OK, perhaps that’s not exactly what ESPN’s Buster Olney had to say about the White Sox’s newly acquired DH (seen above, moments before hitting a single in his 3rd AB against Cleveland earlier today). But certainly the WWL’s most prominent Vanderbilt booster has jumped aboard Ken Rosenthal’s bandwagon, ie. performing Gerry Callahan impersonations for a national audience. “Any general manager who offers Ramirez a big-money deal should have his sanity questioned, given the amount of money squandered over the past three years because Ramirez decided he didn’t want to play anymore,” argues Olney, though even in the event Manny has a monster September, it’s hard to imagine there’s anyone in baseball that doesn’t already agree with the columnist’s lowball advice.
Let’s just say, for argument’s sake, that the White Sox wanted to bring Manny back for 2011, and they gave him a $5 million deal. Well, history tells us there’s a good chance he’ll just decide he doesn’t feel like playing, in spite of the money he is being paid. He apparently lacks a basic level of professional integrity that hundreds of millions of people have in their jobs. Buyer beware.
The most interesting moments of Ramirez’s time with the White Sox will only happen if Chicago drifts out of contention over the next two weeks. If that happens, and Ramirez quits on the White Sox as he did the Red Sox and the Dodgers, then Ozzie Guillen — who has never had a filter in the way that Terry Francona and Joe Torre do — will call him out publicly. Francona and Torre never did do that, either because they were trying to maintain his trade value or because they were concerned that Ramirez would go into a shell or because they’re just too polite. Ozzie will not care about any of that; he’ll say what he thinks.
As much as I have love for Chicago, I’d really like to see that Manny vs Ozzie scenario play itself out….