead of boring us with Favre talk? No? Okay, I guess that's cool. No wait, no it's not! I'd rather not have to wait for the BottomLine to cycle through all the scores, just so that it can go to a commercial and skip over the one score I want to see. But enough talk about Favre. The main goal of this post is to let that story be. I'm hear to talk about the laziest player in baseball: Manny Ramirez.

Manny has crushed my hopes on countless occasions against the Yankees, but I still can't help but laugh when I see the guy. His antics are ridiculous. He's the only player that can get away with his sometimes pathetic play. For years Red Sox coaches brushed off Manny's questionable behavior, because he seemed to do more good than harm to the organization. He was in control in Boston, which he made very obvious this week.

With the trade deadline approaching, Manny decided he wasn't happy with the way things were going in Boston. So he decided he wanted to be traded. To make sure it happened, Ramirez showed Boston he wasn't going to try if they kept him. Somehow he managed to take his sluggish play to a whole new level, and left the Red Sox with no choice but to let him go. The man faked two injuries to miss games, including one against the rival Yankees. He took MRI's that revealed nothing was wrong with him, but still refused to try and play. He also decided not to run out plays down the first base line, clocked twice over 5 seconds (one at around 5.7). Speeds described on Sportscenter as "icelandic" for a professional athlete. Both times were moments Manny probably could have beaten them out as well. Once was on a double play at a crucial point in the game, and the other was during John Lackey's near no-hitter that Ramirez could have ended with some hop in his step.

I couldn't describe Manny's antics as anything but entertaining. A few weeks ago he took a terrible angle on a fly ball, missed it as he slid in the wrong direction of the ball, then decided rather than getting up and picking up the ball, he would roll over until he got to it. Naturally, Manny rolled on top of the ball and took a few seconds to get it out from underneath him. Only Ramirez could get away with that. He was blessed to have that Green Monster for 81 games a season. The short left field kept him pretty stationary out there. He didn't have to worry about overexerting himself to catch a fly ball. Manny was no stranger to hanging out in the Green Monster as well. On pitching changes he would often open the door and step right into the wall doing God knows what. I always assumed he was getting a quick blaze in before the next batter. Recently he was seen making a phone call in there. The possibilities are endless as to what else he's done in there in the past.

All in all, Manny's career has been something else. He's hit over 500 home runs, a remarkable task, and managed to be possibly the laziest gifted athlete of our time. It's a wonder he even got off the couch to pursue college baseball and a professional career. But nontheless he did, and he deserves some credit. He truely is a natural ballplayer and one of the best hitters of all-time. He seems to be very happy in LA and should do a lot to help the Dodgers in the next few years. I expect him to help my prediction that LA will win the NL West this year come true. He's off to a quick start and I don't expect a happy Ramirez to slow down. I'm just happy to know I won't be seeing him in the Red Sox lineup the next time they meet the Yankees. I've had enough of "Manny just being Manny" in a Red Sox uniform.

Image taken from Yahoo! Sports