Pay Manny? Now THAT’S an Understatement!
By Ted M. Green | MLB, L.A. Confidential, Los Angeles Dodgers, Column(ED. NOTE: Earlier today, we posted this column from SHLA columnist and KTLA Senior Sports Producer Ted Green regarding the Dodgers and Manny Ramirez, written before the publication of comments from Dodgers GM Ned Colletti on the subject. With that in mind, here’s a follow up.)
I see where Ned Colletti told the media that “if finances weren’t a consideration”, he would certainly recommend re-signing Manny Ramirez.
I know just what Ned means.
Because finances aren’t a consideration, I continue to work at KTLA.
Seriously, though, asked this week if the Dodgers should show Manny the money, after he first refused comment at all, the Dodgers’ GM finally said: “There are a lot of arms and legs to that question, but you obviously have to think seriously about it.”
Arms and legs? There’s only one body part required to figure out whether to pay Manny even MORE than he’s worth. It’s called a brain.
You obviously have to think seriously about it?
You think?
As understatements go, this is akin to Noah saying he felt a little drizzle or the captain of the Titanic telling the crew they just scraped a rock.
Now we all understand why GM Ned has to play poker in the papers.
If he publicly gushes over Manny’s franchise-making performance, there goes what little leverage he’s going to have 
Memo to Ned: Boras already has the gun stuck in your ribs.
What are the Dodgers supposed to do, NOT pay the franchise’s most electrifying player since Sandy Koufax?
How is it going to look if they lavish tens of millions on a string of duds, then when this dreadlocked godsend with the nuclear bat and megawatt personality falls right into their lucky laps for free, saving their season and their bacon, they let him walk?
If the Dodgers fail to re-sign Manny and he ends up with those damn Yankees, the thousands of fans marching through Elysian Park with lit torches will make the Salem Witch Hunt look like a Girl Scout campfire.
Far as that new contract, I wouldn’t give Manny five years, but I’d compromise at four. In fact, the Dodger front office should be tripping all over their Lou Johnsons in an effort to get that truck to Boras’ house as fast as they can. Even at a nice round 100 mil, the Dodgers will sell four million seats a season, they’ll compete for the World Series, the team will have an actual personality and they can shoot the cover of their 2009 media guide tomorrow morning.
Now personally, I loathe the greed of guys like Boras. They’re baseball’s equivalent of corporate CEO’s who walk away with obscene golden parachutes as a reward for driving their companies into the ground. Scott, you remember Kevin Brown and Darren Driefort, don’t you? J.D. Drew, Andruw Jones, Jason Schmidt?
Boras has screwed the Dodgers so often, they probably think he’s Charlie Sheen.
The difference here is, Manny Ramirez isn’t one of Boras’ overrated, overpriced free-market frauds. He’s a first-ballot Hall of Famer and a talent so unique, I’ve officially run out of adjectivos to describe him.
That said, I thought what Bobby Knight once said about rape was an unconscionable affront to women. But in this particular case, when all we’re talking about is something as benign in life’s grander scheme as a baseball salary negotiation, Ned, my good man, with what Manny’s done for and meant to the Dodgers, Boras already has you in an uncompromising position.
If I were you, I would just lay back and enjoy it.
Ted Green is a former sportswriter for the L.A. Times and National Sports Daily. He is currently Senior Sports Producer for KTLA Prime News.
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Great pair of articles Ted. I think we could make a killing on the torches.