FORT MYERS, Fla. — Manny Ramirez, philosopher:

"You've got to be a boat knowing where you're going," saith the sage
of the Green Monster. "We've got money. We're famous. But you've got
to know what you want."

Manny Ramirez, new-age devotee:

"My uncle, he likes to meditate. He does a lot of yoga classes," quoth
the Boston slugger searching for inner truth. "Last year, I started
doing it with him."

Manny Ramirez, believer that anything is possible if you want it
enough, even a second straight World Series championship for the Red Sox:

"If we want to repeat, we're going to go and do it. Everything is
possible in life. Hey, whatever you want to be in life, you could be."

Manny seemed like a new man yesterday, sitting at his locker with a
peaceful look and a soft voice in a 10-minute interview with the AP,
then taking the inspirational book, "The Secret," from his shelf and
using a pink highlighter to mark passages.

"Hey, you're the architect of your life," he said. "Let me tell you
something. We've got so much bad stuff inside, it's up to us to make
the best of it."

Ramirez's reputation is well-known — one of baseball's better hitters
with a quirky personality who marches to his own beat and has his own
unique hairstyle. But the left fielder changed his offseason
activities before the 15th season of a career that he said yesterday
will end in a Boston uniform with no retirement date in mind.

He worked out for the first time at Athletes' Performance Institute in
Arizona. And he expanded his reading activities.

Now he's engrossed in "The Secret."

"It's about life. It's good. You should read it. Go and buy it," he
advised a reporter. "Sometimes you go and read a book and that person
who wrote it, all his experience that he got in 50 years, you get in
one day if you read a book."

Nearby, Ramirez's buddy, David Ortiz, said Ramirez hasn't changed much
as a person — just a laid-back, friendly man who sometimes simply
prefers not talking with reporters. But Big Papi has seen a change in
Ramirez's interests.

"He's taking some meditation class now. He thinks that might help him
to get his spirit going around so he can go to different places,"
Ortiz said with a look that indicated he's not convinced. "Some crazy
stuff, you know how it is.

"Manny fools people. Manny does a lot of things that people don't
think he would normally do, but he's got his own program."

One thing about Ramirez hasn't changed: his ability and his confidence
in being one of baseball's top hitters. He's hitting .333 with four
doubles and four singles among his eight hits in spring training.

Don't talk to him about last season when he had 20 homers and 88 RBIs
and hit .296, all far below his yearly averages.

"For other people, it's a great year," he said, but "that's in the
past. Talk to me (about) right now. If we want to repeat we're going
to go and do it. Everything is possible in life," he said. "I'm ready
to go. I don't know about other people. I'm ready to go."

The team has the option on extending his contract in 2009 and 2010.
But Ramirez said that's in his control because he knows he'll play
well enough for them to want to pick them up at $20 million per year.

"Hey, this is the place to be," said Ramirez, who asked to be traded
several times in his seven seasons with Boston. "I want to finish my
career here."

He's convinced that the Red Sox will want to keep him next year if he
has a great season.

Source: Howard Ulman, Associated Press / CapeCodOnline.com