East Coast Tribbleations @ Hypocrisy.com

I guess the headline is like bait and switch. You’re probably expecting my first article here to be ultra political. Don’t be disappointed. It’s about baseball. Depending upon how you look at baseball (in Boston it’s pretty important), it can be viewed as a form of politics. I live in Boston. In fact, I live downtown. When I can get there, I hang around at the Cask n’ Flagon, a bar across the street from Fenway. In the winter, we go there to talk about trades or which free agents the Sox will try to sign. Sometimes we can get the owner to replay a game from the summer. Last night, the topic of discussion was about Dustin Pedroia winning the American League MVP. In case you don’t know much about Dustin Pedroia, I’ve given you a link.

Anyway, one fellow at the bar was from California and he was asking why Manny Ramirez never won an MVP, considering that he was responsible more than once for the Sox winning World Series games. At first, I was going to yell, “Are you kidding me?” But then, I thought that it was a good question from somebody living outside the Boston area. Manny Ramirez was certainly a big contributor to Boston’s success over the last decade. No question. But there’s a dark side to Manny. They don’t know Manny the way we know Manny. Here in Boston, we got a bird’s eye view of the dark Manny this year. I have to admit that even though I’ve been a Manny fan in the past, I was happy to see him go. You know, there are a lot of reasons why Dustin Pedroia won his first MVP in just his second year in the majors. There are also a lot of reasons why Manny Ramirez has never won an MVP award at the age of thirty-seven, with his best years behind him.

Dustin Pedroia was like a one-man demolition derby in 2008. His statistics speak for themselves:

• .326 batting average (lost the batting title by just 4 percentage points)
• 213 hits (tied with Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki)
• scored 118 runs (led the AL)
• hit 54 doubles (led the AL)
• hit 17 home runs and drove in 83 runs
• had 61 multi-hit games (led the AL)
• had 20 stolen bases
• had already won the 2008 Gold Glove for his play at second base
• had already won the AL Silver Slugger Award for 2008

Pedroia is the first second baseman to win the American League MVP since Nellie Fox of the Chicago White Sox won in 1959. Let’s keep in mind that the Red Sox media guide puts Pedroia at 5′ 9″ but most people feel the Sox are being generous here. He’s really about 5′ 7″ (and about 165 pounds). Dustin Pedroia also won the 2007 American League Rookie-of-the-Year Award, the year the Red Sox won the World Series. While most people warned us about the dreaded ’sophomore slump’, it never materialized. Keep in mind that this is a baseball player who doesn’t have all of the tools of a Manny Ramirez. What he does have that Ramirez does not have is character and the drive to make himself better.

Let’s talk about Manny and why many of us are glad he’s no longer here. Manny Ramirez played baseball, a child’s game, for millions of dollars each year. He played in a town that worships his team . He was revered by fans who were willing to let Manny be Manny, with all of what we thought were his idiosyncrasies. You know, sometimes he wold disappear behind the Green Monster to either talk on his cell phone or relieve himself. Or sometimes Manny would not exert himself running out anything that might not end up being a hit. You know, he wanted to sort of ’save’ himself for the plays that really counted. He was never a stellar outfielder, mostly because he didn’t work at it. It isn’t important to him. I always had the feeling that most of his catches were sheer dumb luck. He is a very gifted hitter, perhaps the best right-handed power hitter of his time. He is also a lock for the Hall of Fame. But that’s all that Manny will ever be. He will not be remembered as being a great all-around player who works on all facets of his game simply because he doesn’t. Let’s be honest about it. It would not surprise me if Manny Ramirez doesn’t win an MVP award during his long, famous career.

In spite of an upbeat start to 2008, the Boston Red Sox were witness to bad Manny for most of the season. When Manny hit his 500^th career home run, things were looking pretty darned good around here. We really bought Manny’s spin that he wanted to finish his career in Boston. We were up for a World Series repeat. Then, things went downhill rapidly. We fans were ready to accept that Manny was just being Manny when he and Youkilis kind of got into a bit of a spat in the dugout during a game. We were all assured it was just an isolated incident. We were happy about that because clubhouse turmoil is the first killer of championships. Still, those of us who tend to ignore the PR spin and look introspectively at these events, had a bad feeling about it. Personally, I believed it was the tip of the iceberg, but I couldn’t tell you why for the life of me. None of us could put our finger on it. Then, we heard that Manny actually shoved a sixty-four year old Sox employee to the ground because he couldn’t comply with Ramirez’s request for tickets to give to his friends and family.

Not long after that, Manny began to invent injuries. He declared himself too injured to play in a series with the New York Yankees during a key part of the stretch run. Then there was a lot of talk about Ramirez actually striking out or making himself an ‘out’ on purpose to force the trade issue. Management had been putting up with Manny’s complaining for several years, but this time Ramirez pushed it too far. Ramirez had been asking for a trade since 2006 (or maybe earlier), and it’s not like the Sox hadn’t tried to trade him in the past. It’s just that Theo Epstein will only part with someone as valuable as Manny if it’s going to benefit the team. He would never give him away just to get rid of him. However, this year, Epstein knew Ramirez had to go. He just had to go. He was perfectly obnoxious. They traded him to the Los Angeles Dodgers and somehow the Sox wound up with Jason Bay, an excellent all-around baseball player who came right in and contributed consistently through the second half of the season. In the meantime, Manny was wowing them in La La Land. He suddenly recovered his health and hitting ability after leaving Boston. Now, he’s sitting back waiting for the highest bidder. And Dustin Pedroia is looking forward to January 1, when he and teammate Kevin Youkilis will be at the Athlete’s Performance Center in Arizona working out for the upcoming season.

When you watch Pedroia play, you know he’s playing because he loves the game and he wants to win. What Manny cares about is Manny. He’s a guy who plays for statistics. I’m not saying he doesn’t love the game, but I am saying he is a guy who was born with natural instincts and gifts and he stays at that level. Imagine what Manny could do if he actually dedicated himself to the game and the team the way Dustin Pedroia does? There’s no telling how many MVP awards he might have won.