A Throwback

Ripken was definitely no LeBron James.
image from judaslebron.com

This week I'm writing about an athlete who was drafted straight out of high school. He played for the professional team of his hometown, won the rookie of the year award for the league, and several MVP awards in the seasons following. Sound familiar? Scroll down a few posts.

But this time I'm not talking about LeBron. Carl Ripken, Jr. was born in Maryland and never played for a team outside his home state. Although the only World Series ring he won came in 1983, his third season in the major league, he stuck with the Baltimore Orioles for all 20 seasons of his career.

According to this bleacher report article, the difference between Carl Ripken, Jr. and LeBron James is that Ripken "never felt the need to put on a one-hour prime-time special to announce that he was leaving the only place he'd ever called home."

That's not to say that ESPN played favorites - the network may have granted an entire hour to James just to talk about himself, but when Ripken played his 2,131st consecutive game in 1995, breaking Lou Gehrig's record for the most consecutive games played, ESPN did not break for commercials during the entire 22-minute standing ovation Ripkin received. Now that's good publicity.

Ripkin's 2131st consecutive game
image from baltimoreoriolesfansite.com

Ripken didn't need to be on a super team or play with other super stars to make a name for himself. He didn't fake injuries when his team was losing. He didn't chase his goals around the country, and he was rewarded when the honors came to him instead.

A list of the awards Ripken received while playing for the Orioles can be seen here. Even though he only has one ring to show for it, he made himself one of the most respected athletes of all time and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007. And he managed to do it all without turning his back on his home team and fans.

image from orioles.gearupforsports.com

His retired number 8 has been displayed at Camden Yards for 10 years now. And I think it would be pretty safe to assume that not a single #8 Ripken jersey was ever burned.

Manny Being Annoying

Back when Manny Ramirez was on the Red Sox, he gave the franchise and its fans more than enough reasons to be annoyed at him. Red Sox Nation put up with "Manny being Manny" while he risked missing easy catches to be fancy and show off, wasted time high fiving fans instead of throwing the ball to the infield, lazily jogged around the bases, socialized at night when he was too sick to play during the day, peed in the Green Monster in the middle of an inning, faked injuries, or worst of all, was a Yankees fan.

image from bostoncondoloft.com

For Manny to have left with a vendetta against the Red Sox seems ridiculous to me. True, maybe the franchise was so horrible to him from the start that they drove him to behave so poorly. But with his $160 million deal and World Series ring, it seems unlikely that he had much good reason to be so pissed off. Still, the only thing that Manny and the Red Sox ever seemed to agree upon was the decision to trade Manny in 2008, described in this article from projo.com.

After being traded to the LA Dodgers, Manny wasn't happy enough just being off the Red Sox, he wanted to punish the Red Sox. According to this New York Post article, Manny wanted "to sign a free-agent deal with the Yankees this offseason [after the 2008 season] and get 19 chances a year to punish Boston".

Manny grew up in New York City, so it makes sense that he would have dreamed his whole life of playing for the Yankees. But why did it have to be about punishing the Red Sox? Really, I think he punished the Red Sox enough when he was in Boston.

image from aerocinema.com

Clearly, the Yankees did not sign Manny. He remained with the Dodgers until 2010, where he pulled some of the same stunts as he did with the Red Sox, until the Chicago White Sox took him on. This past January he signed with the Tampa Bay Rays. He's too scruffy for the clean cut Yankees anyway. Over the years he has threatened retirement quite a few times, and now is on this Bleacher Report list of the top 25 players who might retire after 2011, but not by choice.

Manny had a good eight-year run with the Red Sox, where the fans supported him even with the way he treated the team when he was Manny being Manny. Too bad he had to ruin everyones respect for a great ball player, even though the way he talks to reporters has always made it clear that his own love and respect for Manny Ramirez remains very much intact.