Manny Ramirez being Manny Ramirez

[OleMissCub]

I love this guy with all of my heart and soul....

Manny makes a catch, then high fives fan, then turns DP.

http://mlb.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?mid=200805142699480

[LetsGoMets687]

Crazy guy. Not exactly smart baseball to go high-five the fan, then try and get the DP. :disbelief:

[Urbanshocker13]

Even being a Yankee fan I had to smile about this one when I heard about then saw it. I have to admit that was great, he is such a goof.

[The Dude]

I love what Manny said about it.

"I think that's part of the game. This is a game -- you've got to go enjoy it and have fun."

[digglahhh]

Silly, of course. Bad decision, almost certainly.

But, I've said it time and time again, it's the idiosyncrasies of players that make the game and the history thereof what it is. Manny is the type of player who helps the lore and draw of the game live on for generations; he's the type of player you'll tell your kids about. So many stories and moments...

Sure, he's a great hitter and his legend will live forever because he'll be immortalized in the HOF.

But, think about it, what will you say about Frank Thomas? He was a great, great hitter - not much else. Manny is goldmine of anecdotes though!

[Utility07]

You all wouldn't be saying that if the DP didn't get turned.:disbelief:

[ipitch]

The fan had a Red Sox jersey on. What would he have done if the guy had a Yankees jersey on? :think: Gave him a noogie?

[KingNothing13]

You all wouldn't be saying that if the DP didn't get turned.:disbelief:

We would be saying that he made a great catch.

The DP was just the icing on the cake.

How many 7-4-3 double plays happen in a season? Not many, so it was NOT expected.

[Captain Cold Nose]

For someone who has done nothing but his job his entire career (and his off year last year is a year many players would wish for) Manny receives a lot of heat.

[OleMissCub]

Silly, of course. Bad decision, almost certainly.

But, I've said it time and time again, it's the idiosyncrasies of players that make the game and the history thereof what it is. Manny is the type of player who helps the lore and draw of the game live on for generations; he's the type of player you'll tell your kids about. So many stories and moments...

Sure, he's a great hitter and his legend will live forever because he'll be immortalized in the HOF.

But, think about it, what will you say about Frank Thomas? He was a great, great hitter - not much else. Manny is goldmine of anecdotes though!

100% correct. In 50 years Manny Ramirez will be much better known and beloved by baseball fans than someone like Frank Thomas. He's just a character.

I think the best comparison might be Dizzy Dean.

[steve rogers]

Here's another Manny anecdote:

My father is a Red Sox fan and he was at a game a few years ago and sat along the left field side of the field. There was a young person there, about 13 or 14 who was mentally handicapped. Every time this kid saw Manny running by to go out to left or in to the dugout the kid would start screaming "Manny, Manny, Manny, Manny!!!" over and over again. Well about the 4th or 5th inning Manny came running in after catching the third out and handed the kid the ball. After the next half inning Manny came running out to left with a hat and a bat and put the hat on the kids head and gave him one of his bats.

Scott

[KCGHOST]

I thought it was a riot when I saw the replay. It was very spontaneous.

[Williamsburg2599]

This play truly represents the baseball life of Manny. He'll make you shake your head (sometimes in laughter and sometimes in shame) but in the end of the day, he gets the job done better than almost anyone else.

The best part (not shown in the video) was half the Sox lineup gathering around the camera's screen in the dugout to see the replay, with Manny excitingly pointing toward the screen when they got to the high five part. My favorite "MBM" moment.

[bob]

So many of the best sportsmen these days are just robots. Always professional and treating it like a normal job, its that way in all sports and its getting worse. Its the characters that maybe make some bad decisions on the field, but clearly have fun and are usually the most naturally talented.

[dgarza]

You all wouldn't be saying that if the DP didn't get turned.:disbelief:The high 5 may have created the double play situation. Had he just caught the ball and returned the ball quicker, the runner may have been more cautious.

[Urbanshocker13]

You get the feeling that Manny would act like this and work as hard what ever his job was. If he was a mailman, construction worker or even stock shelves at a supermarket. He would be the best and have fun the same way, it's just baseball that's he really really good at.

[ipitch]

The high 5 may have created the double play situation. Had he just caught the ball and returned the ball quicker, the runner may have been more cautious.

The runner was running back to first base. He didn't get thrown out trying to tag up.

[dgarza]

The runner was running back to first base. He didn't get thrown out trying to tag up.Exactly, we hasn't being cautious. If he were, he wouldn't have strayed so far from 1st and would have hustled more.

[bigtime39]

It was one helluva catch...and one of the reasons Huff got doubled off is that Manny was the LF involved. He was thinking exactly what I was thinking, watching on TV "there's absolutely no way Manny makes this catch". That was Jim Edmonds in his prime-esqe.

[Honus Wagner Rules]

There is one thing about Manny that is obvious, he enjoys playing baseball. I know too often, we fans bemoan the fact hat ballplayers Today seem so serious compare to great baseball "characters" of the past. Manny is our Dizzy Dean in a way.

[Otis Nixon's Bodyguard]

I love that guy. He's one of my favorite active players. I think when he first joined the Red Sox, the media tried to portray him as a lazy guy who didn't care, but it didn't go over very well because the stuff they ran about him didn't bother him at all. I can only hope that his current image as simply a goof-off is more accurate. I think it's a reasonable explanation for why he's so cool under pressure. Either way, I like it - it's good for baseball. Here's hoping for his 500th homer to come at Fenway and many more to follow.

[John Shoemaker]

The reason Manny said he's delaying hitting #500 is to keep people on the edge of their seats a little while longer. I love him - He's a breath of fresh air as well as a great player.

[Mattingly]

Crazy guy. Not exactly smart baseball to go high-five the fan, then try and get the DP. :disbelief:
I'd still take that over Sheffield catching the ball, shoving the fan, then throwing it in. One seems playful, while the other ... a bit on the side of arrogance, I'd say.

Manny's got endless "Manny moments", but at least almost all of them are things we can laugh our heads off wondering how in the world can a big-time MLB slugger with Cooperstown-bound numbers have such an interesting and humorous career of his non-baseball stuff that happened to be playing on the TV while the cameras were rolling.

[spark240]

Nice. I'm not a Manny fan, but I do love to see the game played with flair.

I watched an old Cardinals game recently, and Ozzie made an assist by flipping the ball behind his back. It wasn't a situation where the dynamics involved called for such a move; he was just having fun.

[SilentKiller]

Manny Ramirez is the man, how could you possibly hate this guy?