« Yankee stat of the day
Main
Sox Streakers for April 25 »

Wily being Manny

Well, there's one thing positive that we can say about Manny Ramirez's performance last night at Fenway: He wasn't the worst defensive outfielder in the game. Thank you Mr. Pena. But Manny's bizarre bouncing throw toward first, which came after he nicely barehanded a Lyle Overbay double that had caromed high off the scoreboard, got lots of laughs today on SportsCenter. Nick Cafardo, writing today in The Boston Globe, said Manny walked right past a reporter who asked him what happened, pretending not to hear.

Ramirez's average dropped down below .200 again last night, which means that we are talking about something quite a bit more severe than the slow starts he's had in recent seasons. At this time last year, after scuffling for a couple of weeks, he already had his average back up to .300. Going back to last year, he's hit 3 home runs in the last 31 games in which he's appeared. Still, no one seems too worried. Interesting.

What They're Saying: On Slate.com, Seth Stevenson says baseball biomechanics nerds are pushing baseball stats nerds aside. He describes a baseball conversation with a friend: "In the midst of marveling at Manny Ramirez's hitting genius, my friend suddenly got out of his chair and mimicked Manny's swing. 'He keeps his weight back,' my friend said, lifting his knee and cocking his elbow, 'so he has unbelievable balance right into his follow-through.' Here my friend swung his arms and watched an imaginary home run sail into the distance. Now I hopped up, too, holding my own invisible bat. Soon we were discussing hip rotation, and forearm pronation, and how to keep your head quiet through the swing." Hey, it's more fun than mimicking Ramirez taking strike three.

Lee Adams of the Itawamba County Times in Mississippi says this in a column bemoaning the fact that most players don't wear their socks high: "Recently some MLB players have been going back to the high socks style, but you still have players like Manny Ramirez who look unprofessional and sloppy." Itawamba County?

Posted by Mike McDermott  at 2:45 PM to Projo Mannybeingmanny | Permalink