The View From Landsdowne Street: My Favorite Manny Moments
Manny is at it again! In recent photos during the game in which the Red Sox defeated the Twins 18-5, Manny was captured entering his second home, the Green Monster, and talking on his cell phone during a pitching change.
While the picture smacks of a poor attitude, everyone in Red Sox Nation has grown accustomed to this kind of behavior from the slugger, and for the most part, embrace it.
It helps that he hits .300 with 30 home runs and 100 RBI every year.
While the cell phone photos are certainly a fantastic Manny moment, Manny has made a career of doing extremely silly things, and this is certainly not the worst. Here are my five favorites.
5. July 18th, 2005:Manny has a small bladder
Manny had been going into the wall during breaks for sometime before this, so when pitching coach Dave Wallace went out to the mound to talk to struggling starter Wade Miller, no one was surprised when Manny ducked into the wall for a quick breather.
Everyone was surprised when Manny, who apparently needed to pee, was still in the wall as Miller was preparing to throw his next pitch. Right as Miller began to toe the rubber, the wall opened up and Manny "tried" to sneak back to his position in left field, but everyone in the stadium had spotted him and he was caught red-handed.
The guy just needed to pee, and Wade wasn't pitching very well anyway. who can blame him for maybe taking a little longer to shake out the pee than he needed to?
Knowing Manny, he would have come out of the wall just as the hitter hit a fly ball into left, and knowing Manny he would jog to the ball and make the catch with his glove outstretched, and all of Fenway would have given him a standing ovation.
Manny went 0-for-3 with a strikeout in the game.
4. September 7th, 2002: Manny "might" like illicit drugs-
In one of his first seasons in a Red Sox uniform Manny caused a stir, but it wasn't for his ridiculous antics on the field. Instead it was for his blatant inferrences off the field.
Every ballplayer gets to request his own song for their walk-up music before they hit. Manny of course chose "Good Times (I Get High)" by Styles P. For all of those incredibly naive people out there, the song is a glorification of marijuana use.
Well, the people who run the PA system at Fenway Park apparently are part of that incredibly naive group, as they allowed the song to play without so much as a single edit.
Not only is it hilarious because Manny knew what the song meant undoubtedly, and also knew if it was his entrance song, it would blare over the loudspeaker to almost 40,000 people including plenty of children...yet he still went through with it.
I guess this is supposed to mean that Manny likes to habitually smoke marijuana, and actually enjoys smoking it as well. While it doesn't put out a good perception of himself as a role model, I wouldn't be surprised to hear that fifty percent of baseball players smoke, and it is better than any other drugs, including steroids.
Manny went 2-for-3 in the game with a home run, three RBI, and two runs scored...all was obviously forgiven.
May 18th, 2002: Manny likes to look good even during rehab stints
Everyone who follows the Red Sox has most likely seen a press conference featuring Manny Ramirez. There is a good chance that they were also during that press conference, temporarily blinded from the amount of shiny jewelry he rocks while at the podium.
Well, it turns out the press conferences aren't the only place he likes to do that.
In 2002, Manny was sent down to the minor leagues to Pawtucket, the Sox triple A affiliate for a series of rehab starts.
During one game, the PawSox traveled to Syracuse for a game. Manny, his infamous for his headfirst slides, slid extra hard into third base trying to go from first to third on a single. The hard slide apparently dislodged an earring from Manny's ear.
After the game some of his Pawtucket teammates and the grounds crew in Syracuse searched around the bag and found the stud, but weren't able to find the earring.
Oh well, no big deal, it's just an earring....What? The earring was worth $15,000? I don't believe you...Oh? Manny confirmed it?
Aside from the obvious question of what the heck was he thinking wearing 15,000 dollars in his ear? The other question is why would you even need to wear an earring in any baseball game, let alone a meaningless rehab start.
The best part? Manny couldn't have cared less. He could have bought a really classy mid-sized sedan with just ONE of his earrings, and yet he just shook it off like he had lost his hat or his glove.
Attempts to find out how Manny played in the game were fruitless...I apologize.
2. May 14th, 2008: Manny takes fan participation to a whole new level
For literally any other big leaguer in the entire league, this incident would have been the quirkiest, and most ridiculous moment of their career. But for Manny? It doesn't even rank as number one.
I mean seriously, how ridiculous is it that Manny would chase down a fly ball, make the catch, jump off the wall, reach out and give a fan a high-five, and then turn around and throw the ball in to double off the runner.
This ridiculous occasion happened in a game against the Orioles. Former teammate Kevin Millar hit a blast to deep leftfield. For most capable leftfielders, the play would have been a tough play, but for Manny and his jog, it looked spectacular.
With a runner on first base, the heads up play would have been to immediately turn around and whip it in to make sure the runner didn't tag and head to second. But, as it always happens with Manny, Aubrey Huff was on first base, and when he saw Manny loping after the ball, he was sure it would drop and took off.
Well of course Manny made the catch by the hair on his chinny-chin-chin. But instead of rifling the ball in immediately, his momentum "carried" him all the way to the wall where he used it to make a U-Turn, but not before high-fiving a flabbergasted Red Sox fan.
The ball was well thrown, and Huff was caught way off the bag, so the Red Sox ended up getting a double play out of the catch.
I don't really have a lot to add because the incident is just too humorous. I am truly surprised none of the Orioles ran out to left-field and drop-kicked him after he was shown laughing about it with his tongue out. But beyond that, it was just another addition to the legacy Manny will leave behind.
He is approaching "Spaceman" Bill Lee status.
The Red Sox lost the game, and Manny went 1-for-4, with an outfield assist of course.
1. October 17th, 2007:ALCS? Manny doesn't care
After a three game sweep of the Los Angels of Anaheim in the first round, the Red Sox found themselves down 3-1 in the series against the upstart Cleveland Indians. The next game presented a dire situation for Boston, so you might expect their players to be nervous considering the implications....not Manny.
The day before Game 5, Manny was quoted;
"Why should we panic? We have a great team.If it doesn't happen, who cares? There's always next year. It's not like it's the end of the world."
While that may be true to Manny Ramirez, who gets to play baseball for a living, make millions of dollars, and already won a World Series with Boston.
But I guarantee that it didn't feel like that for Johnathan Papelbon, or Jacoby Ellsbury, or Dustin Pedroia, or any self-respecting Red Sox fans.
While most fans are normally immune to what Manny has to say, this happened to be a incredibly polarizing comment. Many Sox fans were upset with his care-free attitude and didn't think that, in such a dire situation, he should be treating the game so lightly.
So what did Manny do to redeem himself? All he did was hit .409 with two home runs and 10 RBI. Then for an encore, he drove in two more runs in the sweep of the Rockies.
...Obviously all was forgiven
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