Manny Being Classy

When baseball fans,players, management, and media talk about Manny Ramirez, a nine time Silver Slugger, 2004 World Series MVP, and recipient of a 50 game suspension in 2009, for an alleged positive drug test in 2003, you would sometimes hear a catchy expression being used, to describe his somewhat unpredictable behavior, “It’s just Manny being Manny,” which usually referred to counterproductive scenarios he was involved in.

Many people who make poor choices in what they do or say early in life, realize their mistakes as they mature, and there’s no telling at what age that may occur. Ramirez did not leave the Boston Red Sox on good terms before being dealt to the Los Angeles Dodgers at the trading deadline in 2008.

It was suggested that he wasn’t a popular team-mate in the Boston clubhouse at the time of the transaction, and while in Boston this past weekend with Chicago, the Sox D.H., went out of his way to find former Red Sox team-mate and friend Kevin Youkilis, whom Ramirez had a scuffle with in the Boston dugout, during that same season.

Ramirez, a native of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, was brutally honest about his encounter with the Red Sox first baseman, as reported by ESPNBOSTON.com: “ I think everything was my fault. But hey, you’ve got to be a real man to realize when you do wrong. Hey, it was my fault. I’m already past that stage and I’m happy with my new team. When I went to first base and saw Youkilis , I said: ‘Hey, what happened between you and me, I’m sorry. That’s my fault’.

So it takes a real man just to go and tell a person it was my fault. That’s what I did. I life, you pass every stage, and I’m already past that stage. You keep growing, and when you look back you say, ‘Oh, I did this wrong’. What is done is done. All you can do is go and play the game and finish your career good.”

Even though he ended up in Chicago, Ramirez was asked if he would have considered returning to Boston, if the Red Sox would have been interested in having him back with the club. “I would have come and see what I could do for the Red Sox. I did it here in the past and it’s in the past. If they claimed me, why would I say no to them ?”

The 38 year old also seems to be a very spiritual man, and fatalistic about what yet, life might have is store for him. “I’m leaving everything to God and he’s going to guide me. He’s going to let me know, ‘Hey, that’s it. It’s over.’ Only God is going to tell me when to stop. I’m not going to go out and say this is my last year. He hasn’t told me that.”

It is refreshing to hear and read that the 12 time All-Star, is more concerned with leaving a positive legacy wherever he can at this still relatively early stage in life, and where necessary, the slugger wants to correct any of his previous mistakes, and repair any damaged relationships. Manny being classy, is way more important and in the best interests of Ramirez, than” Manny being Manny” ever was or will be. As he would know, from playing on a World Series champion, the sports cliché we’re all familiar with, is quite true: “There is no i in team.”

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