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Manny Ramirez - Perception vs Reality (July 11, 2006)
Article: Bruce Allen / Boston Sports Media Watch


Let's pretend for a moment that tomorrow Manny Ramirez suddenly
decides to do what Corey Dillon recently did in Patriots mini-camp,
and hands Jeff Horrigan of the Boston Herald a sheet and asks him to
read it. The sheet is a list of the career accomplishments of Ramirez.
What would that list look like?

• .314 career batting average. 459 (and climbing) career home runs.
1479 (and climbing) career RBI.

• 2nd All Time in Grand Slams – 20 (Leader - Lou Gehrig, 23)

• 5th All Time in At Bats Per Home Run - 14.08

• 6th All Time AB / RBI Ratio - 23.08 (23.0819) (Active Leader)

• 9th All Time in Slugging % - .5988

• 10th All Time in OPS - 1.0076

• 2002 AL Batting Champion

• 2004 World Series MVP

• 8-time Silver Slugger Award Winner (1995, 1999-2005)

• Had a 17 game postseason hitting streak which is tied for longest in
baseball history.

• Has 20 postseason home runs, good for second all time. (Bernie
Williams has 22)

That's a very impressive resume, should Manny decide to retire right now.

But let's do a little projecting here. Manny has 24 home runs right
now. Let's give him 20 more the rest of the season. That will put him
at 479, around 20th all time. Manny has two more years on his Boston
contract, and let's say he plays three years after that, somewhere,
retiring at age 39. So that's five more active years after this one.
Let's say he averages just 35 home runs a year during that span. He'll
end up with 654 home runs, which would be good for 5th on the all time
list. (As currently constituted)

(Click below for the rest of the article)
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He has 65 RBI right now. I'll give him 50 more the rest of the season.
That will put him at 1529 for his career, that will place him about
42nd all time. Over the next five years, let's say he averages 100 RBI
a season. At the end, he'll have 2029 RBI, which will place him 4th
all time. (Again, as currently constituted.)

He's probably bound to slip a little at the plate, and those numbers
don't reflect possible injuries, but I think all in all, they're
pretty conservative estimates.

The conclusion is simple. We're witnessing an All Time Great at the
peak of his production.

However, is that the perception of Ramirez that we get from the Boston
(and national) sports media? Not at all.

Thanks to a number of well-documented gaffes, episodes and incidents
we have a very different perspective on Ramirez. The questions I have,
and the ones I'm going to try to address here are these:

• Is the depiction of Manny Ramirez that we get from the media fair
and accurate?

• How much time is spent talking about Manny's shortcomings as opposed
to his accomplishments and skills?

Manny was in the news again this past week because of the fact that he
was selected to the All Star game, but did not play. This was the
third time in his career that Manny has been selected to the
mid-season classic but did not play. It was enough to get the wags in
the press going once again about Manny, to the point that Buster Olney
on his ESPN blog declared that going forward, Ramirez's name should
not even appear on the All Star ballot unless he indicates that he
does intend to play. Now the rest of Olney's entry was really not at
all harsh on Manny, but the buzz that has come from the piece is that
Manny disrespects the game so much and that he shouldn't even be on
the ballot in the future. On the FOX nationally broadcast game on
Saturday, Ramirez was called a disgrace for not participating in the
All Star game. (Which coincidentally, or perhaps not, FOX is
broadcasting.)

Locally, the media seems convinced that Terry Francona is covering
(lying) for Manny with the sore knee theory. They're upset that Manny
won't talk to them and tell them himself that his knee is sore. They
believe that he just doesn't want to play in the game. Radio hosts
shout on the airwaves "JUST SAY YOU DON'T WANT TO PLAY IN THE ALL STAR
GAME!!!" and of course if Manny ever actually did that, they'd kill
him on the airwaves and in print.

Yes, there have been many Manny "episodes" over the years, too many to
chronicle here, but they get to the point that you can't tell whether
the incident really is a big deal, or if the media is just making it
into one. They've made "Manny being Manny" into a self-fulfilling
prophesy as everything he does is viewed as suspect and labeled
accordingly.

This has spawned a number of memorable hatchet jobs on Manny in the
local newspapers and on the airwaves. John Tomase, then of the
Lawrence Eagle-Tribune composed probably the most vicious attack on
Ramirez in an article that appeared last June. The actual facts of the
article were generally considered to be pretty accurate, but the tone
in which the denunciation was delivered was, even by Tomase's own
admission, "needlessly over the top". Others have also teed off on
Manny, not holding back at all in their attempts to be as scathing and
nasty as possible.

Dan Shaughnessy refers to Manny's "crimes against baseball" during an
era when numerous superstars of the game are being accused of steroid
use. Manny himself has never had his name surface in any discussions
on this topic. Instead, Manny's "crimes" include not running hard to
first base. Would it surprise you that Albert Pujols has occasionally
been accused of the same thing? Yet when Manny does it, it is a crime
against baseball and is talked about incessantly on WEEI, to the point
that he's accused of hating America and not caring about or respecting
the hallowed game of baseball. Just yesterday, Glenn Ordway referred
to Manny several times as a "pain in the ass".

He has been accused of taking games off, missing games because of
questionable injuries and begging out of the lineup on a regular
basis. A simple look at his games played and at-bat totals per season
show this to be nothing more than a media creation. Since Manny joined
the Red Sox in 2001, the team has played 896 games. Ramirez has
appeared in 802 of those. That includes the 2002 season where he
missed 42 games with a broken finger.

Even some of Manny's accomplishments are discarded because of his
perception. He led the majors in outfield assists with 17 last season,
but when that is brought up, the reaction is usually a snicker from
the media, who dismiss the mark because of the short Fenway left
field. Somehow that same argument doesn't come up as often when
discussing Carl Yastrzemski leading the league seven times in that
category.

I hear sports radio talkers refer to Manny as "lazy" and failing to
hustle 100% of the time, which to me is a total joke. The media is
full of guys who routinely show up late for gigs, fail to do any sort
of show prep and only hustle when notified that the buffet table is
now open in the press box. You have guys who have lost jobs because
they couldn't show up on time, (or sober) who knock this all-time
great because he doesn't (in their eyes) concentrate fully all the
time on the field. An "artist" can go to Google image search, find a
photo that someone else took, trace it, and make a "cartoon" out of
it, yet knock Manny for not "hustling" down the first base line.

It has come to the point that they cannot say or write his name
without adding some sort of snide comment or voice inflection
indicating mockery or disapproval of his effort. This takes away from
his incredible achievements in the game, which are overshadowed by the
media's need to deride him because they don't approve of his manner.

In a similar vein, some knock him because he appears too laid back,
too lackadaisical for their taste. They would prefer that after he
strikes out or forgets how many outs there are in an inning that he
start throwing things and fuming and yelling like his outfield
teammate Trot Nixon.

Note what Baseball Prospectus 2006, had to say about Nixon their
publication this year:

"For many people in New England, he is the symbol of the gritty
guy with the dirty uniform, in contrast to Manny Ramirez, team space
case. But Nixon is similarly prone to the occasional baserunning or
defensive gaffe, and he spends part of every year on the DL."

Trot Nixon is lauded by most in the media for his hustle and "dirt
dog" style of play. However, he's been known to make even more
egregious errors on the field than Manny. Who can forget Trot making a
catch, forgetting how many outs there were in the inning, and tossing
the ball to a fan, allowing baserunners to advance? Afterwards, Nixon
angrily swatted a fan's beer off the nearby ledge. His demonstrated
anger at himself endeared him to the media, whereas, had Manny done
the same thing, his reaction would likely be a self-conscious,
embarrassed grin, which would infuriate the various guardians of the
gate for the great game of baseball.

Others question or even ridicule his intelligence. His hitting skills
are minimized as he is described as a "slugging savant". On the
surface, that's might sound like a compliment, as a "savant' is a
"learned person, or scholar." However, it is clear in the context in
which the term is often used that it is meant more along the lines of
"idiot savant", or someone defined as "a mentally retarded person who
exhibits genius in a highly specialized area"; in this case, hitting.
This of course implies that Ramirez's incredible hitting ability is
something that he has no command of. It would indicate that he doesn't
need to work at it. This of course is another fallacy, as Manny's work
habits in the batting cages, film room and off season training are
well documented. Yet, all of that is dismissed with the "slugging
savant" label.

Many jokes are also made about his alleged lack of awareness about
certain events. We've all heard the stories. How many of these are
urban legends and how many are actually true is a matter of debate. He
is referred to as a 12 year old. He is called goofy, flaky and
oblivious – all of which he might act like at times – but these are
allowed to overshadow and demean his accomplishments.

It seems clear that there is clearly an imbalance of reporting here.
Manny's quirks and incidents are covered much more than are his
on-field accomplishments and statistics. The perception being given by
the media is that Ramirez is simply a simpleton who just gets in the
batters box and hits, and doesn't care about anything else.

So why does the media portray Ramirez in this manner, which much more
focus on his "incidents" with little attention instead paid to his
greatness as a baseball player? I can think of several reasons off hand.

1) He won't talk to them.

How many times do we need to read in a writer's story that Manny
refused to talk to them? Almost every day, some writer has a mention
of it somewhere. Manny doesn't fill up their notebooks with material,
so he instead becomes an object of derision. This also ties in with
point number two.

2) They know he won't confront them
The same writers realize that they can write or say almost anything
about Manny because he's not going to confront them in the clubhouse.
They're free to generate "good copy" by ripping him to their heart's
content without fear of retribution.

3) It's easier and better copy to write about his goofiness than to
acknowledge his accomplishments.

It probably also sells more papers. It generates more outrage and talk
and phone calls. They can be viewed as "edgy" and controversial. It
might even lead to career advancement if they do a good enough rip job
and get noticed by others.

4) For sports radio, it's an easy "hot button" topic.

Again, a no-brainer. The hosts can throw around terms like "lazy" and
"doesn't care" and "disrespecting the fans and the game" and just wait
for the phone lines to light up. They don't have to do any further
work or show prep, they can just feed off the fury for up to two weeks
per incident.

5) His huge contract

Manny's huge contract also makes him an easy target. "He's making $20
million a season; he'd better hustle every single time down the first
base line!"


6) The Red Sox attempts to trade him (and waive him in 2003)

For the most part, the Red Sox haven't really helped take any of this
off of their superstar. When they placed him on waivers following the
2003 season and then very publicly tried to trade him in a package for
Alex Rodriguez that offseason, many in the media felt validation of
their attacks on Ramirez. The reasoning was, the Red Sox don't want
him, he must really be a disruption and distraction to the rest of the
team. The team has gotten better in this regard, with Terry Francona
working very hard over the last year or so to defend Manny.

7) It feeds their inflated sense of self importance.

For some reason, a number of the media in Boston feel that they are
guardians of the legacy of the game of baseball. They feel they must
speak out on anything that could possibly tarnish the reputation of
the game, and because of Manny's many alleged "crimes against
baseball" they must repeatedly point out these scandals. Of course,
when steroids were being used by Jose Canseco in the Red Sox
clubhouse, were these self-appointed guardians speaking out? I don't
remember it, if they were. Instead they were becoming buddies with
Canseco, to the point that even now at least one Boston media member
is considered a pretty close personal friend of Canseco, and exploits
that friendship for interviews and ratings.

50 years ago, Ted Williams was nearing the end of his fantastic career
with the Red Sox. Williams is rightfully viewed with awe and respect
in this day and age, yet during his playing career, sportswriters like
Dave Egan did nothing but criticize his every move. Because of the
benefit of history, Egan is now generally seen for what was: an agenda
driven hack and ultimately a joke.

The Boston sports media today is in danger of fulfilling the old adage
that those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. In
50 years, the little Manny incidents will have been long forgotten,
and with simply a glance at his career numbers we may be looking back
at these media people and wondering how in the world they could've
been so foolish, blind and agenda-ridden so as to have attempted to
mar the reputation of a Hall of Fame player such as Manny Ramirez.
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