quick hitter <> manny ramirez

while manny is fresh on my mind ... i will always remember MANNY RAMIREZ as one of the greatest right handed hitters to play the game of baseball ... i will remember watching his at-bats and wondering how hard or how far would manny hit the baseball this time ... i will never forget the beauty and power of his swing ... i will remember his consistently huge offensive production ... i will also remember his lackadaisical outfield play and atrocious base running ... i will remember him as our hitter savant ... i will always remember manny as an indispensable part of two world series champion boston red sox teams

but i will always remember something else ... in a town with a long history of selfish baseball players ... on a team whose personality has more than once been described as "25 cabs for 25 players" ... there may not have been a more selfish player to wear a boston red sox uniform than future hall of famer manny ramirez

questioned recently about the fact he remains an unsigned free agent into mid-february ... manny's response was ... "understand me, i have goals. i know that if i play six more years, i could get to my 3,000th hit and, who knows, maybe my 700th home run" ... more manny words ... "no, it doesn't bother me. this is a business. you have to continue negotiating ... what matters is what i sign in the end." ... its all about "i" "me" and "my" ... what manny is saying here is ... he's not bothered by being unsigned ... someone will ultimately give him his money ... doesnt matter if its the dodgers or the mets ... pittsburgh or kansas city ... all he wants is his money and a place to hit his way into the record books for himself ... the team is irrelevant ... its not about team ... never has been ... its all about manny ... always has been