Manny to Dodgers??

[savage1]

Where exactly did I mention Bonds anywhere in this conversation?

Yea there's no doubt I have a lot to learn. I choose to pick from intelligent people to learn from though

So do I , and alas, you don't quite make the cut.
ps you certainly made the implication you were talking about Bonds in reference to comments I made in comparing Manny and Bonds:

Originally Posted by savage1
Me included;I would take Manny's shenanigans any day over taking a player beset with huge controversy over drug/steroid use and one who hasn't played for the entire season;I seriously doubt that a class organization and John Henry and company would stoop that low.

They've put up with Manny's side show act for years now. How much lower can you stoop? Take your fucking blinders off savage for once...unreal

[harold_bush]

The Providence Journal reports that Red Sox GM Theo Epstein met with team veterans on Wednesday, and they told him that Manny Ramirez had to go.

The players were not only tired of Manny's antics and felt that he was a distraction, but they didn't trust that they could count on him during the pennant race. One story in the Boston Herald on Friday quoted a teammate as saying "He just doesn't care." Another Herald story discussed his refusal to visit with young cancer patients, calling him a "bum." It seems most everyone involved with Manny in Boston is happy to see him go.
Source: Providence Journal
Related: Red Sox

[harold_bush]

The Boston Herald reports that Jason Bay is likely to bat fifth for the Red Sox.

That arrangement figures to put Mike Lowell in the cleanup spot behind David Ortiz, although things could certainly change if Bay gets off to a strong start in Boston. During his time with the Pirates, Bay saw about 40 percent of his action hitting third and 40 percent of his action hitting fourth, with the rest split between fifth and sixth.
Source: Boston Herald

[savage1]

Manny hits into double play in bottom of ninth with man on first and nobody out and Dodgers trailing by one. Way to go Manny!
Since I bet Arizona, I was of course happy on putcome -it would have hurt double or triple what it normally would have if Manny had jacked one out to cost me the bet.
ps Did anyone else notice on that second infield hit he got earlier that Manny was really moving his ass?;he sure as heck didn't run like that of late in Boston especially on the potential infield hit that would have broken up that no hitter-around 6 seconds to first base if I recall.
I guess at least for now he wants to make a good impression.
ps Of course to have had Manny bunt in the last ninth is beneath his dignity;only players who make less than 10 million dollars a year should be asked to do that.
Round 1 goes to Jason Bay! There is a long way to go of course.lol

[savage1]

Many times I don't agree with Mr. Callahan of the Boston Herald, but in this case he makes some excellent points and shows another side of Manny I was not totally aware of:

No Dodging it: Manny Ramirez just a bad, bad man
By Gerry Callahan
Friday, August 1, 2008 - Updated 16h ago
+ Recent Articles Boston Herald General Sports Columnist

E-mail Printable (389) Comments Text size Share (4) Rate
A number of Red Sox [team stats] players were asked if they could make the short walk to a tent that was set up just outside the ballpark and say a quick hello to the kids.

There were 32 teenagers on the trip to Fort Myers this year, all big Red Sox fans, all battling cancer. Two of them had just lost a leg to the disease. Many were making their first trip to Red Sox camp, and some would never be back.

Most of the players didn’t hesitate to visit the kids because that’s what most players do - the decent thing, the right thing. Jason Varitek [stats] went down, so did David Ortiz [stats] and Kevin Youkilis [stats] and, of course, Tim Wakefield [stats], who quietly and selflessly does anything the folks at the Jimmy Fund ask of him.

They signed a few autographs and posed for photographs. They brought smiles to the faces of some kids who hadn’t had many reasons to smile. It was no big deal for the players, but a very big deal for the patients.

Of course, there was one Sox player who couldn’t be bothered to visit the kids because he never can be bothered. The kids loved him, but he didn’t give a damn about them. That’s how it works in Manny Ramirez [stats]’ world. You serve him or you serve no purpose at all.

The tent was no more than 90 feet from the ballpark, which means Ramirez could have been there in 5.7 seconds, even going his usual half-speed.

But he declined this year, just as he has declined for the last six. And, as always, no one was surprised. Why should he care about a bunch of sick teenagers when he doesn’t care about his teammates or his manager or the fans who enabled him and apologized for him for 7 1/2 years?

Well, you can say goodbye to the bad guy now. Good riddance to bad rubbish. Maybe Jason Bay will not be quite the cleanup hitter that Ramirez was (then again, maybe he will be), but we know this much before he even takes the field for the Red Sox: He is a better fielder, a better baserunner, a better teammate, a better person.

He probably won’t fake a knee injury, or slap a teammate, or throw a 64-year-old man to the ground because he couldn’t make tickets magically appear. He won’t give the manager ulcers or spit in the owners’ eye or treat the paying customers like suckers.

Just a guess here, but the kids from the Jimmy Fund Clinic are making the trip to Chicago next week. Bay will probably say hello.

There was always something uneasy about the love and adoration that Red Sox fans showered on Ramirez. The hard-hitting half-wit was born with the ability to put a bat on ball better than most mortals, but that’s where his virtues end. He doesn’t play the game right. Too often he doesn’t play the game hard. He cares about his contract and his hair and not much else.

He didn’t care about the wounded troops at Walter Reed Army Medical Center this past February. When most of his teammates, including all of the big stars, made the trip to Washington, he stayed behind. Probably no one on the team had the ability to make a down-on-his-luck Sox fan smile like Manny Ramirez did, but as usual, Ramirez couldn’t be bothered. As usual, teammates, fans and media made excuses for him. Again, the great hitter was allowed to be a rotten human being.

In a way, Ramirez represents the worst of professional sports - a man who is idolized because he has one, God-given physical skill. Some fans who would boo a player for popping up with the bases loaded had no problem cheering Ramirez days after he assaulted Red Sox traveling secretary Jack McCormick, a terrific gentleman who is almost 30 years older than the slugger.

According to his old high school coach, Ramirez promised to buy bats and balls and uniforms - things he could have gotten for free - for his needy alma mater. Last we checked, 17 years after he left school for the pros, the kids were still waiting. Their idol, their hero, the man who has made almost $200 million since he left George Washington High School in the Bronx, just couldn’t be bothered.

Red Sox owners treated Manny the Mutt like Leona Helmsley treated her Maltese. This season, reigning National League MVP Jimmy Rollins has been benched twice by the Phillies for violating team rules. As far as we know, Manny has never been benched or suspended by the Sox. The owners literally knocked down walls for him, making the Sox clubhouse more comfortable for this spoiled child.

And how does he repay them for their love and loyalty? By calling them liars and backstabbers. By saying they don’t deserve a player like him.
And in the end, he was right about that. The Red Sox [team stats] deserve better, and yesterday they got that in Bay. Maybe not a better hitter, but a better all-around player and a much better teammate.

In a way, Jason Bay has it easy. He is replacing a Hall of Famer, but when he walks into the clubhouse today, 24 players and one very relieved manager will welcome him like schoolgirls greeting Zac Efron. They’ll be happy to see him and even happier to see the bad guy gone.

Everyone can just relax and play baseball now. Manny is where he belongs. He’s a Dodger. The team formerly known as “Dem Bums” just got the biggest bum of them all.

[savage1]

These are my overall impressions of the trade:

I think one of the reasons it was easy for most Sox fans(including myself) to overlook hiis shennanigans over the years is obviously because the team was doing well for the most part including two World Series and because the annoying stuff he did accumulated gradually, and no one incident was enough to say trade him when the good was weighed against the bad.
I think this year he did his usual stuff, but this time actually did more irritating things such as shoving an older non player member of the Red Sox, complaining in so many word about his contract, etc.; said to me at least that at this point of his career he considered himself bigger than the game itself.
When you couple that with the fact that 1) team had been losing and most recently 5 of 6 at home to the Yankees and Angels and 2) the impression that at least part of the reason for #1 was that he was becoming a distraction and negative influence to his teammates(in the same way Nomar did in 2004), I think management did the right thing by "taking the bull by the horns" and making this move to trade him.

[ctt8410]

ps Of course to have had Manny bunt in the last ninth is beneath his dignity;only players who make less than 10 million dollars a year should be asked to do that.
Round 1 goes to Jason Bay! There is a long way to go of course.lol

When would it ever make sense to have a guy with a .925 OPS bunt? C'mon now.

[NEJAKE]

Many times I don't agree with Mr. Callahan of the Boston Herald, but in this case he makes some excellent points and shows another side of Manny I was not totally aware of:

No Dodging it: Manny Ramirez just a bad, bad man
By Gerry Callahan
Friday, August 1, 2008 - Updated 16h ago
+ Recent Articles Boston Herald General Sports Columnist

E-mail Printable (389) Comments Text size Share (4) Rate
A number of Red Sox [team stats] players were asked if they could make the short walk to a tent that was set up just outside the ballpark and say a quick hello to the kids.

There were 32 teenagers on the trip to Fort Myers this year, all big Red Sox fans, all battling cancer. Two of them had just lost a leg to the disease. Many were making their first trip to Red Sox camp, and some would never be back.

Most of the players didn’t hesitate to visit the kids because that’s what most players do - the decent thing, the right thing. Jason Varitek [stats] went down, so did David Ortiz [stats] and Kevin Youkilis [stats] and, of course, Tim Wakefield [stats], who quietly and selflessly does anything the folks at the Jimmy Fund ask of him.

They signed a few autographs and posed for photographs. They brought smiles to the faces of some kids who hadn’t had many reasons to smile. It was no big deal for the players, but a very big deal for the patients.

Of course, there was one Sox player who couldn’t be bothered to visit the kids because he never can be bothered. The kids loved him, but he didn’t give a damn about them. That’s how it works in Manny Ramirez [stats]’ world. You serve him or you serve no purpose at all.

The tent was no more than 90 feet from the ballpark, which means Ramirez could have been there in 5.7 seconds, even going his usual half-speed.

But he declined this year, just as he has declined for the last six. And, as always, no one was surprised. Why should he care about a bunch of sick teenagers when he doesn’t care about his teammates or his manager or the fans who enabled him and apologized for him for 7 1/2 years?

Well, you can say goodbye to the bad guy now. Good riddance to bad rubbish. Maybe Jason Bay will not be quite the cleanup hitter that Ramirez was (then again, maybe he will be), but we know this much before he even takes the field for the Red Sox: He is a better fielder, a better baserunner, a better teammate, a better person.

He probably won’t fake a knee injury, or slap a teammate, or throw a 64-year-old man to the ground because he couldn’t make tickets magically appear. He won’t give the manager ulcers or spit in the owners’ eye or treat the paying customers like suckers.

Just a guess here, but the kids from the Jimmy Fund Clinic are making the trip to Chicago next week. Bay will probably say hello.

There was always something uneasy about the love and adoration that Red Sox fans showered on Ramirez. The hard-hitting half-wit was born with the ability to put a bat on ball better than most mortals, but that’s where his virtues end. He doesn’t play the game right. Too often he doesn’t play the game hard. He cares about his contract and his hair and not much else.

He didn’t care about the wounded troops at Walter Reed Army Medical Center this past February. When most of his teammates, including all of the big stars, made the trip to Washington, he stayed behind. Probably no one on the team had the ability to make a down-on-his-luck Sox fan smile like Manny Ramirez did, but as usual, Ramirez couldn’t be bothered. As usual, teammates, fans and media made excuses for him. Again, the great hitter was allowed to be a rotten human being.

In a way, Ramirez represents the worst of professional sports - a man who is idolized because he has one, God-given physical skill. Some fans who would boo a player for popping up with the bases loaded had no problem cheering Ramirez days after he assaulted Red Sox traveling secretary Jack McCormick, a terrific gentleman who is almost 30 years older than the slugger.

According to his old high school coach, Ramirez promised to buy bats and balls and uniforms - things he could have gotten for free - for his needy alma mater. Last we checked, 17 years after he left school for the pros, the kids were still waiting. Their idol, their hero, the man who has made almost $200 million since he left George Washington High School in the Bronx, just couldn’t be bothered.

Red Sox owners treated Manny the Mutt like Leona Helmsley treated her Maltese. This season, reigning National League MVP Jimmy Rollins has been benched twice by the Phillies for violating team rules. As far as we know, Manny has never been benched or suspended by the Sox. The owners literally knocked down walls for him, making the Sox clubhouse more comfortable for this spoiled child.

And how does he repay them for their love and loyalty? By calling them liars and backstabbers. By saying they don’t deserve a player like him.
And in the end, he was right about that. The Red Sox [team stats] deserve better, and yesterday they got that in Bay. Maybe not a better hitter, but a better all-around player and a much better teammate.

In a way, Jason Bay has it easy. He is replacing a Hall of Famer, but when he walks into the clubhouse today, 24 players and one very relieved manager will welcome him like schoolgirls greeting Zac Efron. They’ll be happy to see him and even happier to see the bad guy gone.

Everyone can just relax and play baseball now. Manny is where he belongs. He’s a Dodger. The team formerly known as “Dem Bums” just got the biggest bum of them all.

Ther is no (I) in team but there is one smack dab in the middle
of...........



















RAMIREZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[savage1]

When would it ever make sense to have a guy with a .925 OPS bunt? C'mon now.

I am sure there are some skilled right handed hitters out there who if they didn't bunt in that situation in the ninth last night would have had the odds in their favor and DESIRE to at least hit the ball to the right side in that situation to advance the runner to second.

[tash]

I am sure there are some skilled right handed hitters out there who if they didn't bunt in that situation in the ninth last night would have had the odds in their favor and DESIRE to at least hit the ball to the right side in that situation to advance the runner to second.

yes- they are all on Minnesota Twins......LIRIANO will start on monday.......look out !

[wayne1218]

......LIRIANO will start on monday.......look out !

Finally!

[tash]

Finally!

yes sir...we'll see how he does against a weak Seattle line -up ...his numbers in triple aaa are of the charts....

[savage1]

yes sir...we'll see how he does against a weak Seattle line -up ...his numbers in triple aaa are of the charts....

It says on the Twins website he is starting tomorrow against Cleveland.

[wayne1218]

2 Run HR in Manny's 1st at bat!!!

[wayne1218]

It says on the Twins website he is starting tomorrow against Cleveland.

I have him listed as the starter against the Indians tomorrow too!