Clarion Content

Manny Ramirez. Manny Ramirez. It bears repeating. What can you say? Sometimes they make them, and then they break the mold. One highly doubts we'll see another Manny. And as much as the Clarion was critical of Manny's lousy behavior and piss-poor attitude before his departure from Boston, and as much as we thought he be good in LA, we never thought he'd be this good. He is singular and unique in an age that hardly comprehends such.

The guy is hitting .419 since he got to LA, with 9 dingers in 105 at-bats, averaging nearly an RBI a game. He is out of his gourd. He is demonstrating that he is the best offensive player in the game bar none. (If A-Rod makes $30 million per, what are they going to give Manny on the open market?) Los Angeles is a town that loves star power.

What boggles the mind is that after a brief surge upon arrival the Dodgers have been unable to take advantage of Manny's offense. Manny has been pounding the ball all over the yard and before yesterday the Dodgers had still lost eight straight. How many times during that slide did the Clarion look at a Dodger box score that showed Ramirez with two or three hits and the rest of the LA line-up with a pathetic two or three hits. Nomar is finished. Kent is close. The kids, Martin, Loney, Ethier and Kemp, are they ready for prime time?

The Clarion is rooting for a Dodger surge, for Joe Torre's sake and because we had the Dodgers over 86.5 wins at the beginning of the year. There is still enough time, but just barely. Manny is more than doing his part, can the team come through?

Labels: baseball, sports