{"id":2050,"date":"2009-07-27T18:33:50","date_gmt":"2009-07-28T01:33:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=2050"},"modified":"2009-07-27T19:20:06","modified_gmt":"2009-07-28T02:20:06","slug":"manny-makes-memories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=2050","title":{"rendered":"Manny Makes Memories"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Manny<\/a>

Manny Ramirez <\/p><\/div>\n

By Tim Peterson<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u201cThat was more Hollywood than Hollywood. Oh that\u2019s right, it\u2019s Mannywood.\u201d \u2013 Vin Scully after Manny Ramirez\u2019 pinch hit grand slam.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0 When fans go to a baseball game they want to be entertained. They want to escape from reality for a few hours. They don\u2019t want to think about problems at work or home. They want their team to win and they want to have fun. They don\u2019t care what the players have done off the field. If they perform on it then they\u2019re happy.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 It\u2019s like going to the movies or to the theater for a play. Like the opera fan watches the concert the baseball fan watches the game. The opera fan couldn\u2019t care less about the performer\u2019s personal life as long as he can sing. You think the guy that plopped down his ten bucks for a movie cares what the actor has done? \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0 It was never more evident than last Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium. It was entertainment at its finest. A better movie script couldn\u2019t have been written as Vin Scully so eloquently pointed out.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 Manny Ramirez wasn\u2019t supposed to play. He had been hit on the hand by a pitch the night before and was not in the starting lineup. Three weeks before he had just returned from a 50 game suspension for testing positive for a performance enhancing drug- or at least one that was on the banned list. And to top it off it was Manny Ramirez bobble head night and I had a ticket. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0 All that led to a moment that will go down as one of the most memorable in Dodger history. Manager Joe Torre had said he would use Ramirez if the moment was right. With the score tied at two in the sixth inning, the bases loaded and the pitcher due up, the time was perfect. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0 The rumble in the crowd started when a walk loaded the bases and the realization set in that this could be that moment. It reached a crescendo when his name was announced and he strolled to the plate. It died down a little when the Reds\u2019 manager Dusty Baker decided to change pitchers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0 But when reliever Nick Masset finished his warm up tosses, the roar resumed. Chants of \u201cManny! Manny! Manny!\u201d resounded through out Chavez Ravine and from my vantage point in the top deck on the first base side I could see every fan in the house standing.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 I didn\u2019t see anybody sitting down in protest of Ramirez\u2019 suspension; I didn\u2019t hear any boos or grumblings from the 55,000 plus fans in attendance. None. They wanted entertainment and this was it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 Ramirez didn\u2019t allow the drama to build. Instead he hit the first pitch on a line into the seats just inside the foul pole in left field. The ball landed right in the heart of \u2026you guessed it – \u201cMannywood\u201d. Grand Slam! Man Slam!<\/p>\n

\u00a0 The place erupted. Ramirez received not one but two curtain calls and could have come out for a third as long as the crowd continued to cheer. He received another standing ovation when he ran out to his position in left field the next inning.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 A guy that was sitting in front of me, who probably forgot why Manny was suspended in the first place, turned around and gave me a high five that nearly dislocated my shoulder.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 The lady sitting behind me screamed so loud that at that point I don\u2019t think it would have mattered if Manny was popping steroids while rounding the bases. She didn\u2019t care and neither did the rest of the sold out crowd.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 They wanted a good show and Manny provided it.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t the greatest Dodger home run ever- nothing will ever top Kirk Gibson\u2019s game winning shot in the first game of the 1988 World Series. But it was memorable.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 And when it comes to Manny Ramirez that\u2019s what fans will remember. In fact I think the suspension has already been forgotten.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tim can be reached at tspeterson32@yahoo.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2050"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2058,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2050\/revisions\/2058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}