This week, the Boston Red Sox traded disgruntled slugger Manny Ramirez from the Boston Red Sox to the Los Angeles Dodgers. It was the culmination of a seven and a half year endeavor where arguably one of the best right-handed hitters ever parlayed his talents to millions of dollars, two World Series championships and the admiration of many fans around the nation, especially Boston.
However, while Ramirez became a legend, he also took advantage of his very eccentric behavior and developed a whole “Manny being Manny” persona. While his skills with the bat were tremendous, his seeming lack of care for playing hard within many aspects of baseball like fielding and running hard on the bases irritated some.
While his skills on the field are great (he will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer when he retires), his general apathy irritated some fans and even worse, his fellow teammates, his manager and senior management.
This season has been the most contentious of all. His batting has been solid, but he’s also 35 and there is fear that he is declining in the one area that makes him great. He continually complained about possibly fain injuries that the team checked in on to call him on his bluff, he argued with teammates, made terrible plays on the field and was just being disrespectful to baseball.
Here’s Peter Gammons take on it:
The trade has also gotten people, especially Boston sports writers, to tell their negative stories of Manny. Here’s a touching story from Gerry Callahan: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/baseball/red_sox/view.bg?articleid=1110406
Rejecting kids with cancer, smooth move Manny.
I respect Gammons greatly and agree with what he’s saying. You can argue that Peter is biased on the issue because he covered the Red Sox for so many years and you can tell he is a fan of the team just as much as a journalist that covers them. However, the principles of what he’s saying is true.
However, Ramirez may act like an idiot, but he knows exactly what he’s doing. His contract expires at the end of the season and the Red Sox would have a club option to pick up the contract for two more seasons at $20 million per season.
For some of you not familiar with the concept, what this means is that the season ends in October. The Red Sox would then decide if they wanted to keep Manny or let him leave as a free agent. Manny has no say in this. The Sox could have kept him even if Manny didn’t want to come back.
To respond to this, Manny insulted the senior management of the Red Sox and even called the owner, John Henry, a liar.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in life is to never, ever insult your supervisor because they cut the checks.
Manny has since been traded to LA and that whole contract option no longer exists, which means that he is a free agent at the end of the season and can sign with whoever he wants.
What has to be mentioned here also is that his agent is powerful representative Scott Boras, who made no money off of Manny because the original contract was under another agent. Now, Boras will be able to negotiate another potential mega deal and get his 10%.
Now Manny is in LA, smiling and playing hard, as if that’s shocking. He knows he needs a kick butt two months to make his money.
I’ve been mad at Ramirez for his apathy and was happy that the Sox got rid of him. I’m a Mets fan, so I’m not completely passionate about it, but I can understand people being mad. I was in the same camp as Gammons.
However, I was speaking with Wake Forest hero, Mr. McMahon, and discussing my dislike for Ramirez. However Mr. McMahon was quick to point out to me that he knew his options, took advantage of his situation and will probably make more money now then he would have before.
This is when I stopped being mad and thought about this from a completely objective point of view.
Each of us knows our employment situation. Some of us are in a good spot where we know that if we left our current job, we would have suitors. Others realize that the current job we have is the best we are going to get in the open market and accept it.
If one of us was unhappy with our current employer and we knew that we could parlay our skills to another location, we would do our best to change our situation and get to that new place, like what Ramirez is doing.
The problem with Manny’s approach is completely ethical, not from a business prospective.
I always say that sports is a business first and if you take that prospective, Manny is a winner. However, you have to wonder if he accept himself for his actions. If he can, then I can’t hate I guess.
I would like to hear your thoughts on this.
No comments:
Post a Comment