i hate to say this, but screw manny ramirez.

i'm far from a sports statistician. i don't know all about his batting average or how many home runs he's hit (although the awesome, all-encompassing wikipedia knows! .312 and 510 as of today). i'm a boston red sox fan, and i love the team dearly, but i don't necessarily keep track of stats. i do know, however, that when a player's attitude gets in the way of the team succeeding, i don't care who it is - they need to go.

manny has been so temperamental through his years with the boston red sox, or at least more notably, the past few. it's almost become expected that he'd threaten a trade, or ask for a trade, or find some way to get out of his contract, or something ridiculous and slimy. even in this past season, not only was he beating up on kevin youkilis, missing way too many games for not so great reasons, refusing to swing against the yankees during a relatively tough game, pretty much calling the red sox out saying he was too good for them ... it all adds up. it's ridiculous.

seriously, if he doesn't want to be here, i don't want him here.
there is absolutely no point in having someone on the team - a championship team, a team that's full of talent and energy and fun and friendship - that refuses to play to win, but instead only wants to play to further his personal gain. i'm happy that he gave so much to the team, and helped us to two awesome world series championships. he says he likes the fans in boston and this was just a management issue. i guess i believe that's true to a point - but if he really cared about the fans and the team, he wouldn't have acted like such a child.

good riddance, manny. enjoy your time with joe torre.

now, let's see if jason bay can bring back some of the energy we need to make a turnaround.