August 8, 2008 | 01:24 AM
MANNYGATE
(Selig: Mike Stobe/Getty Images)
Let the Investigation Begin
Was Major League Baseball Blindsided by a Scott Boras
Sting Operation to Get Manny's Options Dropped?
Globe Source: MLB Investigating Manny's Departure
Dan Shaughnessy: Manny Mania Takes Over LA
Is Independent Investigator and Sox Partner George Mitchell Available
to Write Up Another Report on This Shame to the Game?
Shaughnessy: "Feeling a little duped, Red Sox Nation? Still wondering if this whole thing was on the level?
"You are not alone. The commissioner's office is investigating the circumstances of Manny's final hours with the Red Sox. The Globe has learned (from a source with direct knowledge of the inquiry) that Bud Selig directed Major League Baseball executive vice president Rob Manfred to contact all parties for an explanation of how things unfolded around last week's trading deadline. According to the source, Manfred has yet to report back to the commissioner.
"Here's why Selig's office is looking into the matter:
"The Red Sox had an option to retain Ram�rez in 2009 for $20 million. They had the same option for 2010. Ram�rez, who will turn 37 next season, wanted to be a free agent at the end of this season. His agent wanted the same thing. Boras inherited Ram�rez's old contract and stood to earn nothing until Manny signed a new one. It was in the interest of the player and the agent to have the options dropped.
"Manny's only leverage was withholding services and playing at half speed. So that's what he did. Sitting out games against Seattle and the Yankees, jogging down the first base line (and maybe even looking at those three strikes against Mariano Rivera), he sent the message that he wanted out. He made sure the Sox knew he could not be trusted to play hard if they kept him until the end of the season with the options intact." -- 8.8.08, Dan Shaughnessy, Boston Globe
Red Sox Nation In an Uproar Over Getting Ripped Off
"If this is a colusion job by Manny and Boras then, then Selig needs to ban Ramirez for life just like Pete Rose was. Boras should lose his license and be very heavily fined. The whole thing is sounds very fishy to me." -- 8.7.08, Bruce via Extra Bases comments
Ramirez Is Ripping Around the Bases in Blue
(AP)
The Former Tendinitis Trotter Suddenly Recovered and Found His Wheels
But He Was Loafing Up the Line in Boston
(Jim Davis / Boston Globe Staff)
"He'll do that a lot." -- 7.29.08, Tito on Manny's "effort" up the line
"We had a conversation a little while back, talking about what he should do and how things are gonna go and there's just really not a reason from a business standpoint for the Red Sox to do anything right now. There really wouldn't... Why would they? Given your age and the contract situations. Why would they not just kind of wait and see how things played out. I think there was, maybe there's some feeling on his part that if he did what he did last winter and he came out and had a monster first couple of months that they'd sit down and say 'OK we want to keep you here the next four years, let's get something done,' and it felt like to me that the second he realized that that was not an option, this just went straight downhill." ...
�I think absolutely he�s absolutely had a hand in this � I think he absolutely has a piece of this. Scott Boras stands to make zero dollars if the Red Sox pick up Manny�s options the next two years. Manny�s not 1- years from retirement, he�s maybe four obviously, that�s where he�s at. So does Scott Boras want to get a two year-deal for Manny or a four-year deal for Manny?" -- 7.31.08, Curt Schilling on WEEI
LA Ram Shot His Way to Free Agency with a Phone Call to ESPNdesportes
"The Red Sox don't deserve a player like me. During my years here, I've seen how they [the Red Sox] have mistreated other great players when they didn't want them to try to turn the fans against them." -- 7.30.08, Manny Ramirez to ESPNdeportes.com's Enrique Rojas on the phone from Fenway Park
Bud Will See If Boras Was Pulling the Strings from Behind
the Scenes to Get Manny Shipped Out of Boston
Scott Certainly Wasn't Talking About How Much Manny
Wanted to Be in the Cleveland of California Before the Deadline
"... I think when you have great players and you have a team that's a great team, those decisions become all the more difficult mainly because the fact that you have two interests at hand, one being a player who has rights and a club who has a strong interest in being very successful in the postseason and during the season so, the fact of finding a fit and putting things together is more difficult in that situation." -- 7.30.08, Scott Boras playing it close to the vest... and keeping quiet about future commissions...
Don't Forget The Friday Night Fenway On-Strike-Sit-Out
"So, after the game, Ortiz left without a word from a clubhouse - and a front office - roiled by Ram�rez's decision to cite a sore right knee as a reason not to play, just as he had done for the last game in Seattle Wednesday. One player privately called it a disgrace and said he would not be surprised if the team tried to trade Ram�rez. The team captain, Jason Varitek, begged off from answering questions." -- 7.26.08, Gordon Edes, Boston Globe
And the Self-Proclaimed Sore Knee in Seattle
That Took the Medical Staff by Surprise
First HeWasn't Going to Get on the Team Bus to Go to Seattle,
Then Ramirez Was An Unexpected Scratch Out West
"He showed up this morning, I wasn't ready for that,'' Francona said. "He said his right knee hurts.'' Francona then joked, "The (expletive) jaywalking, if you do it right, you won't hurt your knee.'' Ramirez told reporters his knee has been bothering him for about a week. "I've just been trying to play it out," he said, while jokingly singing for tips at his locker in the clubhouse, with his I-Pod docked to a speaker and a cup out seeking donations from teammates. "I decided it was time to give it a rest." Asked if he would be ready for the Yankees series, which begins Friday, Ramirez said, "I don't know. I'm day-to-day at this point." -- 7.23.08, Boston.com, Extra Bases
"The thing that most people are forgetting and haven't talked about is the strikeout in Yankee Stadium," Lobel said. "The bat on the shoulder for the three pitches from Mariano Rivera. That was a big [expletive] to the Red Sox after the fine. I'm just telling you ... there are things in the front office that are perceived ... I'm saying that there is a strong feeling that that [three-pitch strikeout] was the message to the Red Sox and it's a strong feeling that that's unacceptable ... there's a feeling that he didn't give it his all, let's put it that way ... I'm just saying the front office has not forgotten that moment. It's akin to Nomar sitting on the bench [in a game in which Derek Jeter dove into the stands at Yankee Stadium in 2004]. It's the same thing. It's an at-bat that resonated very strongly in the front office."-- 7.18.08, Bob Lobel on WEEI
The Beginning of the End: Adding Insult to Fake Injuries,
Manny Stole a Page from Pedro's Exit Plan
�I want no more (expletive) where they tell you one thing and behind your back they do another thing. I think I�ve earned that respect, for a team to sit down with me and tell me this is what we want, this is what we want to do.� -- 7.16.08, Manny Ramirez to the Boston Herald
