Is this another case of Manny just being Manny? This morning, ESPN.com reported here that one of my least favorite players in the MLB would like to return to Cleveland before he retired. These comments from Manny made my jaw drop and scream "No F-ing Way", probably because even though in Mannyland this homecoming seems like it could happen, it can't and it won't. And besides, would we really even want Manny back in a tribe uni? He's a great player-when he wants to be. People talk about his time with the Dodgers last season and how he played so well with them. Did you see the way he played with the Red Sox at the beginning of last season? Appalling. He wasn't trying. He wasn't running out ground balls. He just didn't care about playing in Boston anymore, or the disease that we call "Manny Being Manny". Let me tell you why this is NOT going to happen in one word: money. Ramirez can opt out of his contract next year and become a free agent, and get his hopes up to be Cleveland bound. Manny Ramirez, while being one of the greatest hitters the game has seen, is also one of the greediest players the game of baseball has ever seen. In the offseason, the Dodgers offered him fat deal after fat deal, and Manny turned them all down. Finally, he signed with them. This year, Ramirez is set to make $20 Million. That salary is more than twice as much as Travis Hafner's, more than 5 times Grady Sizemore's, and 10 times the amount that Jhonny Peralta will make this season. The Indians are a small market team, and GM Mark Shapiro (Sha-PIE-ro) has said time and time again that they cannot necessarily make big deals like other teams in the league. The highest paid player on the Indians right now is Jake Westbrook. You know, that pitcher who has been on the Indians for years and is ALWAYS on the DL? Yeah, that one. Westbrook will make $10 Million, still ten million less than Ramirez will make. I want to know what people were smoking when they signed Westbrook to any deal over $2 Million. Come one-WTF?!?! According to USA Today, Ramirez said "I would like to play for Cleveland one more time, to go back where I started," Ramirez told USA Today. "I have so many good memories there, why not? "I think to go back where you started is everyone's dream." Well Manny, until you demand a little less money than what is pretty much half of the Cleveland Indians payroll, keep dreaming. But let's dream for a second. Manny could opt out, and maybe he'll pull a grinch move and his heart will grow three sizes and he won't want to be overpaid, Jim Thome will re-sign with the Indians after he will become a free agent, we'll bring back Kenny Lofton for a 4th time, and maybe we could get a hold of Charlie Nagy and/or Chad Ogea. While it is true that I'd love to see the boys back in town, there's a better chance that I'll become an Olympic Pole Vaulter for the USA in 2012 than this so-called reunion come to fruition. So until then, Manny will keep being Manny, and we still won't care about him. Maybe he'll want to play, and maybe he won't. All I know is right now he's making a boat load of cash with the Los Angeles Dodgers that the Cleveland Indians will NOT be willing to shell out.
