| Authored by Forrest Wilkinson - 13th July, 2006 - 4:20 am
 Let's put some numbers on the table, shall we?
.314 career batting average. 459 career home runs, 20 of which are grand slams (ranking him 2nd all time). 8 Silver Slugger awards, including one in each of the last 7 years. Finished in the top-10 for MVP voting each of the last 8 years. The 2002 batting champion. Twice has led the league in on-base percentage, three times in both slugging-percentage and on-base-plus-slugging percentage. Top 10 in home runs every year since 1998. On-pace to hit 614 career home runs, with an 18.2% chance of hitting 700, based on Bill James's "favorite toy" statistical analysis. And, according to Baseball-Reference.com's Hall of Fame standards scoring system, where a value of 50 is an average Hall-of-Famer, Manny Ramirez scores a 54.0. He's only 34 years old.
If you were to compare Manny Ramirez's numbers through age 33 to those of Willie McCovey, who is a current Hall-of-Famer, what you would find is astonishing. Ramirez leads McCovey in games-played, runs, hits, doubles, home runs, RBI's, walks, batting average, on-base percentage, slugging-percentage, and stolen bases.
And somehow, countless media personalities and sportswriters find the nerve to curtail Ramirez's statistics by calling his actions "crimes against baseball". One of these "crimes" includes his most recent decision not to play in this year's All-Star Game. Calling his injury a "fake", telling Manny what is and what isn't wrong with his body -- yelling at him for caring about his team's success.
Perhaps it's jealousy of his proficiency in the game of baseball, or his team's recent World Championship Title; but, more than likely, it's the media's knowledge that, whenever they chose to poke-fun at Manny's baseball skills, he won't seek reprisal.
No, Manny couldn't care less what the media thinks about him, which probably irks them even more -- no matter what is written, said, or published about him, Manny will show up the next day with a smile on his face and nothing on his mind except winning the game which he loves so dearly. And by some means, despite all the "crimes" that Manny seems to commit daily -- at least, according to certain media luminaries -- the Red Sox keep on winning. Imagine that!
While Barry Bonds awaits his indictment, Terrell Owens rips-apart NFL teams, Ron Artest punches fans, Ricky Williams smokes marijuana, and Jason Grimsley distributes human growth hormone -- Manny's the one ruining sports, by not running out a fly ball-or-two (even though they never land in fair territory), and not getting to outfield hits fast enough (albeit, he led the majors in outfield-assists last year). Not to mention that numerous other MLB Superstars are guilty of the same "crimes" -- even the great Albert Pujols has been accused of not running on a fly-ball.
Did it ever occur to anyone that, by some stretch-of-the-mind, these players, after playing in thousands of games, simply have a good eye for foul-balls? If they can pick up a curve ball at 76 miles-per-hour after a fastball was just blown by them at 98, is it so tomfool to think that they know when a ball is going foul?
Nope. The media just will not accept it. They have to keep players in check. They feel the need to usurp the position of head coach, briefly, to set Manny Ramirez straight -- even though they already know that he will never respond. Why would they do such a thing? For the attention -- or for the self-confidence-boost of being able to flout a Major Leaguer's effort.
Manny, a guy who shows up early for every game to take batting-practice and work on his fielding abilities. Manny, a guy who agreed to play for the Red Sox enthusiastically, a fan-favorite, despite his previous desire to be traded. He does all these things, posts amazing numbers, and "fakes" an injury to get out of the All-Star Game? I doubt it.
The truth of the matter is, Manny is beginning to age -- he's beginning to feel the wear-and-tear of the season more than all of the young-guns in this year's All-Star Game. His knees are bothering him, David Ortiz can attest to that. In fact, according to recent reports, Ramirez has a tear in his medial meniscus -- how about that? Writers and radio hosts everywhere wanted Manny to come out and tell the "truth," that he doesn't want to play in the All-Star Game; and, of course, if he ever did say such a thing, he would never hear the end of it. It's hypocrisy, friends. It's jealousy. It's sensationalism. It's the media.
While Sammy Sosa sneezes his way into injuries, Manny's "faking" injury -- forget the fact that he's missed only 32 games since 2003, one more than Albert Pujols. If Manny's dishonoring the fans, what is Barry Bonds doing? If Manny's dishonoring the fans, what is Delmon Young doing? Oh yeah, the media's already mutilated their reputations -- they just figured it was time to get a new target for controversy.
Keep your eyes open. Understand the facts. Respect Manny Ramirez for what he is -- a future Hall-of-Fame player. And enjoy watching Manny Ramirez make his place in history. The next generation of sports fans won't be seeing the media's portrayal of him, they'll be looking at a spreadsheet of his career statistics in Cooperstown -- and if anyone were to come up to them and say, "Manny Ramirez? That guy didn't play hard at all," they would just point to the statistics and laugh.
Questions, Comments, Criticisms, Critiques:
forrest@northsider.net |
