CLEVELAND — Manny Ramirez yelled across the Boston Red Sox clubhouse
before the American League Championship Series started and asked
reserve infielder Royce Clayton for his Social Security number.

Clayton remembers looking at him as if he were crazy. "My Social
Security number?" Clayton said in disbelief. "What? What do you want
that for Manny?"

"I'm going to use you as a write-off," Ramirez said according to
Clayton. "You come over to my house and eat my mom's cooking so often,
I'm going to put you down on my taxes."

Yep, Manny being Manny.

Ten years ago, Ramirez, wouldn't have known a write-off from a
walk-off. Now the left fielder is trying to help lead the Boston Red
Sox to a World Series title for the second time in four years.

Ramirez, 35, is returning home Monday night to his roots as baseball's
all-time postseason home run hitter, passing former New York Yankees
outfielder Bernie Williams on Saturday with his 23rd homer. He is
hitting .500 with one homer and six RBI in the first two games of the
ALCS against his former team, the Cleveland Indians.

He also is showing uncanny patience at the plate. Three times he has
walked with the bases loaded — two times more than anyone had
accomplished in postseason history. He and DH David Ortiz have reached
base 33 times in 46 plate appearances.

"He creates this aura of indifference or aloofness," Red Sox general
manager Theo Epstein says, "but he does understand his role, his place
in the game, and respects the game. He knows what he's accomplished
and wants to accomplish."

And that, Ramirez says, is another World Series ring, which would
again deny the Indians their first title since 1948.

Ramirez, who left Cleveland as a free agent after the 2000 season,
expects to get booed during introductions tonight before Game 3 at
Jacobs Field. He is hitting .359 at Jacobs Field since leaving the
Indians, with nine homers and 25 RBI, including 7-for-14 with two
homers this season.

"I know he loves playing at Cleveland," Ortiz says. "He goes deep
every time. That's where he made his life, his whole career. It's
something special for him."

Back to the beginning

Ramirez adores Cleveland. This was home. This is where his big-league
career began in 1993. And this is where he begrudgingly left, changing
his mind six times in two hours, according to his former agent, Jeff
Moorad, before signing an eight-year, $160 million contract with the
Red Sox on Dec. 13, 2000.

The decision forever changed the fate of two franchises.

If Ramirez didn't come to Boston, the Red Sox may have never won the
2004 World Series without his MVP performance, the franchise's first
title since 1918.

If Ramirez stayed in Cleveland, the Indians may not be seven victories
shy of their first World Series title since 1948.

"It would have been tough to build a team around," says Chris
Antonetti, Cleveland assistant general manager, whose team offered
$171 million, including a $30 million signing bonus, in their contract
negotiations with Ramirez. "It may have impeded our progress to get to
this point. It could have been like the Alex Rodriguez situation in Texas.

"My guess it that he wouldn't have been here for the duration of the
contract."

Says Cleveland GM Mark Shapiro: "The direction we were going, it would
have made no sense to keep him. I think we would have traded him."

Even though Shapiro says Ramirez is the best right-handed hitter of
his era, it's hardly as if the Indians would have reloaded with
prospects from a potential trade. The Red Sox, frustrated with
Ramirez, put him on waivers after the 2003 season. No one claimed him,
unwilling to pick up his salary.

It turned out to be the best move the Red Sox made. It showed Ramirez
that perhaps his value isn't nearly as great as he believed, and he
responded the following two years by combining to hit 88 home runs
with 274 RBI. This season was the first since 1997 that Ramirez did
not hit at least 30 home runs with 100 RBI — the second-longest streak
in baseball history.

Noted work ethic

Ramirez was embarrassed by his performance this season. He hit .296
with 20 homers and 88 RBI, the worst marks since he became an everyday
player in 1995. He had two homers and 20 RBI during the final two
months of the season, missing 24 games with a side-muscle strain.

But everything has changed the last two weeks. In his last 11 games,
including six in the regular season, Ramirez is hitting .406 and has
three homers and 10 RBI in the postseason.

"I haven't been right all year round," Ramirez said during the Red
Sox's first-round sweep of the Los Angeles Angels.

"But I guess, you know, when you don't feel good and you still get
hits, that's when you know you are a bad man."

Ramirez, married with three sons who live in a suite at the
Ritz-Carlton in downtown Boston, has changed his appearance but not
his personality since leaving Cleveland. He wears his hair in
dreadlocks and dons a uniform that appears several sizes too large. He
usually is listening to an iPod while taking batting practice or
outfield practice.

Yet his teammates say he's also among the hardest workers in the game.
Ramirez arrives at the ballpark at 10 in the morning, nine or 10 hours
before game time. He works out. Lifts weights. Takes batting practice.
Goes home. Returns by 2 for more batting practice. Takes balls off the
Green Monster in left. Goes into the clubhouse and studies video.

"His image is so much more different than the real person," says
Clayton, in his 17th major league season. "When I came over here this
year, I had always heard about his work ethic. But I had no idea it
was like this. He works harder than any superstar I've ever seen. He's
about as humble a guy as you'll find. That's why he doesn't like the
attention."

The spotlight is impossible to escape when you're playing like
Ramirez. Still, finding Ramirez to comment on his performance, or
anything else, is as elusive as finding players willing to chitchat
with former senator George Mitchell about his steroid investigation.

"There will be a couple of moments throughout the course of the year
you scratch your head," Epstein says, "but the biggest thing is his
teammates love him. They appreciate his personality and all of the
hard work he does to get himself ready to play."

And yes, they'll laugh right along with him, like the time he ducked
behind the wall at the Green Monster at Fenway Park during a pitching
change and nearly missed the next pitch. Sorry, Ramirez said, nature
was calling.

"You don't realize when it's just Manny being Manny," Red Sox catcher
Doug Mirabelli says, "or whether he's actually thinking about what
he's doing at the time."

Whatever it is, they don't want him to stop, at least not for another
two weeks.

"I've seen a different look in Manny," Mirabelli says, "like he has a
chip on his shoulder. Like he has something to prove this last part of
the year.

"I hope he does."

Source: Bob Nightengale, USA TODAY