I love Gary Tanguay's interviews. He's got a sense of wit that makes guys relax and lighten up. Here is a transcription of his pregame chat with Paps from Sports Tonight on FSN. My favorite line is highlighted.
JP: Manny's doing good, man, you know, he's got like a low 1 ERA, you know, he's throwing the ball well [smirking] and, um, he's been great in our bullpen this year.GT: You know, you really don't need any media training, do you... You are the king of dodgeball. You can dodge questions better than anybody...JP: I thought you talking about Manny DelCarmen [laughing]...GT: Let's talk about your old friend, Manny Ramirez.JP: I don't know Manny Ramirez. No, I don't know who that guy is. You know, he quit on me, he quit on our team, and... I don't know who he is. Who is he?GT: So is this karma? Is this karma, finally, justice being served on Manny Ramirez?JP: Well I don't know if it's justice or karma or whatever, but I think that it's a situation where I'm glad he's not in our clubhouse or we have to deal with it. I'm glad he's over there on the west coast, and those guys, Joe Torre and his teammates and coach and staff can deal with all that...Things like this take a toll on you and I'm just glad we don't have to deal with it... Every year in spring training, they give us a long list - in Spanish and in English - what you can do and what you can't do, so to fail a test and it be presented to you what you are being tested for, there's no excuses.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I love Paps' confidence to come out and say what he thinks, that Manny still deserves to be in the HOF, no one should question the '04 or '07 series, and that everyone was doing steroids. If more folks get caught, they pay the price though - legally, publicly, whatever. I am also relieved this isn't happening in the Sox clubhouse right now though.
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3 comments:
I love that somebody who is also a dues-paying member of the MLBPA will actually call a spade a spade when it comes to Manny. Nobody else seems willing to do that.
As far as the hue and cry which I've seen on Twitter over the last 24 hours that Boston should give back the rings from 2004 & 2007 I guess I can sum it up best by saying: in an era where everything is tainted, nothing is tainted. This news shouldn't be surprising, and it doesn't change how I feel about those teams and the championships they won.
It's easy to 'call foul' on an individual level. But, it's nearly impossible to indict a team. Undoubtedly, every team in the league had guys doing steroids in 2004 (probably 2007 as well). I think you have to call it a wash and give credit to whichever team emerged.
Bottom line here gents is that we still don't actually know that Manny was juicing. According to the reports I've read, it sounds more like a case of Manny not paying attention when he should have been.
Not apologizing for his actions but if you look at the surface of things, Manny has never exhibited the signs of the other 'roids users i.e. no sudden jump in head size or power.
Good article by Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe on this topic: http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/articles/2009/05/08/being_manny_he_may_not_have_known/
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