For the most part, it’s tough for me to dislike Manny Ramirez too much. He’s too much of a flake for that. True, I find his constant homer-gazing obnoxious, particularly when he’s not hitting well, but that’s just Manny being Manny, right? The reason I mention Ramirez is because in case you guys missed it, make sure and check out Ben McGrath’s profile of Ramirez in The New Yorker. It’s a couple of weeks old but worth checking out.

Manny being Manny is an annoying phrase but I use it as much as the next dude. My question is, where did that tag start? It wasn’t with Ramirez. I found an article that Pat Jordan wrote about the Yankees in 1987 and he refered to “Rickey being Rickey.” Sounds ideally suited to Henderson. Wonder if that is where it all began…

Also, riding on Jon Weisman’s call, check out Bill Plaschke’s nice piece on one of the L.A. Dodgers’ former clubhouse guys.