Unluckily, I'm not an "official" sportswriter yet (if you think that having this blog qualifies me in any way as a "writer," then I'm a little frightened for your mental health) and thus, I have to eat crow when I'm wrong. And trust me, after watching last night's game and all the magic that went along with it, I have to come to grips with the fact that I was wrong, dead wrong, about something very important regarding my favorite sports team.
Here's why. This is a link to a post I made on May 7, 2009:
http://allsportsbysam.blogspot.com/2009/05/this-dodger-fans-perspective.html
Jeez. "The Dodgers will struggle to keep a .500 record in Manny's absence..." "Without Manny, the Dodgers are only like 1% better than the rest of the NL West..." "I can see Ned and Frank doing all they can to keep Manny from exercising his player option for 2010..." "I can see myself agonizing over how I can root for the team without rooting for Manny..." (and the kicker) "So, in the end, I guess this steroid news has made me question my love of baseball, my love of the Dodgers, and my love of Manny, while basically ensuring that it's going to be a tough time for me to be a Dodger fan until the year 2011." Yeah, except it's only been my favorite year to follow the Dodgers since I started becoming a hardcore fan in 2002. That's all. That's all I was wrong about. And you wonder why the sports editor of my high school paper didn't like me.
In case you're wondering what all of this is about, then you obviously didn't see the highlights of their game against the Reds yesterday. Manny Ramirez was out of the game with a sore hand, as he'd gotten hit by a pitch in the previous game and even had to go to the hospital to get it checked out. Dodger fans across the country nearly died from holding their breath before tests came back negative and revealed that Manny would just be day-to-day with his injury. Still, it would be enough to keep him out of the starting lineup the next day against the Reds, coincidentally on Manny Ramirez Bobblehead Day (and if you don't think that ESPN played up that angle so much that it became simply nauseating to watch, you obviously haven't watched much ESPN). Dodger fans, of course, were initially disappointed that Manny was out of the lineup, as I guess simply being able to watch a 60-34 team rolling toward possibly the best regular season record in franchise history wasn't enough for them. But they would get satisfaction, and a lot of it. With the game tied 2-2 in the bottom of the sixth, Russell Martin singled to load the bases with one out and bring up the pitcher's spot. Mark Loretta had been standing in the on-deck circle, but when Martin got his hit, Manny emerged from the dugout instead as the crowd exploded. Dusty Baker tried to ice the fans with a pitching change, but it didn't matter. On new pitcher Nick Masset's first offering, Manny took a giant hack and hit a scorching line drive straight into the heart of Mannywood, giving the Dodgers a 6-2 lead and the eventual win. Vin Scully would later say that they he hadn't heard the crowd as loud as it was during Manny's home run trot for 20 years. The rest of the Dodgers reacted as if Manny had just hit the fourth of four straight home runs to tie a game in the ninth. Manny took an unprecedented two curtain calls, which according to Vin Scully had never happened before at Dodger Stadium. I'm telling you, this was an amazing, fantastic, incredible moment, one that makes you realize why you love sports in the first place.
And yeah, I cheered in my living room. I clapped. I had my hands behind my head in joyful disbelief. Does that contradict everything I wrote about Manny when shit originally when down on May 7? A little, yeah. I mean, if he'd played this entire season out without the steroids, I would have felt unabased joyfulness and complete satisfaction after his slam. But considering the circumstances, I'd have to say that my joy was somewhat...restrained. I wanted to take Manny back and forgive and forget, but some things you just can't forgive. He did something stupid and immoral, and I can never really accept him as a favorite player or even a favorite Dodger after what he did (in case you're wondering, yeah, Ethier's my favorite Dodger now just like he was on May 7; unlike most Dodger fans, I can forgive guys who slump every once in a while). In time, I have definitely softened my views on the matter; it's pretty clear that Manny wasn't cheating his whole career, because he never got huge one day like Barry Bonds and his numbers never really started jumping at one point. And even if he was...well, so what, there are steroid users on every team, and there are people that do things to get ahead in every job in every facet of life. I'm definitely not completely excusing him, of course, and I'm still mad at him, but to make him out to be a devil in a group of angels was definitely an exaggeration.
And the main reason why I've softened is this, which my dad helped me see: comparing Bonds to Manny is ridiculous because Bonds was a DICK. Everyone he ever played with hated him (his Arizona State teammates famously refused to play if he was let on the team). He was cold to everyone around him, pompous, cocky, and downright mean. He was a terrible teammate (when amphetamines were found in his locker, he blamed their presence on Mark Sweeney, only of the nicest and purest guys in baseball). He openly criticized reporters every chance he got, giving them no good quotes and acting like they were completely beneath him. He was just a dark shadow in every sense of the word, a walking embodiment of everything wrong with baseball and sports. Manny? He's a grown-up kid. He's nice to fans, all of his teammates adore him, he's polite and quirky to reporters (if you can win over TJ Simers, you're pretty fucking kind and accepting), and while he can be pompus and cocky, he comes off as still loving the game of baseball and working his ass off to stay good at it. Yes, he cheated like Bonds did, and that's bad. But because he's such a good and likeable guy, you forgive a lot faster. And it helps that Bonds cheated so that he could earn a lot of money and a lot of everlasting glory (breaking the all-time home-run record), whereas Manny probably did it just for the money. Still bad, but nowhere near as bad as Bonds' intentions.
So where do I come out on Manny after his most recent display of Being Manny? Well, after forcing myself to be restrained in my cheering for these first few weeks of him being back, I'll now go back to treating him like any other player on the Dodgers; I'll cheer him when he does something good and shake my head in frustration when he does something bad, instead of being nonchalant when he does something good and critical when he does something bad. Was it this one grand slam that did it? No; it's everything he's done since he returned, which includes a torrid hot streak and a handful of huge home runs...all clean, because even the biggest idiot in the world wouldn't continue taking steroids after already getting busted for them. He's showing that his entire career, and his entire Dodger career, wasn't a fluke, and that's been very reassuring to me and my memories of the 2008 squad. So I guess my opinion of Manny got a lot higher, although it can't ever go back to the way it was on May 6th, 2009 (which feels like 10 years ago, by the way). It's something, anyway. Go Dodgers...and Manny, too.
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