Boston Red Sox - 2006

[GBrushTWood]

Quote: Originally Posted by deeman11747

Cam, come on man... you can't deny that Manny conducts more public antics than almost any other player in sports aside from TO. Especially playing for a high profile team like Boston doesnt help. Yes every team has guys that get preferential treatment but last year after the Green Monster incident... the annual trade demands.. and the "anonymous" quotes about Schilling's rehab... people who dont even know him are sick of him. Imagine how his teammates must feel. Obviously you nor I have any idea what goes on behind those clubhouse doors but I would assume his teammates dont find all of the things he does to be funny. So now on top of that his teammates see that one of the worst behaved players on the team is getting a free pass from the front office? I've been on plenty of teams and theres nothing I hate more than when a teammate of mine gets a free pass on something that would be not be tolerated for anyone else. And the "perfect chemistry" point was just me being sarcastic about how the media constantly portrays the Sox as the fun loving clubhouse but it seems as if, like you said, with al the new faces that really isnt the case anymore..

Or... some fat, buffet-storming, smelly bunghole writers are simply trying to sell newspapers or get moe-rones to tune into their bile media programming. I've got my money on the latter rather than the former, given how much people consume Red Sox coverage.

Re: Chemistry: Key-rist, the full squad has only been together for one day. There is no chemistry anyways with so many new people. There's nothing to lose! Let's not get carried away here because we don't know what is truly going on, as you said.
The Red Sox brought in a lot of veteran "character" guys like Snow, Loretta, and Lowell anyways. I'm willing to bet they understand that Ramirez gives you around 40 HR's a year. For that kind of production, his nuttiness is tolerable for teammates.
Really, this is just fodder to attract attention to one's own media interests...

*Edit* One other thing: Ramirez isn't comparable to Terrell Owens, at all. TO divided his locker-room and created an atmosphere where teammates took sides against one another. Throughout Ramirez's entire stay, this type of thing has never been known to occur with the Red Sox. Owens effect on his football team and Ramirez effect on his baseball team are not accurate comparisons, IMO.

[deeman11747]

Quote: Originally Posted by GBrushTWood

*Edit* One other thing: Ramirez isn't comparable to Terrell Owens, at all. TO divided his locker-room and created an atmosphere where teammates took sides against one another. Throughout Ramirez's entire stay, this type of thing has never been known to occur with the Red Sox. Owens effect on his football team and Ramirez effect on his baseball team are not accurate comparisons, IMO.

I didnt mean to compare the two in terms of effect on their team... I was just stating that the only athlete that, in my opinion, brought more negative attention to himself (non steroid/drug related) than Manny this past season was TO.

[Stu]

Quote: Originally Posted by deeman11747

I didnt mean to compare the two in terms of effect on their team... I was just stating that the only athlete that, in my opinion, brought more negative attention to himself (non steroid/drug related) than Manny this past season was TO.

I'm not going to deny that Manny has made his share of bonehead moves but nobody else I've ever seen in a Red Sox uniform has been attacked by the media like him. The media in Boston is infested with bitter, spiteful little men who can't stand when a player won't talk to them, which Manny has refused to do during his tenure in Boston. If Manny doesn't run out a ground ball, he gets ripped for a week in the papers and on talk radio, but if David Ortiz does the same thing nobody even notices. I'm not a bit surprised Manny wanted out of an environment where he is criticized for every perceived transgression while his teammates are being promoted as heroes.

[GBrushTWood]

Quote: Originally Posted by camulos

The media in Boston is infested with bitter, spiteful little men who can't stand when a player won't talk to them, which Manny has refused to do during his tenure in Boston.

This is unequivocally true, yet, pathetically there is more to it. Even if a player does speak to the media, if he doesn't say what they expect him to say, they will also disparage the player and try to turn fans against him. Example - Keith Foulke.

In my pitiful struggle against boredom a few days ago, I stumbled across something called the 'Boston Sports Blog'. On the front page there, some a$$munch had an entry criticizing Keith Foulke for saying he thinks watching baseball is boring. Somehow, this was twisted and turned into Foulke hating his teammates, being a horrible human being, a terrorist, and a pedophile. It was just ludicrous, and made me want to take a shower after being subjected to such bottom-feeding, scum-sucking "journalism".

The sad thing is, this happens daily, from the moment the players show up in Spring Training. This stuff has already started happening in the first week of camp! As a result of this, I avoid articles by serial-hackjob offenders (enemy #1: Dan Shaughnessy, in all likelihood, the biggest douchwazzle "writer" to ever disgrace the region).

I just shake my head at what some of these low-lifes will come up with this year. Let's see:
They'll get on Beckett when he's going to get a blister. They'll chuckle and chortle at what pansies baseball players are. They haven't been able to use this one since Lowe left, so they'll be delighted to dust off the barbs once again.
They'll accuse Lowell of being a steroid mongrel when he starts to suck (I sure hope not)
They'll chew up Tavarez after his first or second meltdown.
You will undoubtedly see some terribly corny, hackneyed headlines whenever David Riske does anything of note.

Probably some more, I've spent too long on this post anyways..

[Misfit]

Manny has brought more negative attention on himself than any athlete not named TO? Its not like he threw a sex party on an off-shore boat full of prostitutes...

The media has always tried to make him look like a terrible guy. Truth is, when he speaks he never says the wrong thing, he's almost always smiling, he jokes around with his teammates. The things he does and gets away with are nothing in the grand scheme of things, which is why the fans never buy into the media crap. The media in Boston will keep trying to paint a bad picture of Manny Ramirez but it seems like no matter what they do the majority of fans don't care. Unless Manny begins to start fights in the clubhouse or says negative things about the team to the media the fans will likely stay on his side.

[Stu]

Also, regarding him asking for a trade. He has never said he wants out of Boston because of his teammates, manager or the organization. His teammates understand the difficulty of playing under a microscope in Boston so it's not like him asking for a trade is an insult to them.

[Stu]

Looks like Manny is pulling out of the WBC:

http://www.boston.com/sports/basebal...s/extra_bases/

[rsox]

Quote: Originally Posted by camulos

Looks like Manny is pulling out of the WBC: http://www.boston.com/sports/basebal...s/extra_bases/

Manny's pulling out, Pedro's out of at least the first round and Roberto Kelly quit as team Panama's Manager, man, is anyone left in this thing?.