Look at Manny Ramirez's Time In Boston, And Would You Give him a Long Contract?

The Manny Ramirez watch continues with no end in sight.  One will have figured that Manny would have been signed by some team by now and that would be the end of the story.  One would have thought, but the wait continues.

The Dodgers made him a two year 45 million dollar deal, but then took it back.  Manny's agent Scott Boras wants more years in the contract for Manny.  That won't happen because the Dodgers and other teams remain reluctant to give a long term contract, and why would that be?

Let us go back to Boston and the year 2000 when he signed an eight year deal worth about 160 million and topped off with 20 million dollar options for 2009 and 2010 making the total worth of the contract about 200 million dollars.

You would figure that this would satisfy Manny, and he would be the model player for the Red Sox. Yes, one would figure that except that on 2003 he got himself benched for one game.  He got caught in the bar of the hotel that he had been staying with Yankee, Enrique Wilson.  The Red Sox were playing the Yankees at the time of the incident, and oh yeah, Manny had been too sick to play.

In 2005, he expressed his desire to get traded, and after rumors of a trade to either the Batimore Orioles or the New York Mets, he withdrew his desire for a trade after talks to both teams failed.

In 2008, his final year in Boston, he started two fights. The first one with first basemen Kevin Youkilis because allegedly he became upset with Youkilis constant complaining during a Tampa Bay Rays game. Then he started a fight with travel secretary Jack McCormick because he wanted 16 tickets for a Houston game.  Manny threw McCormick on the ground.

What finally got Manny out of Boston was that he claimed he could not play because of a sore knee.  When he did play, he dogged it on the field.

If what you have read, gives you the impression that I am against the Dodgers signing Manny Ramirez, I am not.  On the field, he played and he did play a major part in the Dodgers advancing in the playoffs in 2007.  Yet, you have to look at Manny in terms of the old saying about guests being like fish after three days. They stink or to put it in polite terms they wear out their welcome.

Before I forget, in 2003, Boston put him on waivers in order to get rid of his high contract and then as the case today, nobody showed any interest.

The two year, 45 million dollar contact sounds very wise to me.