Twenty, thirty minutes pass. Players come, players go. Forty, 50 minutes have gone by before it comes painfully obvious that Boston's left fielder, one of the best righthanded hitters ever, is long, long gone -- much like the home run he blasted off Yankees reliever Scott Proctor in the seventh inning. As one clubhouse official succinctly explained, ``Manny showers with his clothes on."
They tell us Manny is happier this season, at peace with himself and his place in Red Sox lore. Why not? He has played in every single game. He is healthy and beloved. His teammates continue to speak of him in revered tones reserved for the elite. There even has been a children's book penned about him called, naturally, ``Manny Being Manny."
It took him 16 games to hit his first home run, but we have grown accustomed to the possibility that Manny's body of work will mature slowly throughout the season, like a fine wine that needs to breathe.
Before the Yankees came to town, Manny was in a mild 4-for-27 (.148) tailspin. History tells us these stretches are never permanent with Ramírez. We are certain Manny would tell us that himself if he cared to discuss such matters.
But he'd rather not. It's really that simple. He has other matters to attend to, and most of them involve hitting a baseball.
Yesterday morning, Manny showed up at the ballpark at 10:30 a.m. That, for those of you scoring at home, is 8 1/2 hours before game time. He had work to do. Work on his timing, his hitting, his stance.
``Manny is always doing something," said Kevin Youkilis. ``When we're on the road, he goes early every day to work out. People get this idea about him. They see how he plays left field sometimes, or how he runs out there kind of slow, and they perceive him as someone who doesn't care, who doesn't work. But they couldn't be more wrong."
It cannot be an accident when someone hits the ball as well as Ramírez does. Yes, Manny has physical gifts, but he has honed them in the privacy of a ballpark that does not normally spring to life until 3:30 in the afternoon. He studies tape, then tries a new technique in the cage, then looks at the film one more time.
