Baseball Archive

White Sox Acquire Manny Ramirez: A Roundup

by Ricky O'Donnell on August 31 at 12:53PM

White Sox grab Manny from Dodgers for cash: We've heard rumors for almost a week that LA was hesitant to ship Manny to the South Side without a mid-level prospect coming in return. But with the deadline to trade him closing in, the Dodgers decided that financial relief was enough to rid themselves of a player who turned into a major headache over the last 12 months. As such, the Sox only forked over money - $3.8 million - and nothing else to get Manny for the season's final month. And yes, he probably has to cut his hair.

Great moments: Since Major League Baseball's YouTube Nazis forbid fun in any form, video of Manny's diving cut-off of a Johnny Damon throw isn't available on the Internet. Surely you remember it though, correct?

Forever great.

To me, this is one of the aughts' defining baseball plays, and the exact moment Manny went from oddball slugger to legendary clown. Of course, The Cut-Off hardly exists by itself on Manny's resume of weird -- ManRam has plenty more where that came from. Who could ever forget Ramirez's over-the-shoulder-catch-to-high-five-to-double-play-starting-relay combo during his waning years in Boston?

He also sold a grill on eBay once.

Reminder: George W. Bush was funny. From Wikipedia:

Ramirez missed the White House reception for the Red Sox 2007 World Series championship. President George W. Bush quipped: "I'm sorry [Ortiz'] running mate, Manny Ramirez, isn't here. I guess his grandmother died again. Just kidding. Tell Manny I didn't mean it."[49]

Let me be the first to say: WHATTTTTTTHAHAHAHA.

My worst-person-ever roommate in college used this excuse countless times when he was late with a paper. Great guy.

Stats: In 232 at-bats with the Dodgers this season, Manny is hitting .311/.405/.510. In 2008, you may remember, he did this upon arriving in LA via Boston: 396/.489/.743 in 53 games. If he's 3 percent as good in Chicago, the White Sox got themselves a hell of a deal.

Haters: The old guard doesn't care for Manny one bit. Jayson Stark and Ken Rosenthal each wrote columns bashing Ramirez this week. Rosenthal said:

Manny's Hall of Fame chances took a dramatic hit when he received a 50-game suspension last season for using performance-enhancing drugs. But even if you remove PEDs from of the equation, he flunks the "character, integrity and sportsmanship" criteria -- badly.

He quit on the Red Sox. He quit on the Dodgers. The Hall includes its share of miscreants, but Manny has routinely engaged in conduct detrimental to his team.
True, these were relatively isolated incidents. Some statistical analysts might look at his career numbers and say, "What more can you want?" My answer: Basic professionalism.

Random: After Manny got busted for taking a women's fertility drug to allegedly cover up steroids use (funny), this was the cover of the New York Post:

Thanks for that, Sox Machine.

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