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And mad at Derek Jeter. And Manny Ramirez. Or something. From remarks Rice made to little leaguers, forced to listen to him at the Little League World Series:

Red Sox Hall of Famer Jim Rice today criticized the approach current major leaguers have to baseball, telling youngsters at the Little League World Series that players such as Manny Ramirez set a “bad example.” “You have these baggy uniforms, you have the dreadlocks, that’s not part of the game,” Rice said after mentioning Ramirez, who played for the Red Sox for nearly eight seasons.

In the same breath, Rice mentioned New York Yankees Alex Rodriquez and Derek Jeter as he described a baseball culture dominated by huge contracts and the accoutrements of wealth, with players more interested in Rolex watches than the game.

“What you see right now is more individuals, it’s not a team,” said Rice, a newly minted hall of famer who played for the Red Sox for 15 years. “Now you have guys coming in, they pick the days they want to play, they make big money. The first thing they see are dollar bills.”

Take THAT Derek Jeter! And you, take THAT Manny Ramirez, with your dreadlocks, and your baggy pants. Ruining baseball with your distracting hair. And you, Jeter, with your wanting to get paid. Asshole. Get off Jim Rice’s lawn, the both of you.

Wait, what?

Apparently Jim Rice didn’t bring his lithium on the trip to Williamsport…

The reaction is over-the-top.

Here’s the thing, what baseball did in sticking its head in the sand with respect to PEDs and related issues for almost two decades was the problem. It created the climate that has made witch hunts for Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, etc. etc. etc. possible. If baseball had tested for these substances as proactively as the NFL did, I continue to maintain that all of this would have been headed off.

It didn’t. So the whirlwind is reaped, I guess.

But, man, baseball is being as proactive now as the NFL is. Ramirez, perhaps the biggest star this side of Albert Pujols in the sport, at the least co-equal with Pujols and Alex Rodriguez, is getting a 50-game vacation for his first positive test. 1/3 of the baseball season. THAT is a policy that has teeth. THAT is a policy that, seeing it applied to a star like Manny Ramirez, will end up changing behavior. And THAT is a policy that is even a tad stronger than the NFL’s policy, where your first PED positive test gets you a vacation of 1/4 of your season.

So, yeah, Shawn Merriman. He was the last really big NFL star to get popped for PED cheating. And, remind me, was there this kind of outrage when he was found to be a cheater? Anyone? No? Then everyone needs to back the fuck off the over-the-top stuff now with Ramirez. Ramirez cheated. He got caught. He is getting punished. MLB has finally done the right thing and, in time, will restore credibility on the PED issue. And all of this will seem to be what it is, much gnashing of teeth over nothing.

And someone needs to get Bill Plaschke a strait-jacket.

And goes nuts on war metaphors when standing by his Manny Ramirez criticism:

“It takes 25 guys on a team to win, not 24, and that was blatantly obvious,” Papelbon said after the Red Sox’ workout at City of Palms Park. “It doesn’t matter who you are – you could be Babe Ruth – if you’re not in that same cubbyhole with the rest of the guys going to war with you, you’re all going to die. That almost happened.“

Thankfully, Papelbon was never a soldier. I doubt he would have found cubbyholes much protection. Or perhaps he is being literal, and there at the end of his Boston stay, Ramirez was stalking the clubhouse with hunting knives, and the other 24 players were hiding in cubbys. And he almost found them. And they almost died. But then, thankfully, Ramirez was traded. And they lived.

Ramirez must have been a colossal dick on his way out of Boston, to a degree that it is hard to fully appreciate from the outside looking in. Jonathan Papelbon had some things to get off his chest, as quoted in upcoming edition of Esquire and previewed in the Boston Herald:

“It just takes one guy to bring an entire team down, and that’s exactly what was happening. Once we saw that, we weren’t afraid to get rid of him. It’s like cancer. That’s what he was. Cancer. He had to go. It (stunk), but that was the only scenario that was going to work. That was it for us.”

…

“So Manny was tough for us. You have somebody like him, you know at any point in the ball game, he can dictate the outcome of the game. And for him not to be on the same page as the rest of the team was a killer, man!”

That was among other quotes, man!

I wonder if Papelbon talks that way all the time?

Well, I’m off to pitch the ninth, man! Need three outs, man! I’m hungry, man! I guess the code of what goes on in the clubhouse stays in the clubhouse doesn’t apply to Manny, man! Which leads me to ask, just what exactly was it that he did, man? A thousand little things, man?

Full of quotes at his presser yesterday, including a line that can only be about his ability to cope with just $45 million dollars:

“I don’t think so,” Manny replied. “I’m 37 years old. I got two more years. What happened in Boston, that’s in the past. I think it didn’t hurt me. It was a bad economy. I got a great contract. And, hey, I made my money already. I’m in a happy place, where I wanted to be, so . . . I don’t think . . . actually, I won. I won getting out of there [Boston] because I’m in a great place. I’m in a place that I want to play. I’m in a place that I’m gonna be happy.

“My teammates, they love me. The fans love me, the way I play. Hey, sometimes it’s better off to have a two-year deal in a place that you’re gonna be happy, than have an eight-year deal in a place that you’re gonna, you know, suffer.“

Well thank f*ck he had already in his career made his money, enough to allow him to survive in these tougher economic times on a contract worth near $45 million guaranteed. Every time I encounter one of these kinds of quotes (think Spree’s just trying to feed my family) I marvel at how skewed a world view the ultra wealthy must have. I don’t think I can properly comprehend how different it is from the one the rest of us tend to share.

Roughly. Manny Ramirez can apparently opt out after this season and try free agency again next off-season if he so chooses. Or he can stick around next year and collect the next $20 million of the $45 million.

The rumored deal last night is now official. Ramirez and Dogers owner Frank McCourt had their face to face this morning and it went well.

Go ahead and make the Dodgers the heavy favorite in the NL West as soon as Ramirez puts his uniform on.

Two years, $45 million, according to a source at an espn.com piece.

I am guessing it looks a lot like LA’s last offer.

Good for LA. Good for Manny. Slightly disappointing for those hoping for a spectacle.

ETA: Or, not. Thanks to new swamper weatherman for the linky to updates at the LA Times saying nothing is final yet, but the sides are working on it.

The Dodgers are going to start rolling back their subsequent offers to Manny Ramirez to better reflect the realities in the free agent marketplace per Buster Olney (as announced by Mike Greenberg at the top of Mike & Mike this morning).

Let the games begin. I’ll make some popcorn.

…to turn the screws on Beelzebub. And it appears the Dodgers owner is doing just that. After Beelzebub appeared to accept LA’s concept of deferred payments as part of a $45 million dollar two-year deal for Manny Ramirez the Dodgers owner responded thus:

McCourt on Sunday called that counteroffer “too little too late” and said negotiations would resume with “a fresh start.” He said he stressed to the agent that he had wanted a resolution by Friday because he didn’t want the negotiations to dominate conversation Sunday, the day the Dodgers opened the gates of their new spring training ballpark. But why not consider the offer when the two sides appear to be so close? “Because we’re going to start from scratch,” McCourt said.

In case you were wondering if LA was really the only place left for Manny at roughly the money he thinks he is worth, wonder no more. Because if there was remotely another team involved at this point, surely Beezlebub would be steering Manny there with all due speed. Beelzebub ain’t used to getting played. Although in the last few years, it has been a more frequent occurrence than it used to be.

At least, the LA view filtered through Bill Plaschke in the Times. Zip noted it overnite that Ramirez and Beelzebub have again turned down LA’s latest offer. Will Ned Colletti hold firm in refusing to bid against himself? I sure hope so. At any rate, curmudgeon Plaschke has grown weary of the Beelzebub-led madness:

This week, by every stretch of the wildest imagination, the Dodgers made Manny Ramirez a no-lose proposition. By rejecting it Thursday, Ramirez has officially lost it. He’s lost his dignity. He’s lost his perspective. He’s lost his marbles. He is quickly losing the patience of a Dodgers front office that is weary of negotiating against itself for a player that nobody values even remotely as much. He will surely be losing the admiration of a Dodgers team that is training while he is teasing. And, yes, here’s guessing he soon will be even losing the last line of his defense, the affection of Dodgers fans who surely are weary of cheering for greed in an era of need. This is not Manny being Manny. This is Manny being Stupid.

It sure feels that way. I don’t know what Beezlebub’s end game is here with Ramirez, but the Dodgers should have no reason to do anything other than stand firm.