Future Baseball Hall of Famer Manny Ramirez: My Favorite Moments

Manny Ramirez is a future Hall of Famer, a behemoth whose rare combination of size, skill and preparation recently allowed him to join the ultra-exclusive 500-Home Run Club. But he's as renowned for his mental gaffes as he is for his towering bombs.

He suffers from the occasional mental lapse during games (for instance, pausing at the plate to admire home run blasts only to see them bounce off the wall), and sometimes fails to give full effort on the field (in one game against the then-named Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Manny failed to leave the batter's box on an infield ground ball). And he's just as colorful in the clubhouse - like when he told the rabid Boston press that he would like to play for the team's biggest rival, the New York Yankees.

Due to his out-sized personality and proclivity for doing things that no other professional athlete would dream of doing, Red Sox Nation now collectively shrugs its shoulders whenever Ramirez performs a head-scratching act. There's no attempt to try to tone down his behavior or even to try to analyze it. It's simply known as "Manny Being Manny."

I put together a short list of my favorite "Manny Being Manny" moments below. I'd love to read yours in the comments (especially if you frequent Fenway Park and get to see Manny in person).

May 14, 2008: Manny makes a fantastic running catch over his shoulder while lumbering at full speed toward the wall. Somehow he manages to catch the ball over the wrong shoulder - it was a heck of a play, but I don't suspect that Tom Emansky will consider adding this to his list of fielding drills. Anyway, after Manny awkwardly pulls the ball in, he runs up the wall and gives a high-five to a puzzled-but-excited Sox fan sitting in a sea of Orioles jerseys. Manny then whirls and fires the ball to Dustin Pedroia, who relays to first to double up the molasses-like Aubrey Huff.

July 18, 2005: Manny decides to go inside the Green Monster in the middle of a game. Granted, he left during a pitching conference on the mound. But this wasn't a pitching change - just a quick talk to straighten out Wade Miller's mechanics. And Manny didn't mention to anyone that he was leaving the field; he just strode off unannounced. As a result, Miller was on the rubber when Manny finally emerged; the Sox were on the verge of playing with a handicap. Manny still goes into the Monster from time to time during pitching changes, but his sudden disappearance won't take anyone unprepared from now on.

July 21, 2004: This was easily my favorite Manny moment ever. Johnny Damon goes deep into left-center to retrieve a sure double/possible triple off the bat of David Newhan of the Baltimore Orioles. Damon (who has the arm of a four-year-old girl whose mother mainlined thalidomide) tossed the ball toward the shortstop. Out of nowhere, Manny cuts off Damon's throw in the shallow outfield. And it's not like Manny just happened to be standing in the way and reflexively caught the ball. He laid out in a full dive to cut this ball off. By the time Ramirez gets back up, Newhan is rounding third and heading for an inside-the-park home run. I watched SportsCenter three times that next morning just to make sure I didn't imagine this play.

May 18, 2002: Manny plays a series with the Pawtucket Red Sox, one of Boston's minor league affiliate teams, to help him get back up to game speed as part of his injury rehabilitation. During one game, he realized that he lost an expensive diamond ring (the value was reported to be $15,000) while sliding into third base. So after the game, the grounds crew and more than a dozen minor league players were combing the third base area, trying to help Manny find his diamond. They never found the stone, but Manny made over $15 million in 2002 (according to Wikipedia), so it wasn't the end of the world.

There are some baseball fans who bemoan Manny Ramirez and his antics. They say that it shows a certain disrespect for the game, or that Ramirez isn't producing to the fullest of his abilities. Of course, Manny was integral to the team's first World Series championship in 86 years in 2004. And even his harshest critics can't help but respect a man with a career slugging percentage of in the .590's coming into the 2008 season (#7 all-time, ahead of legends like Joe DiMaggio and Rogers Hornsby). As for me, I think Man-Ram is one of the greatest personalities baseball has ever conjured, and I can't wait to see what he does next.