Manny Ramirez NOT Going To All-Stars Game-What Else Is New!!

[Steve Pindar]

Preguntas

Miguel - can I ask some questions? I'm fairly new as a "poster", and it's sometimes tough to tell the players without a scorecard......

Are you American, Dominican, etc?

Where do you live?

Are you a Red Sox hater, Yankee fan or both?


What's your beef with Cleef?

 

[Milosos]

Too violent

I see you're a big fan of the edit function. If you go back and review much of this thread, and delete the yelling and screaming we'd be down to 2 pages, saving valuable server space.

To everyone else - yeah, all 4 of you. It seems we've gotten a little off-track today and I apologize for that.

Going forward anything that's of a personal nature, or even a non-topic related remiss (example above) will not be tolerated. I'll come and find you, and beat you senseless with my Manny bobble-head (it echoes when you hit it).

Cleef

In all truth I would say a few things, but this appears to be more of a bashing forum for one person's enjoyment

From the outside looking in I believe you would have many more posters if people were not allowed so much "freedom" in their condemnation of others

The quirky thing is I agree with this person that Ramirez should have played, it is too bad in today's corporate money driven game their is no loyalty, be it season to season or game to game

Back in "my day" (Way back) You knew Mickey, Whitey, Roger, Joe P, Elston and so on would be there next year unless they retired, times have changed and so have players, but why does this person need to beat to death the the simple point of "I think Manny did his fans a disservice by not playing?" And that is just my opinion as a fan.\

BTW Cleef, if you are a displaced Bostonian there is bad news that a small portion of the Ted Willimas Tunnel Collapsed killing a newlywed woman driving through

 

[miguel]

Come on!

Miguel - can I ask some questions? I'm fairly new as a "poster", and it's sometimes tough to tell the players without a scorecard......

Are you American, Dominican, etc?

Where do you live?

Are you a Red Sox hater, Yankee fan or both?


What's your beef with Cleef?

Nooooooo. I will not go there. Cleefy knows what my "beef" with him is and I know what his "beef" with me is. No big deal!. I just hope that he does NOT take me too seriously bacause I don't take anything said to to as such.

Now, I really learned my lesson in posting personal information here but let's just say that I was born in the DR many moons ago and I used to "breath, eat and drink" baseball. Not as much anymore. I live in "Alaska" but raised in New York.

I have been a Yankees far as far as I can remember. Even if I loved the Reds in the 70's, the Yankees were always my favorites.

I have to tell you a little secret, MANY think that I "hate" the SUCKS, I really do not!. Ever since "El Gran Papi" became a member of that organization, I have seen myself watching a game or two. See, I am a baseball fan and I like to watch GOOD baseball, whether it's from watching a Yankees game or a Baltimore game!. Little to SOME of these people know that I have found myself, at times, wanting for them to do good, just NOT against my Yankees. Bottom line, I do not "hate" them, I like making fun of their fans, those fans that think that they can't do no wrong.

I just try not to be biased when it comes to team that I like. I am a fan BEFORE I am a team fan. For example: Alex Rodriguez is a Yankees but I pray to God that he gets his axx traded somewhere. Why?, because even if he is a great player, he WILL never reach his true potential as a Yankees because I feel that he is intimidated by the NY media since he is second bananas to Jeter. The man is just not happy in NY, imo.

Btw, on the Home Run Derby, after the batter had9 outs, they were pitched with the "Gold" ball and whomever hit a homer with it, 21,000 dollar were going to the "Boys and Girls Club" charity. All players were "donating", if you will, after hitting a homer AFTER 9 outs.

 

[Cleef]

It's a fine line Milosos.

Cleef

In all truth I would say a few things, but this appears to be more of a bashing forum for one person's enjoyment

Who's enjoyment? I can't even read some of these posts fully, nevermind understand them.

From the outside looking in I believe you would have many more posters if people were not allowed so much "freedom" in their condemnation of others

Agreed. I'll do more in the future to limit the condemnations. I've had only one problem with one poster (here) that just won't let up. Others have been very quick to agree to disagree; that keeps things moving. I never try and hurt anyone's feelings with anything I put togeher, it's really all in fun; if it's too much than we all know this is a voluntary arena.

The quirky thing is I agree with this person that Ramirez should have played, it is too bad in today's corporate money driven game their is no loyalty, be it season to season or game to game

You're right, it is too bad. However, players are on stage for nearly 8 months and I have a hard time being judgemental on how they should be spending their off-time.

Manny appearing at the ASG gives fans an opportunity to see him play who otherwise might not. The main reason for that however is because the vast majority of the people attending the ASG (not on TV) are not baseball fans, and if they are, it's casual at best. So to say the fans got screwed on this deal is highly naive.

No, there is no loyalty to the names on the front of the jersey, that's a fact.

Perhaps this is apples and oranges, but I have a Blackberry that literally chains me to my job. If I leave work a few minutes early, or come in a few minutes late, there is a possibility that they bust my balls at review time based on a lateness, or leaving early or whatever, that effects my bonus.

However, none of the work I do off-hours from my Blackberry is ever recorded in the same way a lateness would.

So, recently I began with a new approach: when the bell tolls 6, or it's a Sat/Sun. the Blackberry gets put away and ignored until the whistle blows at 10am on Monday.

Am I screwing my company (the fans) because I'm not doing the extra stuff that helps them, but limits my personal time? At some point the name on the back of the jersey has to be taken into consideration.

Yeah they make crazy money, but we're not buying a piece of them when we buy a ticket, hat or jersey, we're only renting it.

BTW Cleef, if you are a displaced Bostonian there is bad news that a small portion of the Ted Willimas Tunnel Collapsed killing a newlywed woman driving through

Yes, a very sad story. It will by no means be the last time you'll hear of failures on that project and the recessed 95. That was one of the mafia's biggest bread winners in their history, the shoddy work will be exposed more and more as time goes on.

Typical Masshole politico reaction - fire and brimstone - they've been waiting to take out the Turnpike Authority (the state sponsored Mafia) for many years, hopefully this will do it.

 

[Cleef]

Manny Ramirez ? Perception vs. Reality

One man's take on:

Is the depiction of Manny Ramirez that we get from the media fair and accurate?

How much time is spent talking about Manny?s shortcomings as opposed to his accomplishments and skills?

And:

So why does the media portray Ramirez in this manner, with much more focus on his ?incidents? with little attention instead paid to his greatness as a baseball player? I can think of several reasons off hand.

1) He won?t talk to them.
How many times do we need to read in a writer?s story that Manny refused to talk to them? Almost every day, some writer has a mention of it somewhere. Manny doesn?t fill up their notebooks with material, so he instead becomes an object of derision. This also ties in with point number two.

2) They know he won?t confront them
The same writers realize that they can write or say almost anything about Manny because he?s not going to confront them in the clubhouse. They?re free to generate ?good copy? by ripping him to their heart?s content without fear of retribution.

3) It?s easier and better copy to write about his goofiness then to acknowledge his accomplishments.
It probably also sells more papers. It generates more outrage and talk and phone calls. They can be viewed as ?edgy? and controversial. It might even lead to career advancement if they do a good enough rip job and get noticed by others.

From Will Carroll (Baseball Prospectus)

I won?t be seeing Manny Ramirez in Pittsburgh. The top vote getter is taking a disproportionate amount of heat for missing the game, even getting openly questioned on yesterday?s Fox telecast. Tim McCarver said the worst thing about his knee injury was ?remembering which leg to limp with.? It?s easy to say that Ramirez is faking an injury, but almost as easy to actually check on the injury. Ramirez is suffering from a small tear in the medial meniscus of his right knee. It?s an injury he can play with, but one that can ?grind,? a bone-on-bone situation that is unpredictable and painful.

 

[Steve Pindar]

just wondering

I'm just wondering something - I'm assuming that those of you who post here have some type of love for or connection with the DR and that you also love baseball.....is that right?

 

[Joshua R]

I knew that it was a matter of time before Ramirez came up with his 3rd "I can't go to the All Stars game because I am injured" statement.

Well, let's not disappoint, Mr. Ramirez is NOT going to the game because of a injury BUT a injury that is NOT bad enough to stop him from playing now. I guess that it's bad enough that he needs to rest 3 days (before, during and after the ASG). Amazing!.

he's a self centered pussy he's only thinking of the money and the ass he's getting every night. this coward couldnt even play for his own country what a disgrace

 

[miguel]

Oh my!!

he's a self centered pussy he's only thinking of the money and the ass he's getting every night. this coward couldnt even play for his own country what a disgrace

Thank God that it was you who said it!!

If I were the one saying it, oh boy, all hell would break loose!.

 

[miguel]

I guess....

Disclaimer: This article was faxed to me and it was written by Bill Reynolds from the NY Post today. If you have any problem with it, fax HIM your concerns and spare ME your comments.

Let's just say that there some other people NOT making excuses for Manny-Me. Let's see what he writes:

"MANNY'S GREAT AT JUST BEING MANNY":

"He is an ongoing soap opera, part mythic figure, and part cartoon character.
Manny.
No last name needed.
So pardon me if I don't get all excited at the latest little mini-controversy, this week's firestorm, the fact that Red Sox slugger Manny Ramirez decided to skip that All-Star Game, claiming a bad knee.
NO matter that he was the highest vote-getter, so his absence essentially tells all the people who voted for him to eat cake. No matter that he could have gone to the festivities and simply not played. No matter that his decision not to attend was interpreted by many as a slap at the game, this game that has been so very kind to him.
The party line, trumpeted by the Red Sox as if it were some presidential position paper, was that Manny simply wanted to rest his knee so that he would be better able to come back and help the Sox in the second half of the season, and what Sox fan could argue with that?.
Manny being Manny.
This is the cute little phrase that has evolved over the last couple of years to essentially explain the unexplainable.
It makes as much sense as anything else.
But Ramirez's behavior is something we're long used to. We've even come to expect it. We know going into a season that there are going to be two or three instances when he is going to do something that makes you scratch your head. That's just the way it is, right there on the same scoreboard with all the numbers we know he is going to have at the end of the year. As if it's all part of the same package, the good, the bad, and the ugly. To the point it all has become very familiar, the idiosyncrasies of an old friend.
Which is one of the reasons why Manny's snub of the All-Star Game falls somewhere south of importance.
Does he really have a slight tear in his knees, as has been reported, or is that not true either, as manager Terry Francona told a Boston radio station yesterday?.
Who really knows".
And maybe that's the point.
With Manny, you never know.
It's way too late in his career to expect him to change. There's also no incentive for him to change. The Red Sox's strategy seems to be to keep him happy and to get to most out of him.
It's a good one. So what if there were people who didn't like his not showing up for the All-Star Game?. The Red Sox know ultimately it's not going to matter that Ramirez went home instead. What's going to matter is the kind of numbers he puts up, nothing more".

Again, I did not write this. Just trying to show that others have the same OPINION as I. Again, if you have any problem with what Bill Reynolds wrote, fax him your concerns!.

 

[Cleef]

So pardon me if I don't get all excited at the latest little mini-controversy...but Ramirez's behavior is something we're long used to. We've even come to expect it.....Which is one of the reasons why Manny's snub of the All-Star Game falls somewhere south of importance...
Again, I did not write this. Just trying to show that others have the same OPINION as I. Again, if you have any problem with what Bill Reynolds wrote, fax him your concerns!.

Never heard of Bill Reynolds, but the article is spot-on.

Sorry, but I didn't get the same understanding from your OP.

Thanks for the article.

 

[easygoin]

It's all about speculation.... show me the facts

Disclaimer: This article was faxed to me and it was written by Bill Reynolds from the NY Post today. If you have any problem with it, fax HIM your concerns and spare ME your comments.

Let's just say that there some other people NOT making excuses for Manny-Me. Let's see what he writes:

"MANNY'S GREAT AT JUST BEING MANNY":

"He is an ongoing soap opera, part mythic figure, and part cartoon character.
Manny.
No last name needed.
So pardon me if I don't get all excited at the latest little mini-controversy, this week's firestorm, the fact that Red Sox slugger Manny Ramirez decided to skip that All-Star Game, claiming a bad knee.
NO matter that he was the highest vote-getter, so his absence essentially tells all the people who voted for him to eat cake. No matter that he could have gone to the festivities and simply not played. No matter that his decision not to attend was interpreted by many as a slap at the game, this game that has been so very kind to him.
The party line, trumpeted by the Red Sox as if it were some presidential position paper, was that Manny simply wanted to rest his knee so that he would be better able to come back and help the Sox in the second half of the season, and what Sox fan could argue with that?.
Manny being Manny.
This is the cute little phrase that has evolved over the last couple of years to essentially explain the unexplainable.
It makes as much sense as anything else.
But Ramirez's behavior is something we're long used to. We've even come to expect it. We know going into a season that there are going to be two or three instances when he is going to do something that makes you scratch your head. That's just the way it is, right there on the same scoreboard with all the numbers we know he is going to have at the end of the year. As if it's all part of the same package, the good, the bad, and the ugly. To the point it all has become very familiar, the idiosyncrasies of an old friend.
Which is one of the reasons why Manny's snub of the All-Star Game falls somewhere south of importance.
Does he really have a slight tear in his knees, as has been reported, or is that not true either, as manager Terry Francona told a Boston radio station yesterday?.
Who really knows".
And maybe that's the point.
With Manny, you never know.
It's way too late in his career to expect him to change. There's also no incentive for him to change. The Red Sox's strategy seems to be to keep him happy and to get to most out of him.
It's a good one. So what if there were people who didn't like his not showing up for the All-Star Game?. The Red Sox know ultimately it's not going to matter that Ramirez went home instead. What's going to matter is the kind of numbers he puts up, nothing more".

Again, I did not write this. Just trying to show that others have the same OPINION as I. Again, if you have any problem with what Bill Reynolds wrote, fax him your concerns!.

So tell me, do you have any one.... players, coaches, managers that can discredit his injury for not playing.....NO.

 

[Hillbilly]

I get the idea that the opinion of 99.5% of the sports writers is this: Manny, as the largest vote getter, should have done this a lot better. For example he should have gone to the game, dressed, been in the line up, played an inning and then gone away. Or simply pinch hit, or take a bow....sign a few autographs, anything but diss the game. In other words act like a human being instead of an ungrateful little, ignorant, unbred, nincanpoop....or something to that effect.
He showed, again in the words of dozens of sportwriters, no class....


HB

 

[Musicqueen]

he's a self centered pussy he's only thinking of the money and the ass he's getting every night. this coward couldnt even play for his own country what a disgrace

I haven't read this ENTIRE thread, too damn long, but how come Jos? Reyes was there, even though he was injured, and others as well...I believe Manny should have at least gone to the game just to be there for his fans...

My .02!

MQ

 

[Cleef]

Way long

I haven't read this ENTIRE thread, too damn long, but how come Jos? Reyes was there, even though he was injured, and others as well...I believe Manny should have at least gone to the game just to be there for his fans...

My .02!

MQ

I don't think Reyes had ever been to an ASG before, he should definitely go. It's a great way for him to invite and thank the people that got him there; coaches, family, etc.

Manny can't even thank his high school with a donation or equipment (or so I've read). Also, he's been going to the ASG's for a decade or so. It's old hat to him, he's not into the pastime as anything more than a job.

He should go to the game - to thank his fans at the very least, but to expect him to do the right thing is being blind to his history.

There have been quite a few strange birds like him in professional sports, but not that many that were this incredibly good at what they do.

If he was hanging off the end of a yacht drinking gin and juice with Dr. Dre in Miami it would be one thing, but I'd bet you anything he was on the couch playing XBox 360 NFL Madden with his kid - during the ASG game.

He just found out Terry Francona is his manager this past May.

 

[jrzyguy]

Or simply pinch hit, or take a bow....
HB

No pinch hitters allowed in the all star game. That is why Ortiz played 1st base for the first couple on innings (and did quite well actualy for a big guy).

 

[miguel]

Indeed!

I get the idea that the opinion of 99.5% of the sports writers is this: Manny, as the largest vote getter, should have done this a lot better. For example he should have gone to the game, dressed, been in the line up, played an inning and then gone away. Or simply pinch hit, or take a bow....sign a few autographs, anything but diss the game. In other words act like a human being instead of an ungrateful little, ignorant, unbred, nincanpoop....or something to that effect.
He showed, again in the words of dozens of sportwriters, no class....


HB

My thoughts EXACTLY!. Even his own manager can not answer, for certain, that he is injured.

 

[sweetdbt]

I think you meant

No pinch hitters allowed in the all star game. That is why Ortiz played 1st base for the first couple on innings (and did quite well actualy for a big guy).

no DESIGNATED hitters in this years game (since it is in a National league park). Pinch hitters are always used in all-star games.