I don’t know why Manny Ramirez, who is currently trying to revive a crumbled baseball career in Taiwan’s professional league, would ever come back to Major League Baseball.
Forget the fact that none of these MLB teams will take him for any price (well, we can ask the Miami Marlins again in a month if things don’t shape up). Manny has built a kingdom in Taiwan.
We ignored his first Taiwanese home run and the ludicrous call that went with it. We even ignored the hilarity of fans holding up “Manny Ramirez” signs with a completely different Dominican, dread-headed player on it.
But as the case has always been, we can only ignore Manny being Manny for so long. He hit his third home run of the season for the EDA Rhinos, a line drive into the left field bleachers.
Not only were the stands rocking harder than Justin Bieber playing in front of the National Girl Scout Convention, but Manny took a solid 30 seconds to trot around the bases, including a bat flip and backwards walk that would get an obligatory bean ball in one’s next at-bat in America.
I, for one, have always liked Manny, even if I’ve lost respect for him as a ball player. He knows how to have fun and ignite the fans, no matter where he plays. That has never been more evident than the high-fiving, chant-screaming crowds that worship him in Taiwan.
Manny has his face plastered all over advertisements on the league’s website, and might very well be in line to take over the entire country here soon. The pay is minimal and the competition is significantly weaker for him now, but he owns Taiwan.
Manny is the king. And that’s all the guy ever wanted. For his own sake–and ours–Manny should stay put until he hangs up the cleats for good.
- Jeremy Dorn (@Jamblinman)
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