Do the Right Thing

Remember that movie from the early 90's? It's not essential that you do - but the title of that movie seemed apropos for this post given the number of times people DON'T do the right thing these days.

The "thing" of which I speak is the act of giving back Manny Ramirez's 500th home run ball on Saturday, something which may have cost the brothers Woo from Nahant, MA, $500,000. Yes, you're reading that number correctly - that's the sum of money that Eddie Murray's 500th HR ball fetched 12 years back. And no, the Woo brothers aren't Manny haters. They are just good all around guys.

When I first read this story in the Boston Globe on Sunday, I turned to my wife and said, "you know, stories like this give me faith in mankind." I truly meant that. Once in a while, it's nice to see someone just do something nice vs. what's in their best financial/personal interest.

Ironically, Manny has more money than God (well, maybe not that much, but at $20 million/year, you get the picture) so many people might say, "screw him. If he wants the ball, let him pay me!" Instead, the Woo brothers opted to give the ball back to Manny saying simply, "this is his accomplishment."

What I love about the ending of this story is that Manny has decided to "Pay it Forward" (couldn't resist using another movie title here) by agreeing to auction off his 500th HR ball and then donate the proceeds to charity. Wow! Another story that restores faith in mankind? You betcha. Just another case of Manny being Manny.

Friday Musings (late edition) August 3

Yes, this edition of "Friday Musings" is a few days late. I had the best of intentions of posting last Friday but life got in the way. So enough with the excuses and on with the post...

• * Who is excited to see Manny Ramirez join the 500 HR club this season? I'm pretty sure he's going to do it. Right now, he's 11 HRs short of the major milestone. According to his season stats, he's hitting a home run every 20+ at bats. However, he's sped that pace up to a HR every 11+ at bats since the All Star game. My money says that he reaches the mark in the last series of the season against Minnesota (home.) You might want to buy your tickets now...
  
  
• * Have you seen this picture yet? According to my friend JonS who writes for this blog, we got scooped by barstool.com. I wouldn't have if I had gotten my act together and published this post on Friday. Either way seeing Big Papelbon and Mike Lowell drinking some pops is pretty humerous. I wonder what those two talk about. Props to Cogslice for scoring this gem.
  
  
• * I'm still a little floored by the number of people that are giving Ainge crap for trading Jefferson et al. for Garnett. While I'll admit that I'd like to see a little more of a supporting cast beyond the new big three (the Celts did sign Scot Pollard today), any GM would be lying if they said that they looked forward to playing the green this year. BTW, didn't LeBron single-handedly take the Cavs to the finals last year? I agree that he's an elite player but I'm not sure he's that much better than Kevin Garnett.
  
  
• * So Barry finally broke the record tonight. Yippee! Now we can all get on with our lives.
  
  
• * If you haven't seen the movie Borat yet, you're missing out on one of the best crafted pieces of comedy this century has to offer. Is it crass? Oh yeah. Would it make your grandmother blush? Most definitely. But does it bring you to the brink of wetting your pants repeatedly? Absolutely. As an add-on, if you have seen the movie but haven't seen Sasha Baron Cohen's appearance on Regis and Kelly you've got watch it now. In particular, pay attention to the reference to Kazakh's pop star, Corky Buchev. I laugh out loud every time I see it.
  
  
• * Sitting here watching the Sox step all over their dicks against Anaheim. They go ahead 1-0 in the first and then allow Anaheim to score two for the early lead. Then Dougie M. hits a laser over the left-field wall with a man on to make it 4-2. Then the wheels fell off and Wake gives up five runs in the 5th. The Sox come right back and put the lead off man (Lowell) on. Instead of having men on 2nd and 3rd with no outs, Lowell tries to score from first and gets thrown out at the dish. Inevitably, the next two batters ground out -- rally over. WTF?

I don't see any good coming from me staying up to watch the rest of tonight's game (it's already 12:08). If the Sox pull off a victory, great. If not, the Yanks will be 5 games back. No pressure.

IMPORTANT POST SCRIPT -- My boy JonS sent me this link from Boston.com that made me feel a little better (and reiterated my stance over the last few posts)