Out with the boy, in with an adult

Posted by Ted McEnroe August 1, 2008 at 5:02 pm

The jury may be out on just how lopsided the Manny Ramirez for Jason Bay deal was from a pure talent standpoint (Mike Giardi and I can differ on that - we’ll miss Moss a little, Hansen not much at all in my opinion), but there’s no denying the sense of relief inside the Red Sox clubhouse.

Terry Francona looked positively giddy compared to the Tito we have seen in recent weeks - as he tried to defend a player his team had lost respect for.

And as for Bay - love the guy. First two words to the media? “Fire away.” And it turns out Bay has quietly been a member of the Red Sox Nation of the Allegheny (if there is such an organization). Back home in British Columbia growing up, his dad put him in a Red Sox onesie, and he hung posters of Carl Yastrzemski and Jim Rice in his bedroom growing up. He says he loved the atmosphere at Fenway when he was visiting as a Pirate, and praised Red Sox Nation up and down.

In short, he did more to build a relationship with the community in 9 minutes and 15 seconds than Manny Ramirez had done in the last three years.

Don’t get me wrong - I’m not really a Manny-basher. He was and is a big kid out there. Sometimes, you couldn’t help but be charmed by his antics and his genuine love for the game. Other times, though, he was a spoiled child, who needed a timeout or to be grounded — not an option when you’re the $20 million man in a playoff race.

This much is for certain - stats aside, the Red Sox sent a child off to Hollywood yesterday.

They got back a man.

Here’s the man meeting the media: