It's always a story when Manny takes a day or two to rest his hammy. During Ramírez's spectacular six-year stint with the Red Sox, he annually misses a few games with a sore hamstring. It works every time, because when it comes to tweaked hamstrings, only the patient truly knows how he's feeling. It's the athlete's equivalent of the fourth grade boy who won't go to school because he has a headache. There are no grounds for a challenge even if you have suspicions.
Clearly, Terry Francona isn't about to challenge Manny. It's simply not worth it. Tito knows how this works. You want to keep Manny happy, so you let him sit when he wants to sit. The reward is significant. Ramírez is a modern-day Jimmie Foxx. Besides, maybe Manny really does have a cramp in his right hamstring.
Trouble is, we're pretty darned sure Manny has faked it in the past to get out of All-Star duties or maybe just to pout when Pedro Martínez was getting time off for dad's birthday.
This time, we have a juicy conspiracy theory, which holds that Ramírez is annoyed because of an official scorer's decision in Friday night's loss to the Yankees. Manny, who was absolutely scalding the baseball throughout the Yankee series (8 for 11 with nine walks), lost a base hit when a hard hopper clanged off the backhand glove of Derek Jeter in the fifth inning of the second game. In yesterday's Providence Journal, Sean McAdam wrote, ``Ramírez was enraged by the call, and was so angry about it the next day that he had to be talked into playing the Saturday afternoon game."
Monday, when the Sox lost the Yankee finale, 2-1, Ramírez bowed out after the fourth inning, complaining of cramps in his right hamstring. And last night, he was not in the lineup, nor was he limping as he padded around the clubhouse late in the afternoon.
Manny hasn't had much to say this year, but this seemed like a time to give it a shot, so I strolled over to him as he inspected a crate of bats, and I asked him if he'd answer a few questions.
