The Fan’s Take On Manny
by AB on Saturday, August 2nd, 2008 at 08:07am
Manny’s played his first game as a Dodger, Jason Bay scored all the runs in a Sox victory, but there is still more to be said. The following is from The Swamp’s BoSoxFanatic, needless to say, an avid Red Sox fan.
For a Sox fan, it is the best of times and the worst of times.
Corny as it is, this particular fan is plain confused on how to feel about all the madness at the trade deadline this year. At work I stared at the TV in disbelief around 5PM EST as the story that every Sox fan had been expecting for 5 years:
Red Sox Get: OF Jason Bay
LA Dodgers Get: OF Manny Ramirez
Pirates Get: Andy Laroche, Bryan Morris, Craig Hansen, Brandon Moss
…It was almost like looking at a car accident. That something that big happened was tough for me to process; I was in shock. So what is a fan to do? Call the other biggest fan he knows to see how he feels, right? So my father got the call. We talked about it for 20 minutes or so, shrugging it off, throwing around exclamations of how big of a headache he was and how happy we both were to see him gone, especially to an NL team. We say our goodbyes, I tell him I’ll be home again soon to visit, and that was that.
But the hours continued to pass last night (a dead slow night at work to put it lightly), and I found myself perusing the Swamp as I generally do, reading the comments people were leaving, leaving some of my own, and coming to the realization that the trade left more people shell shocked than just me. I just couldn’t decide how I felt about things. So I started splitting hairs.
Logical side says:
- Manny distractions are gone
- Jason Bay = good defense, hard player, comparable numbers to Manny this season
- Offload the load of crap that Craig Hansen has been for this club
- Ship Manny to the NL, at the deadline, with little chance of him flipping around on us and landing somewhere in this league
So that settles it, right?
Manny is gone, and it looks like an OK deal for the Sox. It’s certainly not Pudge for Farnsworth, but it’s a serviceable trade that leaves all parties in an OK position. But what happens when the fan’s heart settles outside of his logic?
Well in your case, as a lucky reader of the finest front page in sports blogs, you get a small sentimental story from an infrequent poster…
The logical side of me hates the hell out of Manny Ramirez. I personally loathe people who are attention whores, which is what Manny has been in Boston since 2001. I hate him for the same reason I hate the Terrell Owenses and the Pacman Joneses and everyone else who falls into the “look at me” category in athletics. Perhaps it’s shallow or judgmental of me, but it’s not the way I was taught that you play the game. Since my little league days the name of the game has been “act like you’ve been here before”. It sucks for me as a fan to watch him succeed over and over again, wanting so bad to like him and be able to put the personal stuff aside and just admire the hell out of his pure athletic talent. But I couldn’t do it. For 7 and a half long seasons, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t do it as a boy of 13, I couldn’t do it as a man of 21.
But the fan’s heart in me is having problems letting go of a guy I have loved to hate since the turn of the century.
And I know why.
To those of you that have read this far, you remember the person I called the second I figured out this trade was done. If you don’t, scroll back up and pay more attention! The simple fact is, Manny Ramirez kept a fragile relationship between my father and I alive over 8 years. He played when I got my first car. He hit bombs when I jumped up and down on the couch in near tears while my father and I watched our dreams come true in 2004. He was inside the green monster making a phone call when I went off to college. He was a crux of conversation, a marvel to watch, and a big part of my sports fandom for almost half of my life. And every time something with the Red Sox, and Manny, went down, it gave me an in to call up my old man and shoot the breeze.
So 24 hours afterwards, this Sox fan is still in a Catch-22 with himself over all this jazz.
Good Trade or Bad Trade?
Good Guy or Bad Guy?
Ready to move on or Not so much?
I wish Manny the best. I hope he cleans up his act and just plays ball in LA. I hope Jason Bay just knocks the lights out with his play in Boston. But this fan is still a little bummed. Because its just not as fun to call your pops when Dustin Pedroia hits a double.