I received a text from my buddy Ahad not long after the trade was announced.  It simply stated, "Ramirez?".  My reply: "Good Riddance".

The hardest part of this saga to swallow isn't that we had to give up so much to give away a future Hall of Fame slugger still in the tail-end of his prime (for free, mind you), but how quickly everything erupted.  Within one month Manny went from fan-favorite, just Manny Being Manny, to a senior citizen abuser (which we overlooked), to the scourge of the Earth and the biggest problem in our already-riddled-with-problems lives.

Curt Schilling was on WEEI's Dennis and Callahan show yesterday morning and was running his mouth about the situation (as he is wont to do).  During the segment he shared some insight into Manny's mindset:

"The hard part for me was this [situation with Manny] derailed into a train wreck so quick, so fast, and so oddly. You had the Buddah Zen Master guy in spring training, reading and 'life is good, don't worry be happy' and it just looked like he was poised to have a monster season. Physically he worked his butt off...

"We had a conversation a little while back, talking about what he should do and how things are gonna go and there's just really not a reason from a business standpoint for the Red Sox to do anything right now... Why would they? Given your age and the contract situations. Why would they not just kind of wait and see how things played out. I think there was, maybe there's some feeling on his part that if he did what he did last winter and he came out and had a monster first couple of months that they'd sit down and say 'OK we want to keep you here the next four years, let's get something done,' and it felt like to me that the second he realized that that was not an option, this just went straight downhill."

I love me some Jason Bay, and I think he's going to excel in our lineup (and no, he'll never be able to hold a candle to Manny's production), but I can't believe that the market basically dictated that Bay is worth more than Manny.  In return for Jason Bay, the Pirates received 3 MLB-Level prospects (plus one more).  In return for Manny Ramirez, the Sox received Jason Bay.  We were monitoring the trade activity/rumors all day at work (like I assume most people were), constantly refreshing various sports sites.   After the trade was finally announced, and the details started rolling in, we kept waiting for another player to be added to the mix... someone else heading to Boston. 

We parted with Manny Ramirez (and are paying off his contract), Brandon Moss and Craig Hansen.  Surely we were getting more in return than simply Jason Bay, right?  We are in desperate need of bullpen help.  Surely Theo wasn't going to further put us in a hole by trading away one of our relievers and not bring at least one arm in return, right?  I left work, and immediately hopped on the computer when I got home, thinking that the full details would be in and we'd know who else we were receiving.  And the details were in... simply Mr. Bay.

This was the result of Manny's media-attack on the organization.  He literally held us hostage, and we had no choice but to negotiate with a terrorist.  Where he to silently request to be traded, there's no doubt we could've walked away with a much better haul for the slugger.  But he didn't do that (of course, where he to go that route, we may not have traded him at all).  He attacked our owners and our organization openly and frequently to the press.  He kept his bat on his shoulder, held himself out of games, refused to show any semblance of hustle on the field.  He sucked the life and focus out of our team and brought the entire city of Boston to a grinding halt. 

For that, I will never forgive him.  One day, when I'm playing my children games from the '04 playoffs and World Series, I'll speak fondly of Manny, talk about his monster home runs, his clutch at-bats, how beautifully he played the ball off the Monster, and his often humorous adventures in the field.  I won't mention the summer of '08, and how he brought the Red Sox to their knees.  I won't be able to explain how a man making $20 million dollars didn't feel an obligation to his employers to put forth any effort, other than to say that it's just "Manny Being Manny".  My kids don't need to know that that sort of arrogance exists in this world.  I'll do my best to shield them from the dark side of Ramirez... but in the back of my mind I'll be cursing him. 

We had a different relationship with Manny than with most other athletes (because Manny wasn't like other athletes).  And, right now, I just feel betrayed.  And it makes me sick.  But bring on the Jason Bay era.  And another reliever.  Please!

Update on Friday, August 1, 2008 at 11:24AM by Aaron Gettings

Just read an article by The Herald's Gerry Callahan absolutely destroying Manny.  Do yourself a favor and read that here.

Some highlights:

Describing how Manny refused to stop and say hello to some children suffering from cancer visiting the Sox during spring training, topped off with this dig: "The tent was no more than 90 feet from the ballpark, which means Ramirez could have been there in 5.7 seconds, even going his usual half-speed."

"Maybe Jason Bay will not be quite the cleanup hitter that Ramirez was... He probably won’t fake a knee injury, or slap a teammate, or throw a 64-year-old man to the ground because he couldn’t make tickets magically appear. He won’t give the manager ulcers or spit in the owners’ eye or treat the paying customers like suckers."

"Ramirez represents the worst of professional sports - a man who is idolized because he has one, God-given physical skill. Some fans who would boo a player for popping up with the bases loaded had no problem cheering Ramirez days after he assaulted Red Sox traveling secretary Jack McCormick, a terrific gentleman who is almost 30 years older than the slugger."

Yeah... good stuff.  Apparently, nobody in Boston is up to the task of apologizing for Manny every again... but I wonder why'd he'd sit on all of this until Manny was gone.  Seems like it should've been a bigger issue 6 months ago.