How Manny, Joe turned Dodgers into winners
Posted: Wednesday, October 08, 2008 4:18 PM
Baseball's greatest moment this October would be Manny Ramirez playing in the World Series as a Dodger in Fenway Park. It couldn’t get any better than that. The Manny-Red Sox Nation dynamic would be juicy and riveting to watch. And it could happen.
On Aug. 1, this possibility seemed ludicrous. Today, it's real. It’s hard to look at the National League Championship Series without seeing the Dodgers as slight favorites over the Philadelphia Phillies, and the Boston Red Sox's experience gives them an even slimmer edge on the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League Championship Series.
Ramirez, traded in late July from the Red Sox to the Dodgers, could be headed for two World Series shares. It's a question he posed recently to the L.A. Times, just another instance of Manny being Manny.
And how are the Dodgers, a .500 team for much of the regular season, in this position? Has Ramirez put them four victories away from the World Series?
It's interesting that despite Manny’s tremendous numbers following the trade, the Dodgers were 11-16 in their first month with him in uniform. They stood five games under .500 on the morning of Aug. 30. There was no reasonable way to think they were headed for the playoffs.
Here’s what grabs your attention: last year’s Dodger team disintegrated under the weight of a split clubhouse, veterans against upstart kids. This year’s team gelled in September. Who were the different personalities? Someone please call the Yankees and remind them about the manager they let walk away after last season after an insulting contract offer and subtly trashed on his way out the door. Yes, Joe Torre succeeded where Grady Little failed. He kept his team together.
The other difference? Ramirez.
That’s right. On Andre Ethier's blog post last week on the Dodgers’ Web site, he wroter, “When Manny’s happy, everyone’s happy.” And Manny has been smiling, both on the field and off the field, where he has been by all accounts a positive presence for his new teammates. His locker was placed in the middle of the clubhouse and he has built a bridge to players in their 40s and young pups like 20-year-old Clayton Kershaw.
Two personal observations: Covering the Red Sox in the 2007 ALDS series as someone who had spent many years in the NL, I was struck by the camaraderie between Ramirez, who was still happy in Boston back them, and his teammates. I visited the Dodger clubhouse in late July of this year and would not describe it as overflowing with peace and love.
Now none of this changes the distasteful way in which Manny and his agent Scott Boras engineered his Boston exit. Which raises another intriguing point? Last weekend, MLB commissioner Bud Selig, following the lead of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, warned his owners about their fiscal practices during this chaotic economic time. On the same weekend, Manny is quoted in the L.A. Times as telling Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti in a victory celebration that a new five-year deal would work for him. Inference here: there is a good deal of truth in Manny’s claim.
Who will give a 37-year-old hitter a five-year contract? Manny is within reason to ask that based on some of the mega deals of the last few years. Then again, that’s when we all had viable banks.
FIVE MORE SWINGS:
1. INTERESTING STATEMENT BY THE METS…on the relative value of management positions. Following another excruciating miss at making the playoffs, general manager Omar Minaya was given three additional guaranteed seasons in a new contract that runs through 2012. It includes club options covering 2013 and 2014. In contrast, manager Jerry Manuel, who replaced Willie Randolph in June, was given a two-year contract that includes a club option for 2011.
2. IN THE BRONX…general manager Brian Cashman signed a new deal to remain with the Yankees. Part of the 2008 “collapse” was rooted in the lack of production from the young arms Cashman would not trade last winter (Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy). But then Cashman looks at Boston and sees Jon Lester, an afterthought in last year’s postseason, become a stud in these playoffs. He sees Justin Masterson, a minor-leaguer last year, working as Jonathan Papelbon’s setup man this year. And he sees young position players Jed Lowrie, Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia playing key roles. Cashman knows where the Red Sox are is where the Yankees must continue to head.
3. THE ANGELS WERE SHOCKED…by their ALDS loss to Boston. They say they knew they were the better team. I know AL officials who feel the same way but the Angels never showed that on the field. They made horrid defensive mistakes: the three-run pop up that dropped in shallow centerfield in Game 3 and two crucial plays not made in the last of the ninth of Game 4 -- Reggie Willits’ ill-advised dive played Jason Bay’s leadoff bloop into a double and Howie Kendrick’s lack of range allowed Jed Lowrie’s grounder to reach right field and become the game-winning hit.
Then there was the hitting: Vladimir Guerrero, Mark Teixeira and Torii Hunter had 21 hits in the four games -- 20 singles and one double. The Angels had no pop and they are now just like the Texas Rangers of the late 1990s against the Yankees -- a good team that couldn’t beat one nemesis of an opponent in a short series.
4. IS THIS THE CLEMENS TREND? Curt Schilling says he could pitch a half season in 2009. I guess Roger Clemens would like to be remembered for something other than his ill-advised fight with Brian McNamee.
5. REMEMBER THAT THIS BLOG RAILS ABOUT HITTING IN THE POSTSEASON…and Cubs manager Lou Piniella seems to be a believer. His comment after the shockingly quick end to the Cubs season in the NLDS: “This is six games that I’ve managed here in the postseason and we’ve scored 12 runs.” No pitching, defense, pressure or curse comments from the skipper, just his bemoaning his club’s lack of hitting.
