I actually know the homeplate ump in the anecdote highlighted in the story, I asked him about it once and he said the story is 100% true. Except in his version, I think the ball bounced off the facing of GWHS.

and I don't care: scumbag, cheater, Red Sox, whatever...baseball was more fun whenever Manny was involved. Same goes for Pedro.

I'm glad to read about the earnest, hard-working -- if goofy -- young man Manny Ramirez used to be. It doesn't change my opinion about the oaf he became.

My chief Manny-with-Cleveland memory is that crusher in 95 when Mike Stanley's 3HR and 7RBI went to waste in a loss to the Tribe. I was downstairs for a change, booing the hell out of Manny, when some guys challenged me about it in very pointed terms. I realize in retrospect that I must have been sitting near his neighborhood friends. Maybe even some of his school teammates. It was clear at the time that my next move was to put a sock in it.

I'm just really glad this disgrace never played for my team.

Manny never learned, in all those years, that there is no "I" in baseball. I'm glad he had an opportunity, but he wasted it. As we say in the airline industry: "Buh-bye now." I cheered like hell when I heard what happened, and I don't regret it.