Manny Ramirez

The Ghost of Manny

I originally wrote this post last Thursday at around the bottom of the 6th inning of Game 5 between the Sox and the Rays. As we all know, the Sox staged a comeback for the ages in that game but, alas, just prolonged the inevitable as they lost in Game 7 to the Rays. So the post below was delayed, but the story remains the same (to quote Led Zepplin):

In the end, the Red Sox missed Manny more than they thought. But it was more than that. The Rays “dropkicked murphyed” the Red Sox all over Fenway Park, then once they were done kicking, they shipped them off to the off-season.

In the three games at Fenway Park (stats below through 6th inning of Game 5 [editor’s note]), the Rays outscored the Redsox 29-5 and outhit the Sox 34-20. Collectively, David Ortiz, Jason Varitek and Jacoby Ellsbury went a combined 3 for 43, or an .070 batting average for those of you keeping score at home. And I won’t even go near the pitching stats. That is not a formula for winning games. But more than anything, the Rays made the Red Sox look like a very slow, plodding and old team.

The stats above were through the 6th inning of Game 5. Since the series went 7 games, the numbers changed a bit by the end of the series, but the story is still the same. Papi, the Captain, and Jacoby did not show. The off season should be interesting. And with that, I will keep my Red Sox posts to a minimum until next summer.

Manny Who?

Seen Sunday August 2, two days after Manny Ramirez was traded from the Red Sox to the Dodgers, on a construction site on Lansdowne Street across the street from Fenway Park. Photo was actually taken from within the grounds of Fenway Park.

Manny Being Manny

As the Red Sox’ Manny Ramirez approaches the 500 HR plateau, the Boston Globe has a really interesting graphic demonstration of where Manny has hit all of his homeruns over the course of his career. When I look at this, the thing that impresses me the most and illustrates just what an amazing hitter he is, is the stunningly even distribution of his homeruns to the different parts of the field. It appears that there is a slight skew of his homers to left field, (which is logical being that he’s a right handed hitter) but it is only slight. Its just Manny being Manny.