It’s clear now – obviously the Boston Red Sox front office voraciously reads Mister Faded Glory, and dealt longtime slugger Manny Ramirez out of spite, to teach me a lesson. The Sox shipped the star nearly as far away as possible – to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
In fact, after the close of the deadline, bored with the tiresome antics of Ned Yost, Prince Fielder, and our favorite bedraggled rivals to the north, I cruised over to ESPN, simply to affirm my initial reaction to another tired week of Manny-mania.
I learned, yup, Ramirez stays, yet again. Finally, I could cease clicking on ESPN’s ridiculously cumbersome “Trade deadline blog” (don’t click – it will cripple your browser and perhaps implode your laptop). The Leader was certain Ramirez stayed, and Ken Griffey Junior – the day’s big get – led their site.
So I yawned, entirely confident I’d been right about the Sox, standing pat after their annual dalliance with the idea of trading their best player. They may have had their PR machine out in full force this week – including diatribes from the vicious Peter Gammons and the whiny Jeff Passan, both so catty they may well have been penned by Red Sox interns.
As a final parting shot, phony nutjob Curt Schilling appeared out of nowhere to toss dirt on Manny’s future grave. By the way, I’d consider a pompous douchebag who spouts off specifically to further his own cause-of-the-day anytime a microphone is thrust in front of his face much more cancerous to his team than a Joe DiMaggio-like slugger who occasionally loafs to first during a blowout. Call me insane, I know.
But then, however, I double-checked SI – after all, Heyman (and FoxSports’ Rosenthal) have stomped ESPN’s scoops all week. And saw:
Yep, Manny was gone. SI’s Jon Heyman broke the story, even as Deadspin caught ESPN promulgating Amy Nelson (who?) as the scoop. These screengrabs were taken within seconds of each other, just after 4 p.m. Buster‘s tantrum yesterday looks silly now, yeah?
I’m still extremely dubious about the Sox’s decision to trade away such a frontline player, particularly one still as productive as Ramirez. Like I said yesterday, chemistry’s only as good as wins and playoffs and titles prove, and Boston counts plenty of those. Seemed like an emotional, rash decision for a team which prides itself on the opposite.
To the Red Sox’ credit, however, at least they pried Jason Bay from the eternally-rebuilding Pittsburgh Pirates, mitigating the utter disaster this could have been. Bay‘s a fine player, his right-handed bat may shine with the Green Monster – but the Sox lineup looks much less fearsome without Ramirez. Speculation always runs rampant that Ramirez causes David Ortiz, JD Drew, Mike Lowell, et. al. to see much better pitches. Now we’ll see. Perhaps the Sox will squeak into the playoffs – but, like I said, I’m dubious.
And ohbytheway - in relevant baseball news, it was quite the week for the Cubs to bounce back – not only prescient or pressing, but somehow poetic. What else, uh, can I say?
