“The Red Sox don’t deserve a player like me,” Ramirez told ESPNdeportes.com. “During my years here, I’ve seen how they [the Red Sox] have mistreated other great players when they didn’t want them to try to turn the fans against them.

“The Red Sox did the same with guys like Nomar Garciaparra and Pedro Martinez, and now they do the same with me. Their goal is to paint me as the bad guy. I love Boston fans, but the Red Sox don’t deserve me. I’m not talking about money. Mental peace has no price, and I don’t have peace here.”

It’s safe to say after seeing Torre in those State Farm commercials that Ramirez may find his ‘mental peace’ on the west coast. Now it will be interesting to see how Dodger fans react to having Ramirez in the lineup and, most importantly, in left field.

Red Sox fans haven’t forgotten about Ramirez, yet. There’s already a tribute video – and here it is.

LINK TO SOURCE FOR QUOTE

Post from: EveryJoe

Video Tribute to Manny Ramirez

Jayson Stark at ESPN.com has a great read about “Winners and losers at the time that were short-lived.” I still remember #9. I thought Randy Johnson would lift the Houston Astros all the way to a World Series championship. Man, would I like to go back and make that trade not happen. If only the ‘Stros had Carlos Guillen and Freddy Garcia when they were in their prime!

The Kansas City Star has an article in today’s newspaper titled “Baseball history shows that trade-deadline deals offer limited help at a high cost,” written by Sam Mellinger. The article has a BIG picture of Pudge. Hmm….

Even TheStreet.com is getting in on the trading deadline action. They put out a good read called “MainStreet: Baseball Trades Mean Big Bucks.”

Dan at Connolly’s Corner Sports Bar (a Baltimore Sun blog) is asking what would you do with George Sherrill at the deadline?

This Philadelphia Phillies fan says the Phils “whiffed” by not trading for Ivan Rodriguez…. Really? Talk to the Detroit Tigers about that.

Post from: EveryJoe

Deadline day links

It’s a wonderful time of the year…for the teams still in the race. For other teams, it’s just another time to watch their young superstar or aging superstar of their favorite team get shipped out to a contender. This has the makings of being one of the biggest trading deadlines that I can remember with so many big names being talked about.

The Boston Red Sox are deciding whether or not to trade Manny Ramirez. The Cincinnati Reds are awaiting approval from Ken Griffey, Jr., before they send him to the Chicago White Sox. The New York Yankees are always looking to deal (picked up Ivan Rodriguez yesterday). And teams that you never thought would have a chance are becoming big players in today’s trading deadline (Tampa Bay Rays and Florida Marlins).

Today is one of those days when you just want to be able to tap into Peter Gammons or Jayson Stark or Buster Olney’s cell phone and just hear their “sources” talk about deals that are going or could go down.

Maybe it’s the fact that Major League Baseball doesn’t have a salary cap that makes their trading deadline so interesting. It seems that just about any player can be traded to any other team, no matter what their contract looks like. In the case of Griffey, he has the chance to turn down the offer and stay in Cincinnati. But would you want to do that? This team just traded you, and they need you to agree to go. I would go. Chicago is in first place of the American League Central, while Cincinnati will never make it to World Series while Griffey is still an active MLB player.

Just tune into ESPN and watch it all unfold. Let’s hope your team is one of the teams that benefits from the deadline and not one that sells off their superstars.

Post from: EveryJoe

Trading deadline looms