Baseball fans who missed the wild antics of Manny Ramirez, otherwise known as "Manny Being Manny," could be in luck after the All-Star break.
Texas Rangers president Nolan Ryan said on his ESPN Radio spot that Ramirez could be an option for the big league club for the second half of the season. Since joining Triple A Round Rock Ramirez has torn the cover off the ball, smacking two home runs and going 6-for-14 in his last two games.
"You have to take him into consideration," Ryan said. That could be especially true if rumors that suspensions loom for players attached to Tony Bosch's Biogenesis clinic. Nelson Cruz is among the players in question who showed up on Bosch's client lists. If Cruz, Texas' leading home run hitter in 2013, is suspended, Ramirez could be a solid replacement for his power.
At 41 years old, Manny is no spring chicken anymore. His last stop in the big leagues was an unmitigated disaster; he played in 17 games in 2011 for the Tampa Bay Rays, batting .059 with no home runs and one lonely RBI before retiring to avoid a lengthy suspension for performance enhancing drug use.
Prior to that, Manny hit .298 with nine home runs and 42 RBI total for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago White Sox. The numbers are a far cry from Manny's prime, when he was perhaps the most feared right-handed slugger in the game.
Ramirez is a 12-time All-Star, and made the All-Star game 11 straight times from 1998 to 2008. For his career, Manny has batted .312, owns 555 home runs, and has averaged 129 RBI per season, with a lifetime OPS of .996.
Ramirez also paired with David "Big Papi" Ortiz as the centerpiece of the 2004 Boston Red Sox team that ended "The Curse of the Bambino," an 86-year World Series drought brought on by the fateful trade of Babe Ruth to the Yankees.
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