Even in the world of play, there are happenings that defy explanation
Published Wednesday August 6th, 2008
Even within the nebulous boundaries of the "toy" department, the scenario that played out on two fronts in the sports world over the last week or so left even the most seasoned observers wondering if indeed the apocalypse was upon us.
Circumstances dictated to a degree the bizarre series of events involving two surefire hall of famers in their respective sports who decided to blend fantasy with reality last week.
Only time will tell to what extent their legacies, seemingly so secure among the legends of sport as we know it, will be tarnished because their worlds have taken such wayward spins over the last little while.
The fact so many people made such a fuss of Manny being Manny in Boston and Brett Favre being such a cheesehead in Green Bay makes it noteworthy.
But lest we forget, we're talking about two athletes here whose skills, while to be admired among us wannabes, won't make our lives appreciably different whether they're strutting their stuff in La La Land or Beantown if you're Manny Ramirez. Or in the case of the enigmatic Favre, the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field or whereever the Packer marketing types hang out.
Bottom line, it doesn't mean squat to what really matters. For the sports junkie, though, it does make for interesting fodder.
Who would have thunk that in the space of a week, Manny being Manny would cease to be the harmless joke within Red Sox Nation and degenerate into the nasty war of words that evolved to the point of no return leading up to baseball's trade deadline last Thursday?
It's not like Ramirez hasn't acted up before. He's a man-child who happens to be 36 years of age with a baseball swing - the Boston papers call him a hitting savant - that will have earned him $160 million by the time this season plays out.
Two years ago, he quit on the Red Sox in September, claiming he had an injury that forced him to miss the final six weeks. And yet, he returned as if nothing had changed in 2007.
If that's not crazy enough, the fact he turns routine outs into adventures in the outfield, rarely runs out ground balls (hustling is one of the basic rudiments of the sport), takes cell-phone breaks in the Green Monster and isn't sure which knee is bothering him before a big game against the team's biggest rival, well, that's Manny being Manny.
As long as he hit .300 with 45 homers and 100 ribbies a year, it was an act tolerated if not exactly appreciated by management and peers alike. At last look, he was hitting .300 with 20 plus homers.
So why is he now, after all this time, in La La Land bleeding Dodger Blue and being asked to cut his dreadlocks by the former manager of the Evil Empire (Joe Torre) of all people?
In the space of a crazy week, Ramirez went from Manny being Manny to this dreadful character who simply had to go even if it cost the Red Sox two prospects and the entire $7-M remaining on his contract.
His contract status was part of it, no doubt, and he was making noises that if the Sox weren't prepared to pick up a $20M option on his services for 2009, he wasn't going to give them much bang for their buck in the remainder of 2008. With the Sox fighting for their playoff lives, that was too much to stomach for even his most ardent loyalists in the Red Sox clubhouse.
The circus threatened to escalate into an even bigger distraction than originally thought, especially with Manny fueling the fire. "They don't deserve me,'' he bellowed near the end. Well, he was right about that.
The final twist was after the dust had settled and Ramirez seemingly got his wish of being exiled out of Boston with the prospect of becoming a free agent at the end of this season, he and his gasbag agent, Scott Boros, asked the Red Sox to rescind the trade two hours after it had been done.
Apparently Boros told the Sox Manny had a change of heart and "promised" not to act up for the rest of the season, that all of this had simply been Manny being Manny. The Bosox reply: thanks but no thanks, and, oh yeah, pack plenty of sunscreen.
As for the Favre fiasco, it's either the worst version of Poker ever played, or there's something insidious going on behind the scenes in Green Bay that we aren't being told about.
Either way, there seems to be a whole lot of bluffing going on in the farce that has become the dismantling of the relationship between a storied NFL franchise and its Hall of Fame quarterback.
Stay tuned on that one.
David Ritchie can be contacted at ritchie.david@dailygleaner.com or 458-6484. His weekly column appears on Wednesdays.
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