Why couldn™t Manny just stay here and play here and be happy? Why was he so determined to flee our lyrical little baseball town and play somewhere else?
Well, if you really want to know why, I™ll tell you:
Because he hates you, that™s why.
Do you remember what Manny supposedly did inside The Wall during a game? Well, that™s what he™s doing on your head, and you act as if it™s a nice warm summer rain.– Gerry Callahan, Boston Herald, December 5, 2006
I’m not gonna give WEEI’s disgrace to the initials G.C. credit for much, but at least he’s consistent when it comes to the overwrought, irrational hatred of Manny Ramirez. From Friday’s Herald :
The idea that there could ever be a moral line that Ramirez would not cross is funnier than œThe Family Guy. Here is a man who each spring refused to walk 50 feet to say hello to the young patients from the Jimmy Fund Clinic, who declined to meet with the wounded troops at Walter Reed and who stiffed the kids at his old high school in New York City. He hit a young clubhouse attendant in Cleveland and a 64-year-old traveling secretary in Boston. He slapped one Red Sox teammate last season and quit on all the rest, and perhaps now we can better understand his belligerent behavior in his final days in Boston. I believe the technical term is ™roid rage.
It is tempting to call Ramirez the dumbest man in baseball, but that wouldn™t account for Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, the star-struck rube who fell off the turnip truck from Boston and under the spell of Ramirez and his unctuous agent, Scott Boras. Poor Frank. He wants to pal around with Hollywood stars so badly he gave Ramirez a $5 million raise even though no one else was interested.
McCourt learned the hard way what we all knew: that it was all an act, that Ramirez is nothing but a self-absorbed, two-faced Hollywood hustler. Bernie Madoff had his grieving Palm Bay widows, Manny had his sycophantic parking lot mogul. All it takes is one sucker, and Boras and Ramirez found theirs in Dodger Stadium.
The Red Sox, meanwhile, dodge another bullet. A team that supposedly suffered under the curse of Babe Ruth for 86 years now seems to be enjoying the blessing of George Mitchell. They almost brought Alex Rodriguez and all his baggage to Boston a few years ago, but the players union said no. Now Ramirez gets busted a few months after shooting his way out of Boston, and the Sox just sit back and smile, thrilled to have Everyday Jason Bay in left field.
Ahem. Does Callahan have an editor or what? HE FORGOT ALL ABOUT MANNY FLUSHING TOWELS DOWN THE TOILET. Way to let the most evil man to ever help the Red Sox win two World Series off the hook, Gerry!