Manny Ramirez

I'm a big supporter of Manny but this latest stuff has even got me scratching my head. However, let me point out a couple of things.

- the Red Sox won the World Series last year. This was something many residents of Red Sox Nation were afraid they would never see. Shouldn't people be a little more tolerant of Manny's peculiarities in view of the fact that he was the MVP in the World series people have been waiting their whole lives for? I thought the MVP of the Red Sox first World Series win since 1918 would have to be found in bed with the proverbial dead girl or live boy to be getting the treatment Manny has gotten from the media this year.

- I have no doubt in my mind that if Ted Williams played in this day of free agency - the Boston "knights of the keyboard" would have long ago driven him from town. Has Manny spent time in left field pretending to swing a bat while a ball is being hit at him? Given the home crowd the finger? Yup - no doubt in my mind that Williams would have long bailed out of Boston because of the negative press.

- This month Trot Nixon got picked off second base to kill a rally, had a ball go over his head and bounce off the wall and get past him allowing the "walk off" run to score from first and finally he just got put on the DL after hurting his back swinging a bat. If that was Manny then can you imaging the outrage or ridicule that the KOTK would have heaped on Manny? Trot? He gets a pass. Don't get me wrong, I really like Trot but the double standard here really gets to me. In the past two years Nixon has only played 137 games and hit just 17 HR with 73 RBI. Manny has 28 HR and 92 RBI this year alone. Yes Manny makes three times what Trot makes but he's also producing at three times the rate but taking 10-times the crap from the media.

- Manny's career OPS+ (a useful stat to compare players of different eras) has him slightly behind Stan Musial and just in front of players like Joe DiMaggio and Hank Aaron. Just wanted to give some context to the historical talent we are seeing in Manny and the historical level of play we are trying to give the bums rush out of town to.