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Manny's Hollywood soap opera is about to begin (AP Photo)
Now that everyone in southern California has exhaled, and Manny Ramirez has finally ended his goofy hold out (can you think of a better word to describe this guy’s behavior?) and signed with the only team that wanted him, the soap opera is about to REALLY begin in Dodgerville. “Be sure to be with us tomorrow for the next episode of Manny being Manny on ‘How the Dodgers Turn’…oh yeah, and we’ll also have the Dodgers vs. the Padres.”
Sure, Manny can hit a baseball. Wonderful. The Dodgers need some offense, considering their best alternative in left field had they not signed Ramirez is light hitting Juan Pierre. Manny will be a run producer for a team that needs it. But at what cost?
LA has a good young nucleus with players like Andre Ethier, Russell Martin, James Loney and Matt Kemp. Add talented Orlando Hudson to that mix, while subtracting Brad Penny, Nomar Garciaparra, Jeff Kent and Andruw Jones and the Dodger brass has finally shown sensibility in how they’ve constructed their roster. That is, until they made a public spectacle of their overwhelming desire to have Ramirez back.
The relationship between the Dodgers and Manny reminds me of the same arrangement between Terrell Owens and the Dallas Cowboys. “Want him. Have to have him. We can bring him around and he’ll buy in to our system. It’ll be great.”
With TO and the Cowboys, there was a productive period…a honeymoon if you will. He was a quality receiver and a contributor for a time. It still ended in divorce, didn’t it? The same fate awaits the marriage between Manny and LA. When the newness wears off, when everyone has paid for their dreadlocked wigs, when the team hits a slump and the losses mount, Manny will revert to being Manny. It won’t be so cute, then.
Owens demonstrated time and again that he’s all about the name on the back of the jersey, not the name in the front. When things are clicking for him, he helps his team by association, not by intent. When struggles occur, he doesn’t look for a way to help the team, he makes it all about himself. Ramirez did the same things in Boston. Things were good up until his coaches and teammates stopped being willing to put up with bizarre behavior (like bathroom breaks in the middle of an inning, or cutting off a throw from the centerfielder, etc). It was cute until it stopped being cute. Manny’s act – like TO’s – got old.
It will happen in LA, too. Manny’s act will get old. The only question is when. Will it be this season? What if Manny has lingering hurt feelings about the long, drawn out contract battle? What if doesn’t like his spot in the batting order? What if he wants an unscheduled ‘day off’ just because he does…What if he decides he wants a bigger cut of the wig concession and isn’t going to try his hardest unless he gets it? What then?
Far fetched? Have you followed this guy’s career?
The Dodgers seem to be trying to build their team the right way – draft and develop talent from the farm system while resisting the temptation to throw money at the Joneses and Garciaparras any longer. In fact, even the vaunted LA pitching staff doesn’t look so daunting on paper any longer because they’ve stopped signing guys with big names who are on the down side of their careers and starting growing their own young talent again, just like the Dodger teams of old.
Because of their obsession with Ramirez, the Dodgers are far from a sure thing to win the National League West. That’s why this is so puzzling. It just doesn’t seem to fit in with the plan, and could end up costing them a winnable division. Instead of being the missing piece to a championship puzzle, adding Ramirez to this mix of young talent could be the thing that breaks apart the clubhouse and leads to a less than satisfying end to their coming season. Like any other soap opera, you’ll have to keep watching to find out.
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