apparently the red sox love to fight. they fight the opposing team and they fight each other. last night, reports are that manny ramirez and kevin youkilis got into it and had to be pulled apart. supposedly manny took a swing at youk. understandably this happens in sports... there's a lot of testosterone involved and emotions/competitiveness are high.
what makes this story interesting to me, however, is why the fight supposedly started. apparently, the red sox had a team meeting some time ago where the players complained that youk's behavior was selfish and didn't reflect team unity. youk? really? youk is known for throwing his bat, helmet and whatever else he can get his hands on after he has a bad at-bat. well, this doesn't sit well with his teammates. especially not with manny it seems, who approached him after youk displayed such behavior in last night's game.
the question, and i hope it's obvious, is in what universe does manny ramirez think he has the right to opine on someone else's baseball habits? i have no hatred for manny, i actually find him quite amusing. but we're talking about one of the more flashy, arrogant ballplayers in the game. talk about selfishness! this is a guy who catches a ball and then jumps on a wall to slap some guy's hand (i loved it too!). this is a guy who takes bathroom breaks in the middle of a game... IN THE LEFT FIELD WALL!!!!!
don't get me wrong... i love manny. and many people will probably defend him by saying that it's manny being manny and that he's not selfish or arrogant, he's just clueless. i disagree. his actions (and i'm not saying i don't support it) are very selfish. it draws attention to yourself and draws attention away from your team. isn't that exactly what he's complaining about with youkilis? granted that youk's actions are quite different than manny's, but don't they come from the same basic place inside (your brain that is)? i would say yes.
i don't think this is that big of a deal of course. i just found the story amusing is all. i don't normally make big deals out of such things, but i do ask for some consistency... and this screams inconsistent.
3 comments:
It was reportedly more over Youk complaining after EVERY call about the umpires, and throwing shit in the dugout/clubhouse after EVERY strikeout/groundout/headache.
Thats got to be tiring on a team. Apparently Manny's opinion was well supported by the rest, he just was the one who spoke up. I dont think it had much to do with perceived or real selfishness.
i don't doubt that manny's opinion was supported by the rest of the team. i just think that someone else with a little more moral highground would take that action. it's like north korea telling iran, whoa whoa whoa let's not fight with the americans. huh?
Not really a great analogy.
Its more like Luxemborg telling the US not to bomb innocent countries.
Youkilis bitches after every umpires call, irregardless of it even being a close call. He also destroys equipment after even routine ground balls.
Manny does none of that, just like Luxemborg doesnt even own a bomb. The Red Sox clubhouse is full of JD Drew, Mike Lowell, Jason Varitek types who contain their emotions, I can see a whole axis of peaceful countries in this analogy.
If Manny could ever speak from a moral highground (and I dont really think this is a moral issue at all) its actually with not acting like a complete ass when things dont go your way. All Manny ever does is laugh at himself.
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