The Puppet Master

Following on to Bill Simmons brief post about Scott Boras' puppet master role that I commented on in an earlier post, Bill has now followed up with a very intruiging post on ESPN's Outside The Lines.

He is to some extents flabbergasted about the sudden change in attitude towards Manny and his antics, considering that his "Manny Being Manny" act hardly was news. Even in his Cleveland days did he act like he didn't really care about anything.

Wasn't it hypocritical for any Boston fan to turn on Manny after we willingly signed up for the Manny Experience in December 2000 ... for better or worse, like marriage? We knew we were getting a happy-go-lucky, mercurial slugger with Hall of Fame numbers whom everyone described as "odd but lovable."

He also looks at the role played by the sometimes incredibly virtiolic Boston press (That means among others, you CHB), and the control of the media the Henry ownership has established since taking over the club:

Although it's usually impossible to jettison a popular star without a backlash from fans, the Red Sox wield unprecedented sway over nearly every relevant media outlet that covers them. One of the team's minority partners, the New York Times Company, happens to own Boston's signature newspaper (The Globe). The team owns a cable channel (NESN) that shows every Sox game, pregame show and postgame show. The Sox signed cushy deals with Boston's signature sports radio station (WEEI) and sister station (WRKO), and since those rights always can be shopped to a competitor down the road, you'll see CC Sabathia hit an inside-the-park home run before a Red Sox owner gets ripped to shreds on WEEI. They even have good relationships with every relevant national writer, including Peter Gammons, the face of baseball for ESPN, a beloved figure in New England and a longtime friend of general manager Theo Epstein.

This is not a mean feat considering the animosity between the Yawkey trust and the Boston press prior to Henry's purchase of the Red Sox, as Seth Mnookin chronicled in his book Feeding the Monster that I wrote about earlier this year.

Simmons highlights one of the biggest issues in Manny's departure from Boston, something very rarely mentioned in the press. As the original 8 year contract with two option years held by Boston at $20m per year was negotiated by Ramirez' previous agent, Boras would not get a cent of commision if the Red Sox picked up the options, as was generally expected of them.

As Manny Ramirez's memorable Red Sox career began to crumble for good, two people were to blame (Manny and Boras), and yet we only heard about one of them. Had the identity of the second villain been revealed, maybe Boston fans wouldn't have been so eager to downgrade from a first-ballot Hall of Famer to Jason Bay.

I myself, like many others, was getting more and more tired of Manny's antics this year, especially his treatment of Red Sox traveling secretary Jack McCormick. However, Simmons points out that apart from the McCormick event and the fracas with Youkilis in the dugout, what was Manny doing differently than before?

But what was Manny doing exactly? How was Manny's latest "funk" much different than Carlos Delgado seemingly mailing it in until Willie Randolph was fired, then miraculously regaining the ability to smile and hit home runs for Jerry Manuel?

He also points out the obvious - if Manny had not been traded, would Boras have allowed Manny to tank the last 2 months of essentially a contract year?

Once the trade was complete, the hatchets were brought out in full by the Boston press, with only Jerry Remy being the single voice of restraint.

Only NESN's Remy handled the situation diplomatically, defending Manny's tenure in Boston while expressing the appropriate amount of outrage at his recent behavior. Remy said he believed the Manny soap opera had affected the clubhouse and needed to be resolved. You know, because these guys were tired of being distracted from more important things, like playing poker, texting their friends or having 15-minute conversations centered around topics like "Does my bat feel heavy?" or "If it burns when I pee, that's bad, right?"²³ But like me, Remy had developed genuine affection for Manny and seemed perplexed by those final few weeks. He kept coming back to the one question that nobody else seemed to be asking.

"Why?"

And that, folks, is the million dollar question. Do we actually think that Manny masterminded a plot to get him out of Boston, or did the greediest and most ruthless agent of all time have more than a finger in the pie?

I know who I think is responsible, but of course the Devil claims complete innocence.

Imagine a Red Sox - Dodgers World Series. How sad would it be to hear the Fenway crowd boo a player that contributed so immensely to the Red Sox two championships?

I for one hope that the Dodgers get knocked out, but with a 2-0 lead going back to LA, that looks difficult, and I'm not sure if the Phillies have enough to stop the Dodgers in a possible NLCS.

Simmons final point is the most difficult to deal with. What if he ends up with the Yankees and we get to face him 19 times per year. Here's to Frank McCourt doing the only sensible thing and giving Manny a 4 year deal - hopefully not for more than $20 per year. If Manny thought playing in Boston came with a media pressure he didn't like, imagine what it would be like in NYC. Or perhaps he can just ask A-Rod.

Image from ESPN.com