Celebrating Manny Being Manny

[Darnell's Son]

While it's unclear whether we should be excited about Sam Travis launching moonshots, one thing we can always be excited about is Manny being Manny. Our favorite right-handed slugger is going to be launching home runs in Japan this year and in honor of the two-time World Series champ, Dave McCullough wrote an article about what made Manny Manny.

 

[luckiestman]

Manny's great. That piece reminds me of one GQ ran a while back (I've posted some excerpts but there is a lot more, so check it out)

http://www.gq.com/story/manny-ramirez-boston-red-sox-cleveland-indians

Dave Chisum (Manny's teammate, Appalachian League Burlington Indians, 1991): He was a first-round draft pick, and I think he got a quarter of a million dollars. He bought a white Nissan 300 ZX, and he didn't even know how to drive stick. I said, "Take me for a ride." He says, "I don't know how to drive it." I said, "Manny, why the hell did you buy it?" He goes, "'Cause I like it." I said, "Manny, you know they make these in automatic, right?" He goes, "Yeah, but I've heard they go faster in stick."

Manto: Every day was something on the base paths. He would just stop in the middle of a rundown. The coaches would say, "Manny, you want to try to get safe." He goes, "No, I'm out. I'm out." "What do you mean?" "No, I'm not gonna do it." And he'd just stop. That's it. He's out! He's played that game of pickle before. He knows he's gonna be out eventually, so he figures, "I wanna be out now."

Manto: One game he hit a ball to right center field, and he went in standing up when he should have slid. He was tagged out. Well, Mike Hargrove lost his mind. But the one thing you don't do is confront Manny. Because he's real sensitive when it comes to that. So Hargrove's yelling—not at him, but at the dugout. Manny gets the message. So his next at bat, he hits a double down the left-field line, and the infielders line up for the cutoff. Nobody's covering second base. Well, Manny slides. Pops up. Claps his hands. Looks at Hargrove. Gives him two fists. Everybody started laughing.

 

[mt8thsw9th]

Why no mention of him being a batterer?

 

[genivive]

Thank you for ruining the mood.

 

[Doooweeeey!]

Mmm. That opposite field swing...

 

[shepard50]

Why no mention of him being a batterer?

He had both fists in the air, as if to say to Hargrove: "See?! I Slid!"

 

[Tokyo Sox]

YakyuuDatabase has been tracking his activity since he arrived last week:

Ramirez practiced with the team on March 10.

• He arrived right on time (9:30am).
• About thirty members of the media and around 100 fans were in attendance.
• He took fifty-three swings during live batting practice and hit four to five over the fence.

A few other notes.

• He has been given use of a Mercedes Benz. Team staff will drive him around.
• He is staying in a suite at a hotel. Valued at about 80,000 yen a night.
• He has been promised all the sushi he wants to eat while he is with the team.
• Kochi is planning to open an English site offering Manny merchandise.
• Practices are apparently optional.

 

[m0ckduck]

The basket-catch / high-five-with-fan-in-stands / throw-to-infield-for-double-play is my single favorite baseball play ever. It captures simultaneously everything that's athletic and compelling and slovenly and half-assed about the sport of baseball in one glorious sequence.

 

[uncannymanny]

The basket-catch / high-five-with-fan-in-stands / throw-to-infield-for-double-play is my single favorite baseball play ever. It captures simultaneously everything that's athletic and compelling and slovenly and half-assed about the sport of baseball in one glorious sequence.

Same here. I've never enjoyed watching a player as much as I did Manny.

I've been looking for a nice, big print of the ALDS home run against the Angels for a long time. If anyone knows where to get one, google-fu has failed me.

 

[John Marzano Olympic Hero]

You forgot the best part, in his contract Manny has a provision where he gets "all the sushi he can eat" from now through the end of the season.

 

[shaggydog2000]

You forgot the best part, in his contract Manny has a provision where he gets "all the sushi he can eat" from now through the end of the season.

Someone drives him around, he stays in a hotel, gets all the Sushi he can eat, and practices are optional. This is like the most Manny thing ever. The only improvement would be his hotel room having a batting cage.

 

[sogasox]

Manny's great. That piece reminds me of one GQ ran a while back (I've posted some excerpts but there is a lot more, so check it out)

http://www.gq.com/story/manny-ramirez-boston-red-sox-cleveland-indians

I'm quite the lurker, but man this thread is already so enjoyable. I had never seen the GQ article, but this gem is my favorite:

"Ramirez: I like to read; I read on the plane all the time. Right now, I'm reading the book of the movie Troy."

 

[Preacher]

View attachment 14798

I like the jersey. But at ¥6,000 ($52), seems pricey.

 

[snowmanny]

The basket-catch / high-five-with-fan-in-stands / throw-to-infield-for-double-play is my single favorite baseball play ever. It captures simultaneously everything that's athletic and compelling and slovenly and half-assed about the sport of baseball in one glorious sequence.

The Miguel Cairo "home run" is a close second for all the same reasons.

 

[PayrodsFirstClutchHit]

The basket-catch / high-five-with-fan-in-stands / throw-to-infield-for-double-play is my single favorite baseball play ever. It captures simultaneously everything that's athletic and compelling and slovenly and half-assed about the sport of baseball in one glorious sequence.

 

[Strike4]

I was at a game at Fenway in 2006 or thereabouts, sitting in LF, and as the game went on Manny just sort of stopped doing the warm-up throws and was just hanging out waiting for the inning to start. People were yelling stuff and eventually Manny came over and took a ball from one person (not sure if it was a kid or adult). He put the ball in his back pocket and said something to the person. He played the whole half of the inning with a baseball protruding from his back pocket and then went to the dugout for the home half of the inning with the ball. When he came back out, he gave the ball back to the guy. He had autographed it in the dugout. Might have had other players do it, too.

 

[joyofsox]

The basket-catch / high-five-with-fan-in-stands / throw-to-infield-for-double-play is my single favorite baseball play ever. It captures simultaneously everything that's athletic and compelling and slovenly and half-assed about the sport of baseball in one glorious sequence.

I also like that the batter who hit the fly ball was Millar.

 

[InstaFace]

The Miguel Cairo "home run" is a close second for all the same reasons.

Yeah, how did that escape the (excellent) article's GIF highlight reel? I remember a GIF of that floating around that perfectly captured the moment of realization with Cairo yelling "WHAT? I'm OUT?!" and Manny double-pointing.

 

[shaggydog2000]

Yeah, how did that escape the (excellent) article's GIF highlight reel? I remember a GIF of that floating around that perfectly captured the moment of realization with Cairo yelling "WHAT? I'm OUT?!" and Manny double-pointing.

Manny was the master of the double guns.

 

[mulluysavage]

"Hi, I'm Manny Ramirez, I bought this AMAZING grill for about $4,000 and I used it once. ... But I never have the time to use it because I am always on the road. I would love to sell it and you will get an autographed ball signed by me.

Enjoy it, Manny Ramirez."

 

[chrisfont9]

The basket-catch / high-five-with-fan-in-stands / throw-to-infield-for-double-play is my single favorite baseball play ever. It captures simultaneously everything that's athletic and compelling and slovenly and half-assed about the sport of baseball in one glorious sequence.

I was watching that day. He played with joy, among other attributes. Who could be against that?

 

[ehaz]

My favorite:

Ocker: One time he asked one of the clubhouse guys to go get his car washed, and he said, "There's money in the glove compartment." So the clubhouse kid goes out and gets the car washed, and there's an envelope in the glove compartment, and the guy looks in there, and there's ten grand in hundreds. In his rookie year, the team was in Kansas City, and he was sitting with Julian Tavares. I walked past, and he said, "Sheldon, can I ask you something?" I say, "Yeah?" He says, "Can you loan me $60,000?" I don't even really know Manny. He hasn't been on the team more than about a month. I said, "Manny, what do you want $60,000 for?" He says, "Well, Julian and I want to buy motorcycles." I said, "Manny, I don't have that on me." And he said, "How about $30,000?"

 

[Savin Hillbilly]

Manto: One game he hit a ball to right center field, and he went in standing up when he should have slid. He was tagged out. Well, Mike Hargrove lost his mind. But the one thing you don't do is confront Manny. Because he's real sensitive when it comes to that. So Hargrove's yelling—not at him, but at the dugout. Manny gets the message. So his next at bat, he hits a double down the left-field line, and the infielders line up for the cutoff. Nobody's covering second base. Well, Manny slides. Pops up. Claps his hands. Looks at Hargrove. Gives him two fists. Everybody started laughing.

I can't read these stories without thinking of the famous description of Rube Waddell in Glory of Their Times:

"[Hughie Jennings] used to go to the dime store and buy little toys, like rubber snakes. ... He'd go to the first base coaches box and set them down on the grass and yell, 'Hey, Rube, look!'" [Christy] Mathewson told a story to Fred Clarke of Pittsburgh throwing Waddell completely off his game by inviting him out to his ranch in Kansas to do some hunting after the season. He had a bird dog that he offered to give Waddell if the dog took a liking to him, and Waddell got to thinking about the dog and forgot about the ball game. He didn't draw a regular salary because he didn't know what to do with it; he'd just go to the manager and get $5 or $10 as he needed it. One manager said if you gave him $25 you might not see him again for a week.

Obviously Waddell was a bit more of an outlier than Manny, but there's a family resemblance there.

 

[edoug]

Bill Lee had nothing on Ol' Rube.
http://phillysportshistory.com/2011/07/19/an-athletic-you-should-know-rube-waddell/

 

[InstaFace]

Manny used to wipe his butt with clubhouse towels. This often caused the fenway toilets to back up.

(edit: more detail, if for some reason you care for it)

 

[shaggydog2000]

How about one of the all time highlights, for both Manny and Don Orsillo? Manny rubbing Julian Tavarez on the head in the dugout:


I love the "Make him stop!" while a double play gets started.