Daily Archives: September 3, 2003

Emily is finally moving her stuff down to our new place tomorrow. I’ll be helping her out so I won’t be around to blog. But I’ll be back Friday, ready for another heart attack special between the Yanks and Sox this weekend in the BX. The Yanks have two more games in Toronto (Mussina pitches against Escobar tonight); the Sox play two more in the Windy City. It should be interesting to see if Boston can pick up any more ground on the Bombers.

How many homers will Ramirez hit in New York this weekend? I’ll be conservative and start with two…

Tom Boswell has a sympathetic piece on Bobby and Barry Bonds in The Washington Post:

Where did Bobby Bonds get the bad rep? Was he too smart, too independent, too pro-union? Did he party too much or, a more likely sin within baseball, speak his mind too often? Don’t ask me. We hit it off. Once, when we were talking, a player tried to push a rubber snake under my stool to make the kid reporter jump. Bonds tipped me off and we turned the joke around with me stomping the snake. That was Bobby Bonds to me.

How Bobby got on the wrong side of the baseball establishment long ago is ancient history now. What’s pertinent is the impact on a son when a father he adores is ushered out of town when he’s 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18. How would any son, after that experience, feel toward owners, general managers, managers, coaches, reporters or fans? Would you trust them, consider them fair judges of a person’s character? Would you think they’d taken the trouble to know what made you tick?

Barry Bonds’s supposed split-personality — an obsessed, driven jerk within the game, but an amiable nice-guy to everyone who meets him outside a baseball context — has never seemed mysterious to me. Some players have a chip on their shoulder. Barry carries a grudge. Every time he sets a record, it feels like he’s settling a score.

…These days, we need to ignore everything that Bonds isn’t and focus on what he is. Don’t ask him to be an ambassador for a sport he doesn’t trust. Just appreciate what he is. Only Ruth, whose statistics far surpass Bonds’s, was better. Right now, Barry’s playing with an injured hamstring and can barely run. We’re not guaranteed how long he’ll stay at this level.

Peter Gammons still thinks the Yankees’ core makes them a tough out. He correctly praises Jason Giambi (the anti-Manny) for playing hurt all year (something Shawn Green has done in L.A. as well).

Meanwhile, Joe Torre tells George King that working for George isn’t a bed of roses:

“It hasn’t been fun,” Torre told The Post yesterday. “It’s always difficult, but it hasn’t been fun.”

Why?

“There are too many questions being asked,” Torre said before a long pause. “I am trying to be respectful here. After being here as long as I have [eight years], the fact that I am here as long as I have been here, I think there are certain things that should come with that. That they have been satisfied with my work. You would think that it would get past a certain point where, I don’t want to say not get criticized, but it shouldn’t be as uncomfortable.”

And this is a Post Exclusive. Hard to believe why Lee Sinins loathes the New York press. Oh, brother.

Bartolo Colon pitched a complete-game, two-hitter against the visiting Boston Red Sox last night in Chicago and managed to lose. Two bad both hits were solo homers (Kapler, Nixon). The Red Sox beat the White Sox 2-1 behind a strong outing from old man John Burkett; Boston now trails the Yanks by four games (five in the loss column). Manny Ramirez was benched last night, though he appeared fit to play. Manager Grady Little said:

“He’s available to DH today,” Little said before the game, “but my decision to wait is — I like the way our club has responded the last few days, and we’re trying to win the game. I’m putting the team out there that I think gives us the best chance to win tonight.”

That’s a good one, huh? The Sox front office does not want to suspend Ramirez. According to their GM, Theo Epstein:

“As a front office, we fully support Grady’s decision not to put Manny in the starting lineup tonight,” Epstein said. “Grady’s going with a lineup that gives us the best chance to win as a team, and tonight that does not include Manny, despite his availability to DH.

“Manny’s a big part of this ball club, and we all look forward to getting him back on the field very soon and watching him help this team win some important ballgames. Contrary to some reports, Manny has not been suspended. He’s not in the lineup tonight, and we all support Grady’s decision.”

You think the Red Sox are a better team without Manny? Mmmm. Let’s see if they are still a better team without him when they return to New York this weekend. (Manny will probably respond by crushing the Yanks.)

Ramirez might in fact be unhappy in Boston, but this story won’t hamper the team. The Sox can roll their eyes and offer the usual, “Manny is Manny,” and then sit back enjoy the production he gives them in the middle of the order.