Friday, June 6, 2008

Manny and Youkilis

My first thought upon reading about the Ramirez-Youkilis fight last night -- which apparently started when Youkilis said something to Manny -- was what could possibly cause the mild mannered Ramirez to go off? He seems like the kind of guy who, if you said something bad about his momma, would come back by saying "well, she does have her good points too, dude."

Matt Watson over at FanHouse has a theory:
You have to wonder if the views they were exchanging had something to do
with Youk not being happy that Manny was one of the last players to reach the
scrum earlier in the game -- even Bartolo Colon waddled out there before Manny
arrived.

No idea if that's true, but it certainly smells true, doesn't it? I mean, it's not like they were arguing about the merits of Lord Palmerston vs. Pitt the Elder, right?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here's the official story...

[quote]"It all happened because Manny complained about Youkilis' habit of throwing bats, helmets and other objects in the dugout when he has a bad at-bat, something that has become a constant practice," the source said.

"Other players have told Youkilis in the past about the situation, which makes him look selfish and that he is more worried about each at-bat than about the team. If Boston is winning easily, there's no reason to throw objects all over the dugout because of a bad at-bat.

"There was a meeting where the team let Youkilis know that many of his teammates were tired of his explosive reactions for each bad plate appearance. It became very bothersome ... more so when the team is winning and it's in first place. There's not much room for individualistic attitudes."[/quote]

Manny Ramirez, Team Leader?

Anonymous said...

Eh... thought it would work. :P

Unknown said...

I heard that official story as well, Justin... but I wouldn't be surprised if there were more to the story. I always think about the times when the media have covered a situation with which I'm intimately familiar, and I barely recognized the stories when they were reported. I'm sure a lot goes on that we never hear about.

And Craig, I love the gratuitous Simpsons reference (if there is such a thing).
:)

Unknown said...

Hmm. So if Mr. Ramirez were trying to calm down a potentially explosive clubhouse situation, would that be a case of Manny being Gandhi?

Anonymous said...

Nice usage of the Wade Boggs-Barney Gumble brouhaha from, what was it, 1992?

If it's true, good for Youk. I seem to remember Jeter and A-Rod (when Alex was on the M's) standing aside laughing while the rest of the team was in a scrap (and wasn't current manager Girardi at the center of it?), and Chad Curtis (who lacked Youk's talent but wasn't afraid to let his feelings show) called Jeter on it in public. Jeter's a guy I've always admired, but that incident always rubbed me the wrong way. I think the "players code" demands that even superstars do their part when the teams get in a fight.

tHeMARksMiTh said...

Here's how I think it went down:

Manny: Hey, Youk, stop throwing your helmet.
Youk: Yeah, well at least I'm man enough to fight and not stay in the dugout.
Manny attempts to kill Youkilis for calling out his Manny-hood.

Unknown said...

"calling out his Manny-hood"...

I'm SO stealing that.