One of my favorite hitters to watch. Ever.

I get the sense that he is just a very private person who figured out very quickly how to protect himself from intense media glare and perhaps even hangers-on. His aloofness, in other words, strikes me as at least in part studied. Thus, one of my favorite Manny stories is the one from last year when he refused to answer post game questions unless they were asked in Spanish, this in spite of his fluency in English.

exactly

Eh. It’s apparently contrarian and secret-handshake cool to defend Manny, because it’s easy to hate on Manny. But in Manny’s case, it seems pretty well deserved.

Of coruse, you (and most LGTers) are capable of distinguishing between appreciating his baseball skills (among the best ever) and the rest. As a ballplayer, he was a marvel. I miss him in a Tribe uni. But I can’t imagine every saying, “I like Manny and always will.” No way.

No, it was “wow.” He had a long at bat where he fouled off several pitches. As the ball headed into the seats, Eck turned to his catcher and said “wow.” The reason is that generally, young hitters who are up there battling to stay alive in the at-bat don’t just turn on an inside fastball like that and hit it 9 miles. Eck was recognizing that he was a special hitter, even at 23.

I’ve always told people that what angers me most about the steroids era isn’t the players that got left behind, but that it is hard to simply enjoy the awesome talents of the accused. Barry Bonds still would have hit a ton of home runs and Manny Ramirez still would have been the best right handed hitter I’ve ever seen in person. They would all still be immensely talented and most still likely at the top of the game. We could look back at their careers with unbridled joy. Now, it simply leads to a debate, either internally or externally. I feel they’ve done less to ruin the game while it was played and more to ruin the nostalgia.