Projo Sports Blog

Click the play button below to hear Sean's comments, recorded this morning. The topics: Manny Ramirez's confrontation with traveling secretary Jack McCormick, whether it will have an impact on future contract talks and the double-standard applied to star athletes; the market for relief pitcher Brian Fuentes; and the arrival of the big series in Tampa Bay.

Here are some excerpts from Sean's comments:

The impact of Ramirez's outburst on the club's decision to bring Manny back in 2009: "I think that, eight years into Manny's stay in Boston, whether stuff becomes public knowledge as this story did over the weekend or not, I think there's -- I don't know about acceptance, but -- a realization on the part of Red Sox management that there are going to be episodes with Manny over the course of the season ... Certainly this goes beyond questions about playing hurt and some of the other episodes, because it involves pushing someone and what could loosely be described as an assault, although nobody was hurt in this instance. Fact of the matter is if they've gone this long with Manny -- eight years in -- I'm not sure these two latest episodes [with Kevin Youkilis and McCormick] are going to scare them off bringing them back."

Double standard for stars like Manny? "I don't think there's any question about that. Justice gets applied unevenly in pro sports, and the fact of the matter is, star players have long been given a longer leash than fringe guys like [Shawn] Chacon, and this past week is a perfect example."

On the first-place Rays: "It's kind of an upside-down universe when tomorrow is the first of July and the Tampa Bay Rays are in first place. ... Talking about that June 5 brawl at Fenway between these two teams, although they might not want to label it as such, I think that's kind of been part of the building process for Joe Maddon. He insisted that his team kind of stay together and fight together and stick up for themselves, and not be intimidated by teams like the Red Sox and Yankees and ... I don't think it's any coincidence that the Rays have had two on-field incidents since the start of spring training, and they've both been with teams in their division who are veteran teams with more accomplished, and I think that's Maddon trying to instill in his team confidence, and trying to teach them how to win"

 Tags  Boston Red Sox Manny Ramirez Sean McAdam SoxTalk Tampa Bay Rays

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