Manny Ramirez: 6 Reasons A's Fans Are Stoked for His Return from Suspension

It’s time A’s fans. Manny Ramirez’s long anticipated debut in Oakland is on its heels now as the world-renowned slugger's suspension is up on May 30. It’s time to see if GM Billy Beane made the right decision in signing the disgraced Ramirez after his second suspension for involvement with performance-enhancing drugs.

Regardless, it certainly has A’s fans chomping at the bit. And while it might seem inherently obvious, Manny’s return is creating a buzz around the Bay Area that will certainly be reverberated throughout the nation as Ramirez takes his first hacks in over a year next week.

A’s fans have a lot to be excited about, but just what exactly? Let’s take a minute.

A Coliseum with Fans Inside

The Coliseum in Oakland feels like a bit of a ghost town these days, especially with rumors of the A’s potentially on the move, and Manny’s debut will certainly draw a curious crowd at the Coliseum.

It can be a bit painstaking for fans to see the majority of the seats folded upright, and the infamous “Let’s Go Oak-land!” chants are feeling like distant whispers at the yard, so it should be nice for East Bay diehards to be amongst peers at least for a few games.

Manny Being Manny

From the infamous “Manny Being Manny” segments on SportsCenter, Manny is a truly gregarious character who should draw a smile or two from fans. He might be the old man of the clubhouse as a 40-year-old (Manny ironically celebrates his 40th birthday the same day his suspension ends), but he has the character to fit right into the Athletics' organization, which has a reputation as one of the most affable in the majors.

Star Power to the Roster

Seldom can a podunk, broke small-market franchise like the Oakland Athletics afford a superstar of Manny Ramirez’s caliber, but after disgracing himself twice and burning bridges in just about every place he’s ever played, Manny’s contract was within the budget to one of the most cash-strapped teams in Major League Baseball.

On a roster where the biggest name is a Cuban defector on the DL, Manny is a household celebrity that gives fans a renewed sense of optimism and hope for the team’s immediate future.

The Soap Opera

The soap opera circus surrounding Manny reaches its next turning point as he starts his redemption campaign in Oakland. While Ramirez claims to have newly invested interests in Christianity and family focus, it remains to be seen if his new lifestyle epiphanies translate to performance on the field.

This is the story that will draw a national audience to see if the slugger can again perform at the Hall of Fame level that made him famous. A’s fans are in for a treat as Manny’s saga continues to unravel. 

He Can Hit

Heartfelt comeback stories aside, what A’s fans most want to see is Manny produce with his bat. It’s not often that a career .312 hitter with 547 career home runs finds himself in the heart of Oakland’s lineup, and A’s fan’s will certainly hold him to a high performance standard regardless of his character changes off the field.

While young studs like Yoenis Cespedes and Josh Reddick have demonstrated the ability to provide power in the lineup adding a bona fide slugger like Ramirez certainly calls for much fan excitement as the season wears on. It’s unlikely that he’ll hit like he did in his prime, but if Ramirez can be even remotely on par with his career numbers he’ll be a substantial upgrade to the A’s travesty of a lineup that has just a .213 team batting average and .626 team OPS.

Postseason Dreams

The A’s have far exceeded expectations in 2012, hovering around .500 for most of the season, but if the team truly wants to contend for the wild card, and perhaps the division, they’ll most certainly need to upgrade a lineup that ranks near the bottom of the league in runs scored (28^th) and dead last in batting average.

Manny could provide the punch that the A’s need to get over the .500 hump. A lineup featuring Reddick, a healthy Cespedes and productive Ramirez at the core could prove to be the three-headed monster that propels the Oakland to its first playoff berth since 2006.

It’s a long shot, but not a completely far-fetched idea that the A’s contend in a year where many analysts wrote them off from the start. If anything, Manny brings Oakland a ray of hope, and that’s exactly what a struggling franchise like the Athletics needs in a time like this.