Thursday, July 03, 2008

Manny being Manny?

by: Frank Carpano

There has been a lot of talk this week about the incident involving Manny Ramirez and the Red Sox traveling secretary. The Providence Journal’s Sean McAdam was first to report that Manny shoved XXXX, (a man in his mid 60’s) to the floor when XXXX couldn’t produce the number of game tickets Manny requested. All involved said the politically correct thing after the fact. The Red Sox have led us to believe that’s the end of it. We’ll probably never know if the Red Sox disciplined Ramirez (financially or otherwise).

I wonder…what if Manny had been a role player on the team, instead of its star. Would the Red Sox have handled this differently? Are there different rules for different players?
Absolutely! Management in any business is more tolerant of star performers than they are of bit players. Is it fair? No. But it is the way of the world.

By comparison is the way the Patriots handled the Willie Andrews situation. Andrews is a backup cornerback and kick returner who has been arrested twice this offseason. Most recently he was arrested for allegedly pointing a handgun at his girlfriend’s head. In February Andrews was arrested for Marijuana possession.
One day after his arraignment on the gun charges, the Patriots cut its ties with Andrews.
Admittedly, the Andrews offenses are a lot more serious than Manny’s 2 shoving incidents. And again, we are left to wonder; did the Patriots drop Andrews because he wasn’t worth the trouble or because the poor light he cast on the organization? If he had been a star player would he still be a member of the team?