Peter Gammons has a new blog post up where he shows that Red Sox executives believed Manny was done for the season and would not put much effort into playing for the Sox. For one, they truly believed he faked his knee injury:
Ramirez tried to sit, citing his knee. Problem is, after Felix Hernandez and Joba Chamberlain had come and gone, the Red Sox ownership and medical staff ordered him to take an MRI. If Ramirez hadn’t forgotten which knee was bothering him, he would have been more convincing, but he got mixed up.
Gammons responds to some people in the media that say the Sox are much worse off today:
But the way the past month had gone, there was no chance — none, zilch, nada — that Boston could make the playoffs with Ramirez on the team. In his mind, he had completed his obligation for the guaranteed $168 million the Red Sox paid him…..But as soon as the deadline passed, if Ramirez were still with the Red Sox, there would have been one incident after another with Ramirez secure in knowing that he didn’t have to play, hustle or give any regard to winning to collect his remaining $7 million. Anyone who was watching John Lackey’s run at a no-hitter continue in the seventh inning Wednesday when Ramirez jogged to first in 5.7 seconds, realizes that he is one of those rare, gifted athletes who cares nothing about winning, about the integrity of the game or about his teammates.
It will be interesting to see if Manny has any knee or hamstring problems with LA in the next few weeks. I think that will show if he really was quiting on the Sox to get more money. Getting over the Nomar trade was pretty easy because the Sox won their first World Series in 86 years, what will it take to get over the Manny trade? Even hearing about him quiting on the team I love by one of baseball’s most respected reporters doesn’t make this one easy to deal with.
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