Buell's Eye: Manny Ramirez, A True American Hero

Have we now seen our worst economic time in American history?

If the days during the Great Depression were given a name, what will they call the moment we’re currently living in?

Companies are merging like two out of control vehicles on the highway, the federal government is bailing out select doomed businesses, the Dow Jones is dropping like a Terrell Owens reception, and major players in the automobile industry could soon be joining the unfortunate billion-dollar companies that have already gone belly-up.

The "Regular Joes"—including Joe the Plumber—are selling their gas-guzzling SUVs, foreclosing on their homes, and finding a price, any price, to remove the shirt off their back.

Our proud, world-dominating country is in peril.

Meanwhile, Manny Ramirez and Scott Boras are finally about ready to clear their own personal agendas to listen to “serious financial offers” for the 36-year-old slugger, comparable to what he might actually be “worth.”

Reportedly, The Wall Street Journal estimated that number would be in the ballpark of $27 million, based on a formula that calculates how many wins a free-agent player is worth.

Compare that number to how many accounts and client relationships the employees at Lehman Brothers would have been responsible for. I’m certain it’s probably pretty accurate and justifiable to the amount written on their unemployment checks.

But, wait, this is just another example of "Manny being Manny," right?

This coming from the man who is the epitome of textbook fielding out in left field, wouldn’t hustle to first base for the esteemed Boston Red Sox and their adoring fans, and who shoved Red Sox traveling secretary, Jack McCormick, to the ground over an argument about possibly not being able to allot enough game-day tickets to the adverse and invaluable Mr. Ramirez.

Apparently, shoving an innocent employee wasn’t enough.

Now entering the ring, the current state of the economy!

Okay. Okay. Let’s be fair. Manny did later apologize. Therefore, if a picture is worth a thousand words, saying I’m sorry is apparently worth $27 million. Eventually, Ramirez will be worth so much that he’ll claim the baseball diamond is too small for him.

Granted, he is a future Hall-of-Famer, one of the greatest hitters ever to step into the batters’ box, and is absolutely impressive and entertaining to watch. They created SportsCenter in Bristol, CT and distributed water coolers in offices all over the United States for athletes just like him.

Of course, the same could be said for Barry Bonds. He certainly has showed his genuine concern for the game of baseball in recent years.

Now, Ramirez and Boras are showing their concern for the current economy—a ballplayer paid to hit a ball and wear a jock strap, and a pencil pusher paid to represent him so he can collect his percentage.

Never mind the workers on the oil rigs, in the assembly lines, the steel mills, the classrooms, the real-estate offices, or the patient humble and forgotten peasants in the welfare line. Even if their voices could be heard, they would probably interfere with the contract negotiations.

The average American citizen can’t afford to keep his home full of memories, put gasoline in his car to get to the job he isn’t sure he’ll still have tomorrow, or get a loan to dig themselves out of the enormous hole that the stack of bills they can’t pay and the debt they can’t fathom have them buried in.

Yet, on the other hand, Manny Ramirez will keep his mansion, have his driver pay for the gasoline in his limousine, and will inevitably be handed a worthy $18,500 an inning to drop a routine flyball and saunter to first base after grounding into a double play.

Please, don’t fret though, fans. He’ll be up again soon to redeem his mistake with a three-run blast to deep center, as the remaining capable fans cheer and applaud their hero, the same way they did in San Francisco as, arguably, the greatest record in sports was reduced to nothing more than an asterisk.

In the meantime, the rest of us can be found at home, finding other ways to survive till tomorrow, searching for reasons to give thanks around the table on Thanksgiving, and discussing the easiest way to explain to our children why the Christmas tree and stockings are so bare and empty this year.