Manny being...a disgrace

Thanks for visiting and taking the time to read my new blog, For the Love of the Game, which I will try to update daily with my current thoughts on something I have noticed while watching way too many hours of sports on a daily basis, as my future wife will attest. What better way to start things off than with the Boston Red Sox in real trouble. Here goes:

As the trade deadline came down to it's final moments it appears the Red Sox are are no longer stuck with their troubled rightfielder, as he has been rented by the Dodgers for the remainder of the season. As a Yankee fan, I have no sympathy for Red Sox, but I do have sympathy for the great game of baseball. For years, although I despised his team, I always felt Manny Ramirez was a great ballplayer. At times he has appeared aloof in the field or a bit distracted on the bases. I can even forgive his high-five of a fan after making a catch in Baltimore a few weeks back. My opinion has completely changed in the past few weeks as I watched him walk up the first baseline on what should have been an easy single (while his team was being no-hit by the Angels ace John Lackey), only to be thrown out (on a bad throw no less) by a good 5 feet. This after he didn’t even leave the batter’s box against the Yankees BEFORE it became apparent his hard hit line drive was hard hit right at new Yankee leftfielder Xavier Nady.

For years I remarked how Manny being Manny was not a problem because I felt he simply was having fun while getting paid $20 million dollars a year to play a game, much like I simply had fun playing the game my entire life (for free I may add). If he performed to his all-star capabilities while having a great time doing it, fine by me. What has happened over the past few weeks is disrespectful to his team, Boston fans, fans of the game in general, and worst of all, to the game itself.

It makes me sick to see a player try to re-negotiate his enormous contract on the field instead of in the back offices of the organization. Manny wanted out of Boston, and he got his wish. Just like Barry Bonds disgraced the game with his drug induced shattering of the always honorable Henry Aaron’s home run record, Manny is disgracing the game with his obvious disregard for the simple rules of play hard, never take a play off (or entire games off against top pitchers, which the best baseball writer of the last 25 years, Peter Gammons, accurately pointed out on espn.com earlier in the week), and, most importantly, the game is about the team, not the individual, no matter what.

So please, Manny, FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME, play like you have some appreciation for the sport that made you who you are.