About his friendship with A-Rod:
“Sometimes, when I see him doing something wrong or I’m doing something wrong, we talk,” said Ramirez. “We like to compete, but, after the game, we go and have a beer.”And those HR celebrations:
“We never really get into the team stuff,” Rodriguez said. “We’d both kill for a win and want to beat each other. But there’s also mutual admiration that I think is healthy for both of us.”
Before I asked anything about the subject, Ramirez explained that he is not trying to show anybody up when he raises his arms or poses after homers. He mentioned it repeatedly during our conversation.
“When somebody strikes you out and they show you up, why are you going to get mad?,” Ramirez said. “It’s part of the game. That’s how you do it. But we’re not trying to show up anybody or disrespect anybody.”
On reaching the 500 HR mark:“You show me up, I’m not going to look at you like this,” Ramirez said, narrowing his eyes and tightening his jaw. “The game is the game. It’s supposed to be fun. He got to do his job. He’s trying to get me out.”
“I’m not trying to follow anybody, I just love the game. I just like to compete, that’s it. To be honest, I haven’t thought about 500.”In the end what does Manny want?
“After all this is over, all I want is for my kids to go to college and to be their best friend,” Ramírez said. “That’s all I want. I don’t care about home runs or whatever.”I hate seeing Manny pose after he hits a HR, and he's made some of the dumbest plays I've ever seen a fielder make, but when you read things like this you realize he's just a big kid trying to have a lot of fun, and I can't blame him for that. In fact, more professional athletes should have as much fun as Manny does when they play their sports.
2 Comments:
"...you read things like this you realize he's just a big kid trying to have a lot of fun."
True. Still, I generally don't like the guy because he's selfish (runs through 3rd base coach signs, for example), and he doesn't go all-out much of the time. Plus his goofiness is an act -- i.e. in last night's game, his posing after running to 2nd, questioning why he had to go back to 1st after two consecutive foul balls. I mean 'cmon...
Sure, he sounds like a decent guy. But there's a difference between having fun and mocking the game. Manny mocks the game much of the time IMO.
One more thing: I was thinking the other day why I can't stand the Red Sox much of the time, even though I appreciate their talent. And it's because they're hot dogs, Manny being example 1A. That's why I appreciate the Yankees: they behave like professionals and sportsmen.
I really don't know if he's mocking the game or like I said, just being a big kid. I going to assume it's the latter and he's just a flaky guy.
Cutting off a ball in short left-center isn't mocking the game, it's Manny making an ass out of himself. In other words, flaky guy.
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