Manny Ramirez Is Awesome

By now, you've probably heard or read this from Manny Ramirez regarding the Red Sox in the ALCS:

"Why should we panic? We've got a great team. It doesn't happen, so who cares? There's always next year. It's not like it's the end of the world."

Now I've never been part of the "That's just Manny being Manny" club. But this quote is great simply because Manny Ramirez is the only person who really could get away with it.

He hasn't said a damn thing to the press all year, and when he finally says something, he gives the finger to the game and everything it stands for.

Even at its best, baseball is pretty damn boring. For everyone who bitches about soccer, at least there's constant movement in soccer. Baseball has the stillness that thuds. And it's not real concentration. It's that fake "bowling intensity" concentration. (You know, that serious look the bowlers used to get back when they showed bowling on TV every weekend). Bud Selig is like a pedophile rapist who took everything he knew about running a lackluster franchise with no fanbase and carried it over to his job as commissioner (where he's just keeping the seat warm until George W. Bush becomes the new commissioner in about a year and a half...Mark my words!).

And spare me the Bob Costas eloquence about the Great American Pasttime and the "Field of Dreams" preaching.

Baseball is boring and it's probably the one sport where you can't argue for anybody's salary.

I like Manny now. Maybe it's because how he plays contradicts what he says. He's one of the best consistent players in baseball. He brings energy and enthusiasm. He doesn't have to speak. He doesn't need a press conference. You don't care if he's best friends with or feuding with anyone on his team or anywhere else.

What he says is what A-Rod, Bonds, Jeter and a lot of others show and say in other ways on a daily basis. Give me Manny Ramirez saying he doesn't care but playing the way he does any day. I'd take it over Dice-K, who might care but can't do enough about it, ever. I'd take it over A-Rod, who only wants a ring to fulfill his sense of entitlement and enormous ego. When did he ever play like he cared? The same with (fill in way too many names here).

This statement almost makes me like Manny enough now to buy that grill he was selling a while back. Does anyone know if it's still available?