Manny, an expensive liability

Let Manny Ramirez go!

After the season, that is.

Now before all the Dodger fans gather with pitchforks and torches at my doorstep, allow me to elucidate.

Manny Ramirez has been an extremely important cog in the Dodgers’ late-season machine. To argue otherwise would be foolish. He has lit a fire under the Dodgers as no mid-season acquisition has done before. Perhaps most importantly, at least in the eyes of owner Frank McCourt, Ramirez has bolstered the Dodger fan base, filling up the seats at Dodger Stadium and igniting a boost in marketing sales.

All fine and dandy. I love a pennant push as much as the next Blue Bleeder. Alas, amidst the euphoria of victory, some caution must be practiced.

Think back to a birthday many moons ago. Remember when you got that super-great toy and couldn’t wait to get it? Then you got it, and the world was yours, a carefree, joyous place made just for your pleasure. Now remember when that toy broke and how devastating it was, ruining your day and possibly even your week.

Perhaps I’m just re-living a childhood memory, but this is an apt metaphor for what Manny Ramirez is, and could become, to the Dodgers. Ramirez is a breath of fresh air for a fan base suffocated with injured and inept free-agent signings: Jason Schmidt, Nomar Garciaparra (at times), Luis Gonzalez and most recently (and disastrously) Andruw Jones. Sign Ramirez to a deal after the season and L.A. is playing with matches that could ignite a fire beyond their control.

No, I am in no way insinuating that Ramirez is an arsonist. Ramirez is many other things.

Manny is old, at least in baseball years, at 36 years of age. Signing an old, Hall-of-Fame caliber veteran sounds great on paper, at least until you consider another example of Dodger blues. Jeff Kent was, without a doubt, a fantastic second baseman and in his prime, one of the best to ever play at his position. Yet his cantankerous attitude has not been missed while he sits out during the Dodgers’ recent victorious tear.

Speaking of cantankerous, Manny Ramirez has an attitude problem, so much so that the Boston Red Sox, Ramirez’s former outfit, once put him on waivers ““ the baseball equivalent of serving up a player for the taking ““ and no one claimed him. Perhaps he got a raw deal in Boston that no one else knows about, but in baseball circles, there is no excuse for dogging it to first base. Is that worth $20 million over three years?

Ramirez, besides being a costly expenditure, may also become a liability on the field as his career winds down. His numbers at the plate will almost certainly decrease, a plague that sets itself on all players at the sunset of their playing days. Also, no one has ever mistaken Manny Ramirez for a Gold Glove caliber outfielder.

It is time for Dodger fans to accept Ramirez as the mid-season rental that he is. That is not to say that we shouldn’t appreciate the quality of his hitting, the smiles he brings to the Dodger dugout and the boost he has provided in September (and October?). But that money can be spent retaining the services of Rafael Furcal, the Dodgers’ spark-plug shortstop, and perhaps even Derek Lowe, erstwhile ace of the L.A. staff.

As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. So wear your dreadlock wigs with pride for a few more weeks, but please, Mr. McCourt, have the strength to say farewell.

E-mail Salter at [email protected].