Right one Time?

By Sloan

Manny Ramirez finally showed up in Red Sox training camp today and, as usual, he had many things to say, but few things to reveal.

In an article by Gordon Edes of the Boston Globe, it is reported that when Manny showed up, all he wanted to talk about was baseball, but anything regarding trade rumors or anything else was rejected. Trying to read Manny, to see if he was happy, was hard to do. In Edes article it says that Manny was happy to see the guys, he mentioned David Ortiz, Julian Tavarez but did not mention Enrique Wilson, who happens to be one of Ramirez‚ closest friends.

When asked if he was happy to be back, or happy to be playing, all Ramirez could respond was "I'm here, I'm here. I get paid to play baseball."

Though it is hard to tell what Manny's intentions are, I think it is pretty clear that he is here to play, and win. He says he is in the best shape of his career, and that the past three years he was having hamstring problem, and that those problems are finally gone.

As I have said before, Manny doesn't always say the right things, but always has intentions to say the right things. He says he is here because he gets paid to play, but he also says he is here because he wants to help Boston win. It's a mix of Keith Foulke and Trot Nixon I guess, where Foulke isn't even a fan of baseball, and Trot just wants to play and win.

My predictions are that Manny is going to have an incredible season, with Boston. Will he be MVP? Maybe he's in the race. It is hard to win MVP when you have guys like David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez taking votes from one another. All in all, Manny's back, he's in camp, he's here to stay, and he's here to win.

Here are a few bones that Manny Ramirez threw to to Gordon Edes (from Wednesday morning's Boston Globe:
"...My main focus is getting prepared for the season, to help Boston win"...I ain't got no problem in Boston, I especially like the attention. I know that I'm one of the top guys in this game and all the attention is on me, I got a lot of people on my shoulder but I'm human. I like to go. I like to have fun. I like to do this and that but I gotta represent Boston and the Red Sox in every way that I do outside this game... Like I said I get paid to play baseball no [matter] where I go to play I still gotta go and perform even if I like it or not." And regarding trade rumors -- "I got a beautiful career going on and I'm not gonna let little things like this mess [up] all the things that I accomplished"

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