Are you kidding me?
Are you freakin’ kidding me?
Read this article by Bill Plaschke of the LA Times. Just read it. Read it and weep.
It made me a little sick a few days ago when the LA Dodgers seemingly caved in to the demands of Manny Ramirez and his agent Scott Boras, offering him a two-year deal worth $45 million. What I didn’t know at the time is that the second year was actually a player option worth $20 million. Player options are the ultimate in baseball contracts. They put the team at an enormous disadvantage and are a sacrifice teams are willing to make for precious few players.
Before I even knew there was a player option for Manny Ramirez for that second year, I thought it was a given that Ramirez would take the Dodgers’ deal. He and Boras have negotiated and negotiated some more for that long-term, high-dollar deal, and while the deal wasn’t exactly long-term it certainly was high-dollar.
But what did they do? They rejected it.
Manny Ramirez is even more stupid than I thought he was, and I didn’t even think that was possible. Did he forget that no one, no one besides the Dodgers want him? What is he waiting for, exactly? I wrote last week that it’s painfully obvious that Boras overplayed his hand, but now I want to amend that. He doesn’t even have a hand. He’s playing with sliced cheese and expects us to believe he has a royal flush hidden in the provolone. He doesn’t, and everyone in the universe knows it. Ramirez and Boras have put themselves on a pedestal so high I don’t believe they’re getting sufficient oxygen.
Dodgers owner Frank McCourt had some choice words regarding Boras and Ramirez when he spoke to the media: “We want Manny back, but we feel we are negotiating against ourselves. When his agent finds those ’serious offers’ from other clubs, we’ll be happy to restart negotiations.”
Slam dunk. McCourt is fed up, as he should be. For anyone to turn down $45 million dollars to play a game while millions of people around the world cannot provide sufficient food for their families is sickening. The list of things I would not do for $45 million is much shorter than the list of things I would do and only includes things like selling family members. Even then, it depends on which family members we’re discussing. Who does Manny think he is? I hope McCourt takes the offer off the table. Boras seems to have deluded himself into believing he can convince the Dodgers there are other teams who would even consider giving Ramirez a contract, and until he snaps out of it, there will be no deal for Manny.
I hope Manny misses the entire season because of his own stupidity. I hope he misses the year and hurts his chance of making it to 600 home runs, and I hope when he comes back he accepts a “lousy” offer. I hope even if, by some miracle, he signs with the Dodgers this season, the fans will be disenchanted enough to boo him, or at least enough to stop wearing those ridiculous hats with the dreadlocks attached.
I hope the damage to Boras’s reputation is irreparable. If any new player signs with Boras after this debacle, I’m throwing him in the Stupid Bin, no questions asked. I hope Boras’s influence fades and his other players dump him.
It’s like dealing with a small child. Keep caving into Manny’s demands, (take note, Terry Francona) and you will have a brat on your hands. Stop letting him get away with his shenanigans, and maybe he’ll shape up.
Maybe.
