Another Case of Manny Being Manny?
By HOWARD ULMAN,AP Sports
Posted: 2007-10-18 15:18:50
Filed Under: MLB
CLEVELAND (Oct. 18) - Manny Ramirez is the man in the middle of the Red Sox's fading drive toward the World Series.
Manny Ramirez, who already had a reputation of being a flake, didn't help his cause when he said it's not the "end of the world" if the Red Sox lose to Cleveland.
Boston's quirky cleanup hitter stands at the plate to admire a mammoth homer. He keeps getting on base. He chats pleasantly for nine minutes, a filibuster for a slugger who prefers silence to speaking with reporters.
Ramirez was in the center again Wednesday, surrounded at his locker by writers whose pens sped up when he made a casual remark with the Red Sox trailing the Cleveland Indians 3-1 in the AL championship series that resumes Thursday night.
"We're not going to give up," Ramirez said. "It doesn't happen, so who cares? There's always next year. It's not like it's the end of the world."
Wow.
That's not what Boston's passionate fans want to hear when their team is one loss away from elimination after losing three straight games.
But Ramirez does care.
Why else would he show up at the ballpark many mornings long before night games to lift weights, do drills and hit balls? Why would he say his career records for most homers in the postseason and the LCS pale in significance to a return to the World Series.
"If I would have known that I was going to be in the World Series and not have those records, I would have traded in a heartbeat," Ramirez said on Wednesday's workout day between Games 4 and 5. "Who cares about the records, man? We just want to go have fun and win."
Those words again: Who cares.
The Red Sox need more than Ramirez and the middle of their lineup to help postseason star Josh Beckett extend their season when he faces C.C. Sabathia in a rematch of Cy Young favorites who faced each other in the series opener.
They need the last four hitters in the batting order and leadoff man Dustin Pedroia to improve on their 16-for-77 showing with just six runs and six RBIs in the series.
Ramirez is confident that will change.
"It's going to happen," he said. "We've got a lot of confidence in our teammates. They've been good all year 'round."
If the Red Sox win, they'll return home for Game 6 on Saturday with Curt Schilling, an outstanding postseason pitcher who failed in Game 2, opposing Fausto Carmona. If the managers stick to their rotations, Westbrook would face Daisuke Matsuzaka if a seventh game is played.
"We can believe all we want," Boston's Mike Lowell said, "but we have to get hits off Sabathia and hold them down."
Ramirez is confident the Red Sox will prolong the series.
"Hey," he said, "anything's possible."
But if they lose, don't expect him to sulk in his seat more than an hour after the game, staring into his locker the way Matsuzaka did when he lasted just 4 2-3 innings in Cleveland's 4-2 win in Game 3.
"We're always relaxed," Ramirez said. "If a guy goes over there and gives me 100 percent and things don't happen the way he wanted to, what is there to ask?"
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