Pink Sox
The Pink Sox icon was honored by his first MLB staff on Saturday.
CLEVELAND (AP) — Manny Ramírez pulled off his darkish designer sun shades, tugged at his Dolce & Gabbana tie and smiled broadly.
Again in his ingredient.
Manny being Manny.
“It’s an honor to come back again to the home that I constructed, the Jake” Ramírez mentioned throughout a information convention at Progressive Subject, often known as Jacobs Subject when the slugger performed in Cleveland. “I do know they modified the identify, however I’m completely satisfied to be again. I’m completely satisfied to be again within the metropolis and the place that I grew up.”
Probably the greatest hitters in baseball historical past, and one of many sport’s greatest characters, Ramírez, who broke in with these powerhouse Indians groups within the Nineteen Nineties, returned on Saturday to be inducted into the Guardians’ Corridor of Fame.
The 51-year-old was relaxed and wildly entertaining throughout a 16-minute session with reporters through which he touched on his enjoying profession in Cleveland and Boston, his ambivalence towards being voted into Baseball’s Corridor of Fame and his future.
“I’m going to play in Prague subsequent yr,” he claimed. “They noticed me hitting BP (batting apply) they usually mentioned can you’re taking some at-bats with us? In Czechoslovakia, sure.”
With Ramírez, something’s potential.
Born within the Dominican Republic and raised in New York, he broke in with Cleveland in 1993 and it didn’t take lengthy for Ramírez to blossom right into a perennial All-Star.
Blessed with fast arms, a eager batter’s eye and ample energy to all fields, Ramírez destroyed pitches and pitching staffs on the best way to ending with a profession .312 common and 555 residence runs — fifteenth all-time.
“He’s one of the crucial gifted hitters I’ve ever seen,” mentioned Guardians supervisor Terry Francona, who received two World Collection titles with Ramírez in Boston. “It felt totally different when he received in that batter’s field. It was totally different when he left the batter’s field, too.
“However when he was within the batter field, man, it was fairly particular. He had a fairly good thought of what he needed to do.”
Manny Ramirez, within the Guardians Corridor of Fame.
Proper the place he belongs. #ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/6TJUQ4naWg
— Bally Sports activities Cleveland (@BallySportsCLE) August 19, 2023
Totally different defines Ramírez.
However regardless of his many spectacular on-field achievements, Ramírez’s two suspensions for performance-enhancing medicine have stained his resume and stored him from being voted by baseball writers for enshrinement in Cooperstown.
He’s hardly alone as Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa are among the many many superstars who haven’t been forgiven for missteps throughout baseball’s steroid period.
Ramírez insists the omission doesn’t hassle him.
“Life isn’t the way you begin, it’s the way you end,” he mentioned. “I wish to be there, however my precedence is one thing else. However it’s going to occur. It’s going to occur with time. However I’m not in a rush.”
Throughout his enjoying profession, Ramirez was additionally recognized for being somewhat goofy and unpredictable.
There have been memorable and comical moments on and off the sphere, with a few of his antics changing into so routine they have been summed up as “Manny being Manny.”
Ramirez mentioned the phrase has all the time puzzled him.
“What does that imply?” he requested.
Ramirez attributed lots of his actions to being younger and carefree, such because the time he requested a beat reporter earlier than a sport in Kansas Metropolis if he might borrow $10,000 so he might purchase a bike.
“We have been simply joking as youngsters,” he mentioned. “Life is all about having enjoyable. After which if you gotta work, you go get it. Since you don’t know if you’re gonna die. It’s a blessing to come back right here and placed on that uniform. That’s life.
“Keep in mind, you’re not gonna please all people. However you may please your self.”
Even in retirement, Ramirez, who took some swings within the ballpark’s indoor batting cages earlier within the day together with his three sons, seems like he might get a pair hits.
He’s sure of it.
“Simply put me within the lineup,” he mentioned. “Like final night time, I noticed these guys hitting and I needed to activate myself. I needs to be hitting third.”
On his manner out of the interview room, Ramirez paused on the doorway.
“Manny being Manny,” he mentioned with a shrug.
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