Why Massoratti is listening to Manny (or his agent) I will never understand...

hmm...bit confused by that comment Jason...but anyhow I think that would be a great clause to have. Manny right now is really, really starting to piss me off. Even if he's back in Boston he is no longer a Red Sox he's a hired gun, period...and there is no possible way for it to go back and it's sad because the career milestones he's soon to be approaching would place him among the greats in Sox lore but now I hope we do him like the Eagles did T.O.!!

Gee, professional athletes being pains in the ass. How surprising! When you pay people multi millions of dollars, for some strange reason they get to feeling important. The more millions, the more important. Isn't it refreshing to see a player like Chipper Jones giving up money to stay with the same team. Next time your fans yell Larry, Larry at a game, maybe it should be as a tribute. Let Manny be Manny, he's not fooling anyone.

Sorry. Mental slip. When I wrote that comment, I was thinking that Massorati was one of the co-GMs... Anyway, we all know how much of a baby Manny is. Chanes of him agreeing to a trade that are a net benefit to the Sox are near zero. If he doesn't want to play next year, I'm sure the Sox won't mind the $19M in pocket change...

I don't like to be the devil's advocate... but let's look at this from Manny's perspective. He supposedly wants out of this town because he and his family have no privacy - part of this due to the media, part of this due to fans, I'd presume.

It's easy for us to say, "Well look at how much he's making, he should just put up with it." But most of us would also say that there's no amount of money that's worth putting our family through hell for.

So now you've got Massarotti writing an article about how Manny's an ass, and the impetus of this article is "Earlier this week, there were whispers that despite wanting out of Boston, Ramirez might exercise his right to veto a trade unless he gets something out of the deal."

Really? That's what he's basing this on? Whispers of what Manny might do? And because of these whispers, Massarotti writes an article bashing the guy. I don't know, I think I'd want out of this town as well.

If this was true, obviously it would change things in my mind. It is ridiculous of him to ask for a trade and then turn around and ask whatever team picks him up to exercise his options or he blocks the trade. But all we're going on is speculation right now... all we know for sure is that Manny has asked to be traded. And I don't think that's something you can blame him for.

When you become a professional athlete of Manny's caliber, making Manny dollars, lack of privacy is part of the package. He lives in a multi million dollar fortress. Privacy comes after retirement with countless money to last you the rest of your life. Where does he think he can play with more privacy? LA?, NY? Let's get real. When he finally leaves baseball, let him pull a Marlon Brando and buy a private island with no access and his own shopping mall.

It's hard to have sympathy for Manny. He signed with Boston...he wasn't traded there. Even more than Lew's good points about professional athletes in general losing privacy, Mannny certainly knew the added levels of scrutiny that come with playing in Fenway. Boston fans and media are the very model of bipolar, and that means, good and bad, they're up in your business. EVERY baseball player knows that. New York may be second, but to be honest, nothing really compares to the microscope that exists in Boston. So he still wants the $20 million a year that Boston committed to him, but not from Boston? That alone is fails to tug at my heart strings...much less if he actually added to this demand that his two team options get picked up by whoever trades for him, or if he vetoes teams willing to take him on.

Massoratti's column is poor work. I take Mike's point about the questionable sourcing and leaps in logic to a mean-spirited attack. More than that, however, is the assertion that players sign contracts that they "have no intention of honoring whether they know it or not". What does that mean? How you can have an intention that you don't know about? And how are the star players not honoring their contracts, in Tony's twisted world? The right to demand a trade is in Manny's contract, pursuant to the CBA. Same for the 5/10 right. The Sox knew that when they signed him. Why would they expect Manny to give up a contractual right for nothing?

As I understand it, Manny has no right to demand a trade. Players traded in the middle of a multi-year contract (a la Javier Vazquez) can demand a trade after that year. If the team does not trade the player, the contract is voided. 10-5 rights don't apply because the player was just traded to a new team.

Manny's demand is nothing of the sort. The Red Sox have no contractual obligation to trade Manny. If they don't trade him, they get a disgruntled Manny, but that's it.

Course, I'm fairly certain the Red Sox would void Manny's contract if they could.

I was gonna say everything Tod just said. Masarotti's piece is deplorable. To go vent further...

Players don't care about the half-wit beat writers of Beantown. They care about the fan perception of them as players being degraded by these incendiary articles (aka attacks) that stoke the hot coals of recent fan frustrations. And flame on. We all can see the vicious cycle this takes on in a streaky game of highs and lows, hots and colds. Doug Flutie may never buy another drink in Boston, but in baseball even Curt Schilling gets booed at Fenway. This inequation in Boston will never allow for player loyalty to the team or fans, and resultantly will be a constant feeding ground for the Globe/Herald/WEEI and bums like Tony Masarotti.

um... I don't think Manny ever "demanded" a trade. I think he "requested" one. But we can thank the media for discovering that the word "demand" sells better than "request".

i totally understand and support anyone who wants out of their current job situation. we've all been there, at least once. but i cant sympathise w/ guys who sign LLOOONNNGG term deals and then whine about it later. it would be prudent to give yourself more flexability. take furcal, he went for a relatively short contract, given today's FA market, but he maxed out the dollars for those years. he still is set for life, but now he can get out of there if it doesnt work out. im surprised more teams dont do it this way.

for the record: chipper jones didnt give up money. he deffered it so the club would pay him later, over time. it is a nice move, but let's not confuse him with oprah.

Nat, you beat me to it. Good point. Not to sound like a broken record, but any talk about salary is entirely relative. Much like people in our position will fault Manny for making so much money and complaining, there are plenty of other people in this country who will look at us complaining about our middle class jobs and our Dilbert-like offices and coworkers, and say, "Tough! You should expect that when going into a job at an office environment, that's why you get paid so well for it!"

Chipper did not defer money-he added extra years at less than what he now makes. The result was that the Braves save $15 mil over the next three years and get hime even cheaper for two more than they wwould have with his option years. The point was not his charity (and Oprah can afford it, so I don't have whole lots of sympathy for her either), but his willingness to work with the team for the good of the team-not raising hell because life didn't go his way.

Remember when players were players and GM's got to do GM stuff? Now all the primadonnas want to run their little fantasy regimes that cater to their outrageous whims. Boo hoo Manny. Nobody put a gun to your head and said "Sign for 8 years" (well, maybe his agent). It's called LIFE. Real people have to live with their bad decisions. You win some, you lose some. Count all of your 160 million blessings when you're feeling upset.

You're missing something here, folks.

Tony Massarotti is terrible in general, not just in this specific article.

Couldn't Manny just commit such actions as to void his contract? There you go Manny your problem is solved. This is the first I've heard of taking these trade requests into the CBA process and it's a good idea. The teams should have the right not to have a disgruntled Miggy or Manny fouling up the team atmosphere when they're paying big money for these guys.

I saw this on Boston.com:

Manny staying put?
By Steve Silva, Boston.com Staff
According to a report on ESPNdeportes.com (English translation here), it appears that Manny Ramirez has apparently changed his mind again and would like to remain with the Red Sox.

"There is no change. I am going to remain in Boston, where I know the system and I have my friendships, specially my companion David Ortiz," said to Ramirez Thursday to ESPNdeportes.com.

"I know the Red Sox and the American League. That is a reason not to move me to National League", said Ramirez. "In addition, I want to play for a contending team and Boston assures that."

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/

this story is getting so laim