It was with a quite a bit of consternation that I watched the trade deadline loom today. Red Sox fans were huge fans of Manny Ramirez until his recent statements which essentially annoyed even the most die hard Manny fans. I cannot figure out what he was thinking and why he was being such a jerk.
You can certainly understand a player wanting to maximize his profits during his limited years of playing, but you expect the the player to play hard and focus on success. This is what is so troubling with Manny. His interest level in being a team player and focusing on the success of the team as a whole was missing. He seemed to be most focused on himself and what he wanted to do regardless of what was best for the team. I cannot understand this attitude fiven the millions of dollars he has made; at the least you would think that he would hunger for success and the world series.
On the radio one suggestion was that his new agent, Scott Boras, was driving this. The issue is that the current contract was negotiated with another agent and so any extensions granted would not profit Boras. Thus, it was in Boras’ best interest for a new contract and hence ensure that Manny consistently voices his unhappiness with the Red Sox thus forcing a trade. This is eventually what happened; I am not one for conspiracy theories, but this certainly sounds like a reasonable possibility.
I dont think the whole Scott Boras idea is a conspiracy theory at all. Boras has such a history of being a greedy sum-bitch that it makes perfect sense for him to do whatever it takes to nullify the option years for a future HOF player who still has a few years of good production left (with Manny being 36).
On the other hand, it takes two to play that game – so it is not like Manny escapes without any blame.
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