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The Ides of Manny

Feb 19th, 2007 by Rob Bradford

This just in … Brendan Donnelly’s dog, Snapper, ate his wife’s phone. (I can’t help it. In some respects a half German shepherd-half pit bull is just more interesting than most things in Fort Myers.)

In other news, Julian Tavarez confirmed that Manny Ramirez told him yesterday that the slugger won’t be reporting until March 1. The mandatory reporting date is February 27. Tavarez, who has known Ramirez since he was 17 years-old, said that Ramirez has been occupied with caring for his mother, who was thought to possibly have a cancerous tumor in her rib cage. After undergoing surgery, Tavarez said, she is doing fine. Both Manny and his mother are in Westin on the other side of Florida.

“I would like to be crazy if I I could hit 40 home runs, drive in 100 runs and make 160 million dollars,” Tavarez said in response to his take on Ramirez. “Call me crazy then.”

Ramirez, of course, didn’t report until March 1 last year after coming to an agreement with the Red Sox allowing him to work out in Boca Raton for the camp’s first week.

Never boring …

Much more to come today, and keep those questions coming in so I can get to them later today.

Posted in Red Sox | View Comments

  • Anonymous

    Rob, do you get any feel from the players or management that there will be another shoe to drop this spring IE. a trade? Also will the Sox carry 2 lefties in the bullpen?

  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/07656485967101098724 Shelly

    Rob,

    In the off season, it was reported that part of Doug Mirabelli’s contract contained “conditioning incentives.” My question: Does he look any different?

    All the catcher media attention is on Tek and I want to know about Doug too.

    Thanks,
    Michelle

  • Anonymous

    Robbo,
    Just a couple of questions:
    1. Are the Sox anywhere close to getting younger at catcher, preferable one who can do something with the stick? (this isn’t a swipe at Tek — I believe there’s lots of juice in that grape; but I still can’t get over the Sox’ dealing the somewhat solid-hitting Bard b/c he couldn’t catch the aging Wakefield, who didn’t pitch most of last year.)

    2. In his eponymous book, Salem native Jack Welch extols the benefits of treating high performers differently from the rest of the guys on “the pile.” With that in mind, what’s the big deal about Manny showing up a whole TWO DAYs after the mandatory reporting time. Yeah, he can be a pip, but hasn’t Manny’s performance earned a little springtime chill?

  • Anonymous

    Robbo,
    OK, I lied. Just one more ??? for today, and it’s going to be nerdy and irrelevant, but here goes:
    What happened to some of the guys, the fringe, Double-A-destined players who looked OK last spring — guys like Jed Hoyer, Tyler Mingus, Trent Durrington — I didn’t see them on the Sox’ invitation roster. I guess I’m admitting ignorance about how the whole invitation thing works.

    Also, in a related vein, who in your opinion is the oddest, or most surprising, spring training invitee this year? And what’s Kapler’s role as coach — is he going to be the skipper of one of the minor league clubs?

  • Anonymous

    Robbo,
    Forgive the brain cramp … I meant Jed Lowrie, not Jed Hoyer, obviously, in my previous question about spring training rosters/non-roster.

  • Mike

    Rob,

    Shelly beat me to my question. How does Mirabelli look given his contract incentive to stay in good shape?

  • Anonymous

    Hey Rob,

    Have you noticed if Theo has been wearing his Patriots’ hat or not?

  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/18320292445031131207 Dover

    Just wondering, anyway we could convince the New England Media to do a 2:1 ratio on the Non-DiceK roster to Dice-K? I’m as excited about the kid as anyone, but there’s 24 other guys I’d like to see, too.

    Jon Lester spent 4 months kicking cancer’s ass, Pedroia lost 20 pounds, Pineiro is slated to be closer, Timlin is ready for a bounce-back season, and Manny Delcarmen screwed up his own highlights, but I’m getting nothing but pics of a guy who has yet to throw a major league pitch?

    I think some people are losing sight that we’re, you know, baseball fans. It’s exciting to have a kid with plus-stuff who happens to be a national treasure, but there’s a lot of other exciting stuff going on as well.

  • http://www.blogger.com/profile/03378601306941011991 jdawson59

    Rob,
    Are the BoSox red shirts and red hats just for spring training? They make me see red. I want the normal blue caps back.

  • Anonymous

    Rob,

    I love this blog stuff!! This is my first experience with it, are there other red sox blogs out there with similar access to yours. I love yours but I am a red sox info junkie so the more the better. Great job!

    Pete

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