My Favorite Player

The first time I laid my eyes on Manny, I was four years old, and attending my first baseball game at Fenway. I got to the ballpark in time to see Manny take BP.

He was leaning against the batting cages, waiting for his turn to hit. He looked just like another ballplayer to me, until he stepped into that batting cage. The very first pitch he swung at, after letting 3 pitches go by him, he hit a long fly ball to the left field warning track. After letting two more pitches go by him, he got ahold of one, and launched it high over the monster. He did the same for the next four pitches, before hitting ones to dead center, and then right field.

Being four years old, seeing any home run hit was like finding a giant mud puddle to jump into; awesome. But this display of hitting was like no mud puddle I had ever jumped into before. I just stood and watched him, before tugging on my dad's shirt and whispering in his ear for him to tell me the name of this person.

"That's Manny Ramirez," my dad told me, "he's a really good hitter."

I don't remember who won that game, or by how much, but I do remember those five minutes I saw Manny in the batting cage. And the drunken old lady sitting behind me, but I'll save that story for another day.

As Manny enters his 15th season in the major leagues, and his 8th with the Red Sox, this could perhaps be the best season of his career.

He spent his off season working out at the API with Pedroia and Youk, and seems to be in the best shape he has ever been in. So far that work seems to be paying off, as he hit 2 doubles today, and drove in 2 runs, including the game winner.

With his new found love of meditating, reading motivational books, and manpris, this could be the beginning of a whole new Manny Era. One that will, hopefully, last at least 2 more years.