Who Cares?

So Manuel “Manny” Aristides Ramírez Onelcida has retired from Major League Baseball. He went out without celebration, without a goodbye, without a parade, and most importantly, without a fan base (Tampa Bay cannot be considered a fan base by any stretch of the imagination). That is sad. In Manny’s illustrious career, he has accumulated 555 HRs, 2574 Hits, 1831 RBI, and maintained a 312 BA. Simply. This guy was good.

As I watched this Shakespearean tragedy play out last week, I heard rhetoric and hyperbole from many of the baseball puritans, sportswriters, anal-lyst, and talking heads who have banished Manny from the Hall of Fame. How his legacy is ruined. How it’s one of the worst endings of a baseball career in history. And more. Even worst was the writers who stated that they would never vote Manny Ramirez into the Hall of Fame.

Well, let’s discuss The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum for a minute. Because I’m going to guess that Manny Ramirez has never been there, even for a visit and I would place a very heavy bet on the odds of him ever attending in the future. Any takers? I’m also going to take a wild guess that only 1 out of 25 of you who read this post has ever been to the The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. So, why would Manny, Barry, Pete or whoever else has been verbally banished from this Holy Shrine really care if they’re in it or not? I live in upstate New York, about 65 miles from Cooperstown, NY. I have been to the Hall numerous times. Even ate a Hot Dog on the Holy front steps with an orange soda, as only a Philadelphian would do (It wasn’t a Frank’s, Thanks). And I will tell you; I wasn’t that damned impressed. The Hall gets about 350,000 visitors a year. A very small sample of MLB’s fan base. You would think that because of all the emphasis on who gets in and who is kept out, they could at least draw a million fans there per year. But they can’t and they won’t! You know why? Because, everybody who has meant anything to this recent era of baseball is being kept out; Starting with Pete Rose to Barry Bonds, Rafael Palmiero, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGuire, and Manny Ramirez. A-Rod might get in there, but he will be very old or dead before “they” let him in. So our children and our children’s children might travel hundreds of miles to Cooperstown to look at plaques and paraphernalia belonging to Andre Dawson and Bert Blyleven. Big whup.

Take a look at these names:
Aaron, Ashburn, Averill, Bell, Brock, Brown, Burkett, Carey, Charleston, Clarke, Clemente, Cobb, Combs, Crawford, Cuyler, Dawson, Delahanty, DiMaggio, Doby, Duffy, Flick, Goslin, Gwynn, Hafey, Hamilton, Heilmann, Henderson, Hill, Hooper, Irvin, Jackson Kaline, Keeler, Kelley, Kelly, Kiner, Klein, Mantle, Manush, Mays, McCarthy, Medwick, Musial, O’Rourke, Ott, Puckett, J. Rice, S. Rice, Robinson, Roush, Ruth, Simmons, Slaughter, Snider, Speaker, Stargell, Stearnes, Thompson,Torriente, L. Waner, P. Waner, Wheat, B. Williams, T. Williams, Wilson, Winfield, Yastrzemski, Youngs.

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Tags: cooperstown, indians, manny, manny ramirez, manny ramirez hall of famer, Rays, Red Sox, Yankees