He keeps his mind (and bat) on the game
BY BART HUBBUCH
Beacon Journal staff writer
This time, he remembered to run.
In fact, Manny Ramirez did most of the running for the Indians yesterday, legging out his second career major-league triple and scoring three times in Cleveland's 8-3 romp over Toronto.
And when it was over, the Tribe's young slugger ran some more -- right out of the clubhouse to avoid questions about his glaring gaffe on the base paths the day before.
"I'm not talking," he muttered.
That response might have been fitting on Saturday, when Ramirez forgot to run from third on a deep fly ball by center fielder Kenny Lofton in the sixth inning of what became a 5-3 Indians win.
Lofton and several of Ramirez's teammates bristled at yet another mental blunder by the talented right fielder, but applauded his bat yesterday.
It was hard not to cheer after Ramirez went 3-for-3 off Toronto starter Paul Quantrill, a performance that included his first home run of the year.
"In Manny, you're about to see one of the two or three best players in the American League," said second baseman Carlos Baerga.
"When he puts his head into the game, anything's possible."
Despite a breakthrough season last year and a monstrous spring, Ramirez had been as cold as the rest of the Indians lineup through the first four games of the season.
He entered yesterday's game hitting just .214 with almost as many strikeouts (two) as total bases (four), and was a dismal 0-for-6 with men in scoring position after recording 107 RBI in 1995.
But all it took was a fat fastball on the outside of the plate in the third to bring Ramirez back to life.
He slapped it to deep right, then motored around the bases for only his second triple in 841 career major-league at-bats.
Two batters later, in a virtual carbon copy of the play the night before, Lofton hit the ball to deep center.
This time, Ramirez didn't forget to tag up -- and actually moved his feet in the direction of home plate.
"I was glad to see him run this time," Manager Mike Hargrove said, cracking a smile. "With Manny, it's little steps little steps."
There was no need for Ramirez to sprint when he came to bat in the fifth inning.
Taking another fastball from Quantrill, this one on the inside of the plate, Ramirez belted his first home run of the year to the railing in left-center field.
In his first two career at-bats against the right-handed Quantrill, Ramirez had a triple, a homer, two runs scored, an RBI and seven total bases.
He ended with a single off Quantrill in the seventh.
In other words, the Indians had to like the matchup.
"Manny had some very good at-bats," hitting coach Charlie Manuel said. "Quantrill gave him some pitches to hit, and he did something with them. He showed some confidence again."
Not only did Ramirez bring himself back to life, but the pop in his bat seemed to awaken the rest of the Indians.
Ramirez's triple was the Tribe's first hit of the game, and his fifth inning blast was followed by back-to-back homers by Baerga and Albert Belle, who did it again for good measure.
Belle homered in each of his next two at-bats, the first bouncing off the foul pole in left field in the sixth inning and the second reaching the porch just a few feet away in the eighth.
Baerga recorded his first homer of the season in the sixth, driving a Quantrill pitch 388 feet into the right-field seats.
"Those guys seem to feed off each other, and today it was Manny who got a good thing going for us," Manuel said.
With his feet and his bat.
BY TERRY PLUTO BEACON JOURNAL SPORTS COLUMNIST NEW YORK There is nothing but Spanish in the streets and the relentless beat of salsa music pounding from boom boxes. This is Washington Heights, N.Y., only 10 minutes from Yankee Stadium. It's a place where subways clang underground and steam rises from vents on the sidewalks. To the Tribe's Manny Ramirez, this is home. It is where he lived from the time he was 13, and it is where he headed last night when the Tribe's game with New York was rained out. The Indians have always worried about Ramirez in these mean streets. He has lots of friends, and not all of them are the kind the team would like to see in the company of their young star. But in Washington Heights, no one makes fun of Ramirez's baserunning. No one asks him why he dyed his hair a weird gold, and then cut it all off. No one asks much of anything of Ramirez. He can be Manny. He is the hero of the neighborhood, the kid who made good. Never is he happier than here. ``That's because Manny is very shy and very sensitive,'' said Dave Nelson, the former Tribe coach and now a member of the team's radio crew. Nelson was charged with trying to teach Ramirez to play the outfield and how to stay on base without being picked off. When it comes to the Indians front office, coaches and most players, few were as close to Ramirez as Nelson -- yet even Nelson admits that he doesn't know Ramirez well. ``Manny is very nice, but he tends to stay aloof and keep people at arm's length,'' Nelson said. ``Usually, he gets close to one guy a year. This season, it's Bartolo (Colon). Last year, it was Julio (Franco) and before that it was Julian Tavarez.'' All of those players are Dominican, men who'd feel just as at home in Washington Heights as Ramirez. But Franco and Tavarez embraced English and made it their own. Colon is working on it. Ramirez still shows little interest in learning the language of the country where he now lives. Is it because he can't grasp it, or because he worries that he'll sound foolish if he speaks more than the few words he knows well? ``Just understand that Manny is very aware of what people say about him,'' said Tribe GM John Hart. ``He may not seem like it, but he knows -- and he does care.'' Or as Nelson said, ``Manny knows when people call him stupid, and it hurts.'' Those who know Ramirez say he is insecure, that his seemingly sleepy-eyed, nonchalance hides a man who is very afraid of standing out in the crowd. Yet, he'll do things such as wearing pants that belong to Coach Dan Williams during practice, pants big enough to hold Ramirez and six of his friends. All of these things draw attention -- and sometimes, ridicule. ``He is a bit of a contradiction,'' said Nelson, shaking his head and still unable to figure it all out despite knowing Ramirez since 1993. ``Like when he died his hair gold, orange or whatever that was,'' Nelson continued. ``That was just brainlock.'' It also was a sign that Ramirez is still like the kid who can't decide if he wants to blend into the walls and not be seen, or maybe be the class clown. That never is a problem in Washington Heights, where Ramirez knows who he is and what he should do. It feels and sounds like the Dominican Republic. But it also is a contradiction, much like Ramirez. Most of the Latinos work very hard in small businesses during the day as their neighborhood seemingly is a safe haven from most crime, but then watch helplessly as many of their crumbling, pothole-laced streets are taken over by drug dealers at night. Other than his ridiculous driving escapades, Ramirez never has been in trouble with the law -- and there is something to be said for that. Nor is he the kind of player who needs to be dragged on to the field for practice. ``I've been impressed with how hard Manny has worked,'' said Al Bumbry, the Tribe coach who has assumed Nelson's role as Ramirez's tutor. Or as Nelson said, ``Manny is really a good kid.'' This ``kid'' is now 26 and in his fifth major-league season. He's having a solid year at the plate, hitting .300 with 10 homers and 39 RBI. But something seems missing. ``I really thought Manny was going to break through with a monster season,'' said Nelson. ``He had a huge spring training (.406). I thought this would be the season when we see the true Manny.'' Instead, we've seen much of the same old Manny. Bumbry is quick to point out that Ramirez has not been picked off first base this season, but he was caught napping at second base. He's had a couple of fielding gaffes, one of which led to an inside-the-park-homer. ``He doesn't make nearly as many mistakes as he once did,'' said Nelson. ``But when he does, oh boy, it's a big one.'' Nelson and Bumbry are quick to defend Ramirez, to say that his history of blunders placed him under an unforgiving media spotlight whenever he does have a mental lapse. ``It's like he can't escape his history,'' said Bumbry. ``Other people on this team and all over baseball make the same kind of mistakes Manny does, but they never are blown up as big as when Manny does it.'' The Indians look at Ramirez and see a career .300 hitter, a guy who has averaged 30 homers and 102 RBI over the last three years. He's on pace to do that again. ``When you project it out, Manny is having a pretty good year again,'' said Tribe manager Mike Hargrove. But the Indians and their fans keep awaiting for more, that 40-homer, 120-RBI year that Nelson and others believe Ramirez can produce. One year, that may happen. Probably when Ramirez finally does begin to feel more at home, to feel better about himself.
By CHRIS ASSENHEIMER
Staff Writer
CLEVELAND -- The Indians were in a jam.
Matt Williams was struggling at the plate, and they needed a new clean-up hitter.
David Justice was injured and no one else seemed to want the job.
Manager Mike Hargrove decided to turn to Manny Ramirez.
At first, the Indians' right fielder balked at the idea of replacing Williams as the No. 4 hitter in the order, but his production thus far is making it tough to argue with the move.
Since taking over the clean-up duties five games ago (June 20), Ramirez has flourished, batting .588 (10-17), with four doubles, one home run, five runs scored and six RBIs.
He was named American League player of the week for June 16-22 when he led the AL in batting average (.545), total bases (22), and on-base percentage (.615).
Not bad for a guy who says he isn't comfortable hitting fourth.
``Manny has done a terrific job hitting clean-up,'' said first baseman Jim Thome, who bats in front of Ramirez in the No. 3 spot. ``He's a talented hitter, so it's not really a surprise. Sometimes people put a big deal on where a guy hits in the order, but it really doesn't matter where you hit. ''
Don't try and tell Ramirez that.
``I don't want to hit fourth,'' he said. There's too much pressure. I want to hit fifth or sixth. ''
That's what he told Hargrove the first time the skipper presented the proposition.
``Manny wasn't too happy with the idea, the first time I asked him,'' said Hargrove. ``The next time it wasn't a matter of asking him. It was something he needed to do. ''
That was before the Yankees series at Jacobs Field, June 20-22.
In the second game of the series, Ramirez went 4-for-5, hitting his fifth career grand slam, and driving in a career-high six runs.
The clean-up dilemma was solved.
``Mike (Hargrove) came to me and said he had confidence in me batting fourth,'' Ramirez said. ``So I said let's give it a try. I surprised myself. I didn't believe I could do it. ''
The pressure of hitting clean-up, and being counted on to drive in the bulk of the team's runs, was the deterrent for Ramirez, whose quiet demeanor, and behind the scenes mentality, didn't seem to jibe with his new responsibility.
``He may think it's more pressure, but I think he's the same hitter, whether he's hiting fourth or eighth,'' said Indians hitting coach Charlie Manuel. ``I look at Manny as a good clean-up hitter. He stays relaxed at the plate, and never gets overly excited. Once the game starts, he's the same hitter wherever he is. ''
But Ramirez, who is hitting .338 with 10 homers and 39 RBIs this season, isn't the prototype No. 4 man. He doesn't possess the power and bulk of the A's Mark McGwire or the long-ball capabilities of the Rangers' Juan Gonzalez or the White Sox Albert Belle.
Manuel says it doesn't matter.
``McGwire, Belle, and guys like Frank Thomas, are more home run type hitters, but at the same time, Manny has hit 30 home runs the last two years,'' he said. ``He's more than capable of holding down the four-hole for us. ''
How long he's there remains to be seen. Should Williams find his stroke, would he return to the position he was in at the beginning of the year?
``There's no guarantee that Matt would move back,'' said Hargrove, who understandably doesn't want to mess with success. ``I'm in no hurry to change things around. The team has been swinging the bats well lately, Manny is fine where he's at for now. ''
Ramirez pleads innocent on traffic charges
Cleveland Indians outfielder Manny Ramirez pleaded innocent yesterday to numerous traffic charges, including driving without a license and having illegal plates.
Although they are minor infractions, Ramirez could face stiff fines because of his previous record of driving with two Florida driver's licenses and two Social Security numbers.
Ramirez was pulled over near Jacobs Field on Aug. 13, after a doubleheader with the Detroit Tigers. The outfielder was cited for having no driver's license, illegal plates, tinted windows and a noisy car, said George Yarbrough, spokesman for Cleveland Municipal Court.
As Ramirez was driving away, he made an illegal u-turn in front of officers and was pulled over and ticketed again, Yarbrough said.
Ramirez, batting .325 with 22 home runs and 72 RBI, appeared in court after returning with the team from a game late Wednesday at Anaheim, Calif. He pleaded innocent and was granted a continuance by Judge Colleen Cooney. He is scheduled to return to court Sept. 15
CLEVELAND -- Cleveland Indians outfielder Manny Ramirez was found guilty today of four minor traffic violations, while two other citations were dropped.
Ramirez, Cleveland's starting right fielder, was fined $225 plus court costs.
He did not attend the hearing in traffic court. His lawyer, Fred C. Crosby, entered a no contest plea to four misdemeanors -- having illegal plates, having tinted windows, failure to obey a police order and driving a noisy car.
Municipal Judge Colleen Cooney accepted Crosby's explanation that Ramirez could not be present because he had a commitment in another city.
Ramirez, 25, was pulled over near Jacobs Field on Aug. 13 after a doubleheader with the Detroit Tigers. He was cited for having no driver's license, illegal plates, tinted windows, failure to obey a police order and the noise infraction.
As Ramirez was driving away, he allegedly made an illegal U-turn in front of police officers and was stopped and ticketed again.
The driving without a license citation was dropped when Crosby provided evidence that Ramirez has a valid driver's license. The U-turn citation also was dropped.
Crosby refused to tell reporters where Ramirez was and why he could not be present.
"This is just a traffic matter. The media didn't show up for all the other hundreds of traffic cases I've been involved with," Crosby said. "He wasn't available. I would assume it's business."
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Cleveland Indians clinched their fourth straight AL Central title last night with the kind of overwhelming hardball that has made them an AL power in the '90s.
And for the second night in a row, it was Washington Heights native Manny Ramirez supplying the power in the Indians' 8-6 victory over the Minnesota Twins.
Ramirez hit his 41st and 42nd homers, tying the major-league record with homers in four straight at-bats and five in two games. In two games, Ramirez had five homers, nine RBI and three curtain calls. He has 13 multi-homer games, including an AL-high seven this season. Sammy Sosa leads the majors with 10.
Even Ramirez, who seemed as stunned as anybody by his power outburst, was thinking of bigger goals.
"Now comes the hard part," said Ramirez, batting .297 with 133 RBI. "We've got to keep going until we get the ring. Everybody in Cleveland wants to win it all."
The Indians became the third team to win four straight titles since divisional play started in 1969. They joined Atlanta, on its current run of seven straight, and the Oakland A's, who won the AL West from 1971-75.
Ramirez, who homered in his last three at-bats Tuesday night, homered on a 1-1 pitch from Minnesota's Bob Tewksbury (7-11) in the first. After grounding out in the second, Ramirez hit a 3-2 pitch to left for his fifth homer in six at-bats. He has six hits in his last 34 at-bats; all are homers. He was 2-for-4, grounding out twice.
Ramirez is the third Indians player to homer in four straight at-bats, joining Rocky Colavito (one game) in 1959 and Willie Kirkland (two games) in 1961.
Matt Williams was the last major leaguer with five homers in two games. He hit three for Cleveland on April 25, 1997, at Milwaukee and added two the next day. Ramirez is the fourth Indians player to do it, joining Joe Carter (1989), Albert Belle (1995) and Williams.
By Ted Bishop
ESPN SportsZone
CLEVELAND -- Welcome to the Jungle blared on the speakers throughout the Indians clubhouse following their 10-3 victory over the Marlins.
It was an appropriate theme for Manny Ramirez as he emerged from the showers.
A sea of microphones, cameras and scribes -- left to interview Indians pitching coach Mark Wiley in the nearly empty clubhouse -- quickly descended upon Ramirez.
Fighting back a smile, Ramirez had a simple request.
"Can I put some pants on first?"
After finally getting settled in front of the two pictures of Roberto Clemente that hang from the left side of his locker, Ramirez began to sing the praises of the work of his teammates.
"The guys are getting more pitches to hit," Ramirez said. "Guys are more comfortable and we're all being more patient."
Today's professional athlete lives in a virtual fishbowl. There are some who can easily cater to the public's insatiable curiosity and make their lives an open book. There are others who go out of their way to avoid the public attention that their celebrity attracts.
Manny Ramirez falls into the latter group. Although approachable, he politely shuns many interview requests. "I just don't like doing those things," Ramirez says. So the 26-year-old outfielder lets his bat do the talking.
Quietly, in his fifth full season with the Indians, Ramirez is steadily climbing up the ladder of the club's all-time leader in several offensive categories.
In three of the last four seasons, he has hit at least 30 homers and driven in more than 100 runs. Already, he is second in career grand slam homers with eight, trailing Al Rosen by only one. He is 11th on the club's career home run list and should surpass Joe Carter by early next season. Barring a serious injury, he will rank among the top 10 in the others when his career is said and done.
"Manny's had to make great strides in his defense. But even when he was getting all those criticisms, he was leading the league in outfield assist!"
"Manny's at a stage where he's just crossing over into how good a hitter he can be," says Indians hitting instructor Charlie Manuel, one of his biggest boosters. "I've always looked at Manny as someone who could hit 30-40 home runs and have a .330 batting average."
Manuel's association with Ramirez goes back to 1993 when he managed the Indians AAA club in Charlotte, North Carolina. Ramirez played only 40 games there on his relentless march to the Majors, but made enough of an impression on Manuel that he predicted greatness for the young slugger even then.
Manuel, of course, was not alone in his assessment. Since 1991, when the Indians made Ramirez their number one pick in the June draft, the high school phenom was touted as one of the future stars of the Tribe. He has lived up to, if not exceeded, those expectations.
Mickey White, the Indians scouting director at the time Ramirez was selected, saw in the talented athlete a player who loved baseball.
"He reminded me of [the late Pirate outfielder Roberto] Clemente," White says.
"He had a passion for the game. I grew up watching Clemente and he was one of
the best hitters I'd ever seen."
To White, now with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, scouting is a crapshoot. "I'm not that smart," he says. "But I loved what I saw and that's really all I went on. The greatest thrill has been watching somebody you really like as a young kid approach the game the way he does and watch him grow the way he has. That's beyond anybody's control or imagination."
"He reminded me of (the late Pirate Outfielder Roberto) Clemente."
There are critics, though, who will point out an air of indifference in his attitude, occasional lackadaisical play, and lapses of concentration. Both Manuel and White, veteran baseball men, sharply dispute those criticisms.
"I read what they write about him in the press and I hear the remarks they say about him," Manuel says. "Manny practices real hard and he's real sincere about what he does."
"To a certain extent, he's just beginning to settle in as a Major Leaguer," White adds. "There's not a player in the big leagues that doesn't peak and valley. The younger ones peak and valley more than the veterans."
Indians manager Mike Hargrove is also quick to defend his rightfielder. "We drafted him and rushed the heck out of him," says Hargrove. "He probably could have benefitted from another year in AAA. There have been some growing pains, but I don't know of any rightfielder in the league I would want other than Manny."
"...I don't know of any rightfielder in the league I would want other than Manny."
At the same time, the little boy inside him comes out at times. Ramirez is known among his teammates as a practical joker and at other times the butt of jokes. He has worn coach Dan Williams' pants during batting practice. Williams is twice the size of Ramirez.
Ramirez could be called the pioneer of the bleached-hair craze that has swept the clubhouse this season. Earlier in the year, he was sporting a perm with blond tips which he has since discarded. Others, seemingly following his lead, have donned the bleached look, making Manny appear conservative by comparison."
For this game, that's great," says Manuel. "Every team needs those kind of guys to break the tension."
Sometimes people take those things out of context and say Manny's not focused and not into what he's doing. Nothing could be further from the truth. Manny works real hard on his game."
White believes Manny's reluctance to speak to the media adds to the misconceptions.
"When you don't speak to people, they tend to say things about you," he says. "This is a game that you learn on a daily basis. Manny's had to make great strides in his defense. But even when he was getting all those criticisms, he was leading the league in outfield assists!"
Manny in stride to catch a fly ball. And Hargrove states his feelings quite simply: "Offensively and defensively Manny's been very good for us."
Manuel has worked with Ramirez on the finer points of hitting, such as what to expect in certain pitch counts. Above all, Manuel stresses discipline at the plate. He feels his pupil is learning that lesson well.
"Sometimes, after he hits a double or something, he'll come back to the dugout and tell me, 'Charlie, I looked for that ball and made sure it was in my zone.' That shows you he's being patient. That's what makes guys great hitters. The whole secret is getting a ball that you like to hit."
It's difficult to separate Ramirez from baseball, because he has few interests outside of the game. From the time he arrived in the United States in 1986, at the age of 13, it is the only thing that has helped him deal with the many differences he encountered.
New York City was a far cry from his native Santo Domingo, but baseball was still the same. It was a game he loved as a child, having learned to play it on the streets of his homeland. His role models were the many successful Dominican players who had made their mark in the Major Leagues.
According to his teammates, Ramirez is a practical joker who also knows how to take a ribbing. It was baseball that kept Ramirez from falling prey to the crime and violence of the drug-riddled mean streets of his Washington Heights neighborhood. And baseball has enabled Ramirez to make good on his promise to move his family from the hustle and bustle of New York to the relatively relaxed lifestyle of his Westlake neighborhood.
But Ramirez is uncomfortable with any public acknowledgment of the stardom he has attained. When Hargrove named the outfielder to replace the Yankees' Bernie Williams to the 1998 American League All-Star team, Ramirez told reporters it was no big deal because, "years from now no one would remember who was on the All-Star team." If he were to be believed, he would rather have spent the All-Star break riding the Raptor at Cedar Point Amusement Park.
Privately it was a different matter. Ramirez couldn't thank Hargrove enough for selecting him and showed his appreciation by hitting two home runs in a 2-1 Indians victory over Kansas City.
It's an obvious conclusion that Ramirez is happiest when he is on the field. His coaches and manager believe, as long as the burden of greater expectations is not placed upon him, Ramirez will continue to do what he has
been doing hitting 30 home runs, driving in 100 runs, and playing a solid right field. Anything more will be icing on the cake.
CLEVELAND (Sep 19, 1998 - 17:55 EDT) -- Manny Ramirez hit two more home runs Saturday in his first two at-bats for Cleveland, tying a major-league record for most home runs over the span of five games.
The two homers gave him eight in his last five games, tying the mark reached twice by Washington's Frank Howard in 1968. Howard hit eight in a five-game span from May 12-17 and also had eight in the five games from May 14-18.
Ramirez' streak is not consecutive. He had six homers in three games, did not homer against Kansas City on Friday night, then picked up the pace again Saturday.
Ramirez hit a two-run shot to left in the first inning and a three-run homer in the third, his 45th of the season. Both homers came off Jose Rosado.
Ramirez has homered in each of his last four at-bats off Rosado. On July 3, he homered in the sixth and ninth innings off the Royals left-hander for the only Cleveland hits in a 2-0 win.
Ramirez started his recent onslaught with his first career three-homer game Tuesday night against the Toronto Blue Jays.
He hit two Wednesday night against Minnesota and one against the Twins on Thursday night.
Ramirez has 10 hits in his last 43 at bats -- nine of them homers. He has 16 homers in his last 26 games.
Ramirez has an American League-best eight multi-homer games this season and 14 in his career.
Howard holds the record for most homers in a six-game span, hitting 10 from May 12-18, 1968.
NEW YORK (Sep 21, 1998 - 18:02 EDT) -- Cleveland's Manny Ramirez, who tied a major league record with eight homers in five games, won the AL's player of the week award Monday.
Ramirez hit three homers on Tuesday, two Wednesday, one Thursday and two Saturday to tie the mark reached twice by Washington's Frank Howard in 1968. Howard hit eight in a five-game span from May 12-17 and also had eight in the five games from May 14-18.
In seven games last week, Ramirez batted .476 with a league-leading 10 runs and 18 RBI.
Chicago's Albert Belle and New York's Orlando Hernandez were also under consideration.
Ramirez homers, doubles to lead Tribe to 6-5 win, but about those fly balls. . .
BY SHELDON OCKER
Beacon Journal staff writer
It was a busy day for Manny Ramirez. Almost too busy.
If not for his two-run homer in the fourth inning and his RBI double in the fifth, the Indians would not have beaten the Tigers 6-5 yesterday.
But Ramirez didn't stop there. At least two fly balls to right field seemed to veer off course the closer they got to him, eventually landing for hits.
He also was tagged out on the front end of a double steal, when he left third a fraction of a second too late.
Then there was his excuse-me ground ball to the third baseman in the eighth. It was no big deal, but it was one more reason you didn't want to take your eyes off Ramirez for even an instant.
``Manny was just trying to get out of the way, and his bat hit the ball,'' said Manager Mike Hargrove, marveling at the way Ramirez managed to wedge himself in the middle of so many situations.
``Manny did it all today,'' Hargrove said with a slight smile.
With Bartolo Colon struggling to maintain his consistency, the Tribe clearly needed some offense, and Ramirez gave it to them.
Detroit took a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning, but Ramirez tied the score in Cleveland's half of the fourth with his 22nd home run of the season, following a walk to Jim Thome.
Later in the inning, Sandy Alomar's ground ball drove in Brian Giles with the run that gave the Indians the lead for good, but the Tribe needed all the scoring it could muster.
Ramirez came through again in the fifth, which began with Kenny Lofton's single and steal, a sacrifice bunt by Omar Vizquel and Dave Justice's RBI triple.
After another walk to Thome, this one intentional, Ramirez slammed a double to center to score Cleveland's fifth run. Travis Fryman closed out the scoring with a sacrifice fly to bring Thome to the plate.
``It's about time I did something,'' Ramirez said. ``Everybody is swinging the bat pretty good now, and all those guys have been picking me up.''
Ramirez was being slightly modest. Until a week ago, he was Cleveland's hot hitter. But in a five-game span through Friday, Ramirez connected for only one hit in 19 at-bats.
Despite the brief slump, his three RBI yesterday gives Ramirez a team-leading 82 for the season, two more than Thome.
Ramirez also had a hand in two of Detroit's rallies.
In the fourth, he seemed to freeze on a drive hit by Tony Clark. By the time Ramirez recovered, the ball was bouncing off his glove for a double that helped advance a two-run rally.
``I just didn't see the ball good off the bat,'' Ramirez said.
Said Hargrove, ``Those are the toughest -- the ones hit right at you.''
Fryman also contributed to the Tigers' well-being by committing an error in the fifth inning, but Colon exercised alert damage control by inducing Joe Randa to bounce into an inning-ending double play.
In the sixth inning, Ramirez had problems deciding which way to turn on Joe Siddall's fly ball that landed on the track for a double.
Two batters later, Ramirez almost made a diving, rolling, sliding circus catch of Brian Hunter's bloop to right. But he couldn't hang on to the ball, which turned into an RBI single.
Colon (11-5, 2.74 ERA) lasted six innings, giving up all the runs on seven hits and four walks.
``Bartolo struggled with his concentration today,'' Hargrove said. ``But he pitched well enough to win. I'm not knocking his effort.''
Colon said he had difficulty keeping all of his body parts moving in the right direction.
``That was one of my worst starts,'' Colon said through interpreter Luis Isaac, Cleveland's bullpen coach. ``My mechanics were off, and I kept getting behind in the count.''
Mike Jackson had to go through a harrowing ninth inning before he could claim his 25th save of the season.
Clark started the trouble with a one-out double, and Luis Gonzalez followed with a single to shallow center. Unaccountably, Clark tried to score from second, and Lofton threw him out with a heave that sailed over the cutoff man by several yards and allowed Gonzalez to take second.
But at least, Lofton got the second out of the inning at the plate.
``Seeing to it that Gonzalez didn't go to second on the throw is what I wanted,'' Hargrove said. ``We teach players to be aggressive and throw through the cutoff man. So I have to believe the ball just took off on Kenny.''
Lofton said no, he had no intention of hitting the cutoff man.
``Clark was just rounding third base when I caught the ball,'' Lofton said.
``I thought, `Wow, what is he doing?' I knew I had him.''
Geronimo Berroa made the Tribe pay when he doubled to score Gonzalez, trimming Cleveland's lead to one run. But the game ended when Jackson induced Frank Catalanotto to ground out.
Right fielder is given the Man of the Year Award, and bullpen coach receives the Good Guy Award BY CHRIS TOMASSON Beacon Journal staff writer Call him the Manny of the Year. Indians right fielder Manny Ramirez has been named Man of the Year by the Cleveland chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America and bullpen coach Luis Isaac has won the Frank Gibbons/Steve Olin Good Guy Award. Ramirez, 26, who should get some consideration when the American League Most Valuable Player is named Thursday, led the Indians with 45 home runs, 145 RBI and hit .294 in his fifth full season in the majors. ``Manny had a breakthrough year for us offensively,'' said Indians general manager John Hart. ``He stabilized the middle of our lineup and he had a tremendous August and September.'' In September, Ramirez hit a home run in his first at-bat of the night after hitting three home runs the night before to tie a major-league record with homers in four straight at-bats. He went on to also tie big-league records with five homers over two games, six over three and eight over five. Ramirez's strong play continued into the playoffs against Boston and New York as he hit .343 in 10 games with four home runs. ``He and Jim Thome gave us a formidable middle of the order,'' Hart said. ``It has been great to watch Manny and Jim work their way up as youngsters from the bottom of the order. This has been Manny's year just as when Jim Thome hit 40 homers last year it was Jim's year. Manny has emerged as one of our top offensive players and had a fabulous year.'' Isaac, who played 15 years in the minors as a catcher, has been with the Indians organization since coming over as a minor-leaguer in 1965. He retired as a player in 1977 and served as a minor-league coach and manager and as a scout before joining the big league team for the first time late in the 1987 season. Isaac, a native of Puerto Rico, has served as the Tribe's bullpen coach from 1988-91 and since the 1994 season.
By OHM YOUNGMISUKDaily News Sports Writer With Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa sitting at home, the home-run spotlight can now shine brightly on Manny Ramirez. Last month, Ramirez hit eight home runs in a week, six over a three-game span, to put an exclamation point on his powerful season of a career-high 45 homers and 145 RBI. The Washington Heights native comes into tonight's ALCS opener against the Yanks with 11 career postseason home runs in 41 games, tops among active players and good enough for fifth place in major-league history.
Pretty heavy stuff for a guy who's only 26.
"Manny had a very good year overall. I won't say career numbers because I think he can produce better than that," Sandy Alomar said.
"Manny is definitely one of the top two young players in the game," teammate David Justice said. "Show me another 26-year-old that had the season that he had."
Ramirez didn't talk to reporters yesterday. Apparently, he's going to let his bat do the talking and his teammates do the gushing.
Ramirez has the ability to take over games with a swing of his bat, and as Alomar says, it only takes a couple of at-bats to get him hot.
On Sept. 15, Ramirez belted three homers off Toronto in consecutive at-bats. The next night against Minnesota, Ramirez homered in his first at-bat, tying the major-league record for home runs in consecutive at-bats.
Another home run against Minnesota that night tied another record, most home runs over a two-day stretch.
He hit three more homers, including two against Kansas City on Sept. 19, to make him just the second player to hit eight home runs in five games.
"Manny is a pure hitter, can hit the ball to all fields with power and is a good clutch hitter," Alomar said.
"He can carry a team when a team is down. Definitely, he can get hot with just a couple of at-bats."
In a series that could come down to a mistake here or there, Justice likes his chances when Ramirez is at the plate. And he has total confidence in Ramirez' fielding abilities, which have come under fire at times.
"He works hard, he gets a bad rap," Justice said. "When Manny makes one error, it's like magnified. They don't talk about the good plays he makes.
"A guy like Manny who doesn't have too many weaknesses (at the plate), you make a mistake, he's going to nail you where you can get away with that pitch against another player."
On a team loaded with weapons, Ramirez is the Indians' most dangerous batter.
He batted .294 this year with a slugging percentage of .599.
In four games against Boston in the playoffs, Ramirez hit .357 with two home runs and three RBI in 14 at-bats. Against the Yankees this year, he hit two homers in 36 at-bats.
"Nothing surprises me with Manny," Alomar said. "Believe me. He has done it year after year, and this year was a breakout year."
"I'd love to see him get hot right now because Manny can carry a whole team when he gets hot," Justice said.
TOKYO
Manny Ramirez likes what he has seen so far of Japanese culture. He likes Japanese pitching even better.
Ramirez led the Americans to an 8-1 victory.
Ramirez slammed two home runs and drove in five runs last night in an 8-1 victory by a team of major-league all-stars over their counterparts from Japan at the Tokyo Dome.
"I think Japan is awesome," Ramirez said. "It's better than the U.S. Some of the cars you see here, you don't see at home. And the clothes, too."
Ramirez supplied the power that a capacity crowd of 55,000 expected to see from Sammy Sosa, who had a single in three at-bats. Andruw Jones hit a two-run homer in the third.
"I just came here to have fun," Ramirez said. "It doesn't matter to me whether I do good or bad."
Orange? Blond? Bald? If he gets 45 HRs and 145 RBI, who cares?
WINTER HAVEN, FLA.
One look at Manny Ramirez's hair, and I'm glad I'm bald.
It's sorta orange.
It's sorta rust.
It sorta sits on top of his head, as if some bird tried to build a nest out of a bunch of old leaves.
``That's Manny's hair, so what do you expect?'' asked Sandy Alomar. ``Every spring, it's something like this.''
Alomar was talking about last spring training, when Ramirez arrived with hair that looked like a wilted head of cabbage.
But then Ramirez went on to lead the Indians with 45 homers and 145 RBI, a career year for the 26-year-old right fielder.
``I like his hair so much, I hope he gets it cut off tomorrow,'' said Tribe manager Mike Hargrove.
Then Hargrove remembered this is the end of the 1990s. And he remembered that Ramirez had a monster season in 1998. So the manager quickly added, ``As long as he hits''
In so many ways, Ramirez is still a kid, still happy to play baseball, still a little shy -- yet still craving attention.
So he colors his hair, then doesn't say a word about it.
The amazing thing is that Ramirez became a trend-setter last season. He dumped those silly golden locks in the middle of May, and went for the Mr. Clean/Michael Jordan look.
Obviously, Ramirez is no Sampson, because he snapped out of an early season slump seemingly the moment the barber finished the last snip of his spring 'do.
Copycats
But suddenly, some teammates took notice.
Remember that ballplayers aren't always the most original thinkers on the planet. And remember that they might be men making millions, but they still play a boys' game.
And finally, men coloring their hair is what passes for fun as the millennium dawns. So Jaret Wright and Richie Sexson went so blond, their hair was nearly white. But they are a couple of West Coast kids who are barely past their 21st birthdays -- and pretty much don't know any better.
Then there was Charles Nagy, who also went very blond -- twice! -- and should have known better.
``My wife told me that I should go blond,'' said Alomar.
She did?
``I told her that she had to be kidding, I don't even have any hair,'' said the 32-year-old catcher.
Then he laughed.
``Besides, it's not me,'' said Alomar.
Nagy also decided that blonds don't have more fun, at least not right now. His dark-brown hair has returned. Sexson and Wright also are going au naturel, which no doubt sent stocks of companies such as Clairol plummeting.
Who cares?
Only Ramirez has come to camp with a dye job, and the Indians have barely taken a second look, which probably is how it should be.
This is a guy who hit 30 homers in the final three months of the season. He made himself into an above-average right fielder with a very strong arm who consistently hits the cutoff man.
He's a legitimate All-Star and a clutch hitter, with 17 homers in 47 postseason games.
If the man wants to wear Coach Dan Williams' pants (which are about 12 sizes too big) during batting practice, or if he wants to wear his uniform socks up or down or not at all -- well, who cares?
That's the approach the Indians are taking with Ramirez, and it makes sense. Ramirez has matured a lot in his first five seasons with the Tribe, and in the end, he usually does the right thing.
But orange hair?
``Well, any thought I had of dying my hair orange, one look at Manny took care of that,'' said Orel Hershiser.
Then again, Hershiser is on the other side of 40 -- and glad to have any hair at all.
Then there is Ramirez.
Manny is on first base. All is well.
He runs to second base. He is safe. The Tigers don't even bother to try and throw him out.
So far, so good.
Then Manny begins walking back to first base.
The stunned Tigers tag him out.
The dumbfounded Ramirez walks off the field, not quite sure what happened.
In the dugout, Hargrove held his head as if he had learned one of his kids just drove the family car right into Lake Erie.
What was Ramirez doing?
According to Hargrove, this was the conversation in the dugout.
HARGROVE: ``What happened?''
RAMIREZ: ``I thought it was a foul ball.''
HARGROVE: ``Did anyone tell you it was a foul ball?''
RAMIREZ: ``No.''
And there you have it, ladies and gentleman.
A UFO will land on second base at Jacobs Field before you see something like that again.
You can't blame Hargrove for not trying to continue the conversation with his right fielder. On the pitch Ramirez thought was a foul ball -- Jim Thome didn't even swing. After a few talks with Manny, you realize there are times when Manny just doesn't get it, and he's never gonna get it.
Got it?
Remember, this comes only three days after Ramirez forgot to put on his sun glasses (they were in his back pocket). In that same game, he forgot to run hard on a ball hit to him in right field.
And his batting average is nearly .340.
If you are Hargrove, what are you supposed to do? Find a little elf to sit on his shoulder and point him to the next base?
The guy has been in the majors for four years, and it's becoming obvious that if he hasn't figured out where first and second base are now on the diamond, he never will.
So you play him, and hope that when he hits a home run, he remembers to touch all the bases in the proper order.
By: SCOTT SUTTELL
Manny Ramirez almost never gets cheated at the plate.
He swings hard, but under control. For a power hitter, Ramirez is remarkably patient, walking enough to chalk up a career .390 on-base percentage. And he makes a careful study of all the pitchers he sees.
``Manny takes his hitting, and his entire game, seriously," said Indians manager Mike Hargrove. "He came with a lot of natural talent, but has really focused on making himself someone who can hit consistently for power and average."
Even in his unremarkable games -- say, the March 9 spring training contest in Baseball City, Fla., against the Kansas City Royals -- Ramirez makes a strong impression at the plate. Hot smashes for outs in the second and third innings to Kansas City third baseman Joe Randa and shortstop Rey Sanchez, respectively, were followed by a solid single to right field off Jeff Suppan. It was the only hit the Tribe managed in three innings against Suppan that day.
Ramirez, who is quiet and publicity-shy, even took in stride some ribbing from a fan. Coming back to the dugout at the end of an inning, a fan yelled out a good natured, "Get a haircut, Manny," in reference to Ramirez's prodigious -- but thankfully, no longer bright orange -- head of hair. Ramirez laughed lightly and doffed his cap to the appreciative fan.
Fans sometimes have razzed Ramirez for his occasional fielding and base-running mistakes, which have diminished over the years as he has worked toward becoming a more complete player. And the Kansas City game did feature a Ramirez miscue. He bobbled the ball and was charged with an error in trying to pick up a Jeff King single quickly and make a throw to the plate on Kansas City's Johnny Damon. It was an aggressive play that didn't work as planned.
``He's made a lot of improvement as an outfielder," Hargrove said. "We want everyone to work hard like that."
To reinforce that notion in a season where the Indians have set an explicit goal of winning 100 games and reaching the World Series, Ramirez and his teammates spent much of their spring training time in Florida wearing shorts emblazoned with the message "100+: Go hard or go home."
Ramirez generally is regarded as possessing one of the game's strongest outfield arms. In the last three years, he has recorded 39 assists, one of the highest totals in the game.
But it's with his bat that Ramirez has earned his reputation as one of the game's best young players. Ramirez set career highs in 1998 with 45 home runs and 145 runs batted in. The home run and RBI numbers were the third-best single-season totals in Indians' history.
In the last two months of the season, Ramirez punished American League pitching with 21 home runs and 57 RBIs. During one five-game stretch in September, he tied a Major League record by hitting eight home runs.
With 154 home runs in five years, Ramirez already is 10th on the Indians' all-time home run list.
``He's one of those guys that you appreciate watching even though you wish he wasn't coming to bat against you," said Alan Trammell, hitting coach for the Detroit Tigers, after Ramirez went 2 for 3 and knocked in a couple runs in a March 6 exhibition game at Lakeland, Fla. "He has a great, pure swing."
All this means Ramirez, who is signed through the end of this year but has a sure-to-be-picked-up club option for 2000, is in an enviable position.
Considering that the New York Yankees were willing to pay $87.5 million over seven years ($12.5 million a year) for Bernie Williams, who is four years older than Ramirez, doesn't have nearly as much power and gets hurt much more often, the Indians' young star figures to cash in soon. A $100 million-plus contract offer is a certainty, and the free-spending Yankees figure to be a player to woo Ramirez, who went to high school in New York.
In the hyper-inflationary market that is major league baseball, Ramir-ez's offensive numbers merit the coming big payday. He's currently among the best bargains in baseball, making $4 million this year and $4.25 million in 2000.
Among 12 elite outfielders under age 30, Ramirez in 1998 was near the top in the three major offensive categories -- batting average, home runs and runs batted in. Only Seattle's Ken Griffey Jr. hit more homers (56) than Ramirez's 45, and Texas superstar Juan Gonzalez (157) and Griffey (146) were the only ones to top Ramirez's total of 145 RBIs. Even Ramirez's .294 batting average -- the lowest since 1994 for the career .302 batter -- was fifth among the elite group.
Only former MVPs Griffey and Gonzalez have clearly better offensive numbers at this point in their careers, and both are three years older than Ramirez. None of the other players have hit as many home runs and knocked in as many runs as Ramirez in the last four years.
Whatever contract issues arise down the road, Hargrove said the focus is on winning now.
``We all know the game is a business, but our job is to take care of things on the field, and Manny understands that," he said.
Associated Press
NEW YORK -- Cleveland Indians outfielder Manny Ramirez and Detroit Tigers pitcher C.J. Nitkowski, the two players ejected during last week's beanball battle at Jacobs Field, were suspended and fined Thursday by AL president Gene Budig.
Ramirez, who leads the majors with 59 RBI, is to start a three-game suspension Friday against Boston. Nitkowski is to begin a two-game suspension Friday against Chicago.
There was no immediate word on whether either player would appeal the penalties.
Pitcher Jaret Wright of Cleveland and manager Larry Parrish and pitcher Jeff Weaver of Detroit also were fined undisclosed amounts.
And in an unusual step, Budig announced his intention to talk to Wright and Indians manager Mike Hargrove when Cleveland visits New York next week about Wright's "deportment on the mound."
"None of us wants to see Jaret told how to pitch," Indians general manager John Hart said. "He pitches inside and will continue to so do."
The trouble at Jacobs Field last Saturday began when Wright -- suspended for five games in April and fined $1,000 after hitting a Boston batter with a pitch following a home run -- nailed Detroit's Tony Clark in the batting helmet with a fastball in the top of the sixth inning.
In the bottom of the sixth, Ramirez charged Weaver after being hit in the helmet with a pitch, setting off a bench-clearing brawl. During the fracas, Parrish wrestled down Wright from behind.
Both teams were warned against further trouble. In the eighth, Nitkowski was ejected when his first -- and only -- pitch knocked Kenny Lofton to the ground.
"The American League this year has suspended only players who were ejected by umpires," Budig said.
Parrish said he had not expected a fine, but "I don't know that it's anything I'd fight, though."
As for Nitkowski, he said, "He's the one suspended who wasn't throwing at anybody, for sure. But it happened after he'd been warned."
Ramirez is batting .348 with 13 home runs.
"I think in Manny's case, obviously Manny was hit deliberately," Hart said. "It was retaliation of some sort and Manny reacted."
Nitkowski is 1-1 with a 5.50 ERA in 27 relief appearances.
"Every one of those pitches was an accident, whether anybody wants to believe it or not. Especially mine," Nitkowski said. "Anybody who knows my history will tell you that location isn't my long suit."
"If I get two, how come Ramirez only gets three? I think that's pretty weak," he said. "The fines better be in proportion -- what my salary is and what his salary is."
Hart said he spoke with Budig couple of times this week.
"I was hoping for some leniency and obviously none was given. In our situation, all you can do is grind your teeth. I don't think it was overly fair," he said.
Hart also spoke to Budig about Parrish's involvement in the brawl "and I told him I didn't think that was appropriate."
CLEVELAND (AP) Right now, Manny Ramirez is alone in the crowd.
As TV camera crews and reporters are scurrying around the clubhouse interviewing the night's star players following another Indians' win, Cleveland's biggest star is ignored as he gets dressed.
Ramirez went 4-for-4, drove in a couple more runs and hit another homer. But no one approaches the right fielder, who hasn't spoken to the local media since March. No one bothers to ask him if he hit a fastball or if he thinks he can challenge Hack Wilson's RBI record.
Ramirez has nothing against the media - he just doesn't see the need to talk.
"He just likes to play baseball, that's all," says infielder Enrique Wilson, one of Ramirez's closest friends on the team. "That's just Manny's way."
After throwing on some baggy jeans, boots, a T-shirt and baseball cap, Ramirez offers a polite smile and nods as he leaves Jacobs Field at the end of another long workday. Always smiling.
"That's Manny," says teammate Dwight Gooden. "He could go 0-for-4 or 4-for-4 and he's the same. Every day to him is like a Sunday walk in the park."
That's Manny. It's a refrain that constantly pops up when Ramirez's teammates, coaches and manager talk about him.
Quiet. That's Manny.
Confident. That's Manny.
Consistent. That's Manny.
Kooky. That's Manny.
The best right fielder in baseball. That's Manny, too.
Ramirez may not have much to say, but his statistics are screaming for attention.
Coming off a monster 45-homer, 145-RBI season in 1998, he's having an even bigger '99. Entering Friday night's series opener against Boston, Ramirez is batting .348 with 13 homers and a major league leading 59 RBIs. He's ranked among the top seven in RBIs, average, runs, hits and homers.
Ramirez has driven in a mind-boggling 165 runs in his last 139 games, a pace that would give him 117 at the All-Star break. And with the Indians averaging 7.1 runs per game, Ramirez could make a serious run at Wilson's mark of 190 in a season.
Yet when fans rank the AL's top outfielders, you're bound to hear the names Griffey, Gonzalez and even Belle mentioned ahead of Ramirez's.
That may soon change.
"What Manny has accomplished this year and last year says a lot about his maturation," says Indians manager Mike Hargrove. "If he stays on this road, people have to look at him as a major force in baseball. He's not there yet, but he's on a road very few of us get to travel."
Ramirez's road to superstardom has been a bumpy one filled with plenty of hard lefts, veers to the right and even a couple of U-turns. There might not be a major leaguer who is as easygoing and harder to figure out.
Before he became an All-Star player, Ramirez was best known for being an all-star flake. Some of his off-field antics have become legendary.
Like the time on a road trip that he asked an Indians beat writer if he could borrow $60,000 - on the spot - so he and pitcher Julian Tavares could buy motorcycles. Or when Ramirez walked in during the middle of O.J Simpson's chase through the streets of Los Angeles and asked with concern, "What did Chad do?" Ramirez thought the police were after then-teammate Chad Ogea, whose name is pronounced O.J.
Then last year, after he hit his 13th career postseason home run to pull within two of Babe Ruth, Ramirez was asked: "What do you think Ruth would say?"
Ramirez replied: "I don't know, you've got to go ask him."
It was vintage Ramirez - baffling if taken at face value, brilliant if examined a little deeper. That's Manny.
Ramirez, who will turn 27 on Sunday, has matured as a person and a player in the past year.
"Ever since about the All-Star break last year, I began to see he had changed a little bit," said Gooden. "He just seemed to be more focused and now he really has a confidence about him."
Indians batting coach Charlie Manuel started to see a difference in Ramirez at about the same time. Instead of swinging at balls off the plate he couldn't reach, Ramirez was sitting and waiting for his pitch. And his habit of lunging at balls out in front seemed to disappear.
"He was focusing better," Manuel said. "And he was getting his arms out quicker and extending them to drive balls with more power. He could always hit. But he's learned to become a more disciplined hitter. No one has worked harder at it than Manny."
Ramirez's numbers increased dramatically in '98, jumping by 19 homers and 57 RBIs in the same number of games - 150 - as the previous year. His defense also improved, although he still tries the occasional one-handed, no-look catch.
Ramirez credits team psychologist Charles Maher with his improved game. After he was given the team's 1998 player of the year award earlier this season, Ramirez presented it to Maher.
That's Manny. Always paying someone else a compliment.
"I've been lucky enough to play with Manny for a long time," says Jim Thome, his teammate since AAA in 1993. "And you see what a great player he is. Well, he's even a better person."
Before a game Ramirez, who has two years left on his contract, bounces around the Indians' clubhouse like a kangaroo. After wolfing down some sushi, he joins Roberto Alomar for a heated game of Ping-Pong, sliding in his stocking feet on the carpet to return volleys as if he were on the clay at Roland Garros.
After that, he pops a merengue CD in the clubhouse system to the approval of Latin teammates Wil Cordero and Jolbert Cabrera. Ramirez is having fun. Maybe he wants to talk.
"No, thanks," he says with a smile when asked to be interviewed for this story.
Ramirez's carefree attitude has rubbed off on all the Indians. They are a loose bunch off the field, all business on it.
"Manny plays the game so relaxed," says Thome. "You don't see him get frustrated or mad."
Only in recent days did his teammates see a new side of Ramirez. After Detroit's Jeff Weaver hit him in the batting helmet with a retaliatory pitch, Ramirez went after Weaver. Ramirez was ejected for the first time in his career and received a three-game suspension.
"It takes a lot to tick Manny off," catcher Sandy Alomar says. "But when you get hit in the head, that's a little different."
A few days later, Ramirez is playing pregame catch with Cordero. Roberto Alomar is standing next to Cordero imitating Ramirez's fielding style.
With Wilson tossing him popups, Alomar does a Ramiresque duckwalk under the ball and drops it, just like Ramirez had done the night before on a sinking liner. Ramirez laughs.
"That's us just having some fun with Manny," Wilson says later. "He knows we're kidding."
Then, as if prompted by a stage director, Ramirez is running across the room pushing an empty laundry cart and shouting to Wilson in Spanish, "How do you like my new glove?"
Right now, Ramirez is the center of attention.
Associated Press
CLEVELAND -- Cleveland outfielder Manny Ramirez appealed his three-game suspension Friday, and took advantage right away with an RBI double in his first at-bat against Boston, a 12-5 Red Sox victory.
Ramirez was suspended Thursday by AL president Gene Budig for charging the mound last Saturday after being hit in the helmet by a pitch from Detroit's Jeff Weaver .
The penalty was to start Friday. Because he appealed, Ramirez was allowed to play, and he doubled off the wall in right-center field for major league-leading 60th RBI.
Tigers reliever C.J. Nitkowski, who was suspended for two games for throwing a knockdown pitch in Saturday's same game, did not appeal. He started his penalty Friday when Detroit played Chicago.
Meanwhile, Indians manager Mike Hargrove said he will attend a meeting between his pitcher Jaret Wright and Budig on Tuesday in New York.
"I was asked if I wanted to be there and I said yes," Hargrove said. "It wasn't required."
Budig announced the scheduled meeting when he fined Wright for his part in the brawl last Saturday at Jacobs Field. Wright hit the Tigers' Tony Clark in the helmet.
Budig said he wants to discuss Wright's "deportment on the mound."
Wright faced the Red Sox on Friday night for the first time since he hit Darren Lewis with a high pitch that precipitated a brawl April 29 in Fenway Park. Wright got a five-game suspension then.
"I don't think Jaret is doing this on purpose," Hargrove said with emphasis. "And he has not been ordered to do it. I don't think Jaret is a headhunter and I don't think he is throwing at people.
"It was an 0-2 pitch to Clark and he was trying to come in and that's what he should do. You get a scouting report and it says to throw hard stuff up and in and then breaking balls down and away.
"Now up and in doesn't mean up around somebody's nose. If you are a power pitcher and you are pitching up and the ball gets away from you, guess where it's going to go?" he said. "Jaret said it best when he said that if he had pinpoint control his ERA wouldn't be six.
Associated Press
CLEVELAND -- Manny Ramirez won't be able to add to his RBI total over the next few days against Milwaukee.
The Cleveland Indians outfielder, leading the majors with 68 RBI, dropped his appeal Tuesday and began serving his three-game suspension for charging the mound against Detroit last month.
Ramirez will miss the Indians' entire three-game series against Milwaukee but will return for Friday's opener in Cincinnati against the Reds.
Losing Ramirez for three games doesn't hurt the Indians now as much as it would on the weekend, when Cleveland's pitchers will be required to hit in an NL ballpark as interleague play continues.
"I'm glad he did it now," Indians manager Mike Hargrove said. "It would have been tough to play another man short in Cincinnati."
Ramirez and his agent, Eric Goldschmidt, decided to drop the appeal after they were informed by the American League that president Gene Budig was contemplating flying to Cleveland on Wednesday to hear Ramirez's appeal.
Ramirez was suspended for the first time in his career for charging Detroit rookie pitcher Jeff Weaver in a May 22 game at Jacobs Field. Ramirez was hit in the batting helmet in the bottom of the sixth by Weaver, who may have been retaliating for Indians pitcher Jaret Wright hitting Tigers' first baseman Tony Clark in the head in the top of the inning.
Wright and Weaver were fined for their roles in the bench-clearing incident but not suspended. However, Wright, who had been suspended earlier in the season for hitting Boston's Darren Lewis , was called into Budig's office last week in New York to discuss the pitcher's behavior on the mound.
Ramirez, who bats cleanup for the Indians, is hitting .344 with 14 homers and is currently on pace to drive in 204 runs. In his career against Milwaukee, Ramirez is hitting .347 (58-for-167) with nine homers and 27 RBI.
"Any time you lose a player like Manny Ramirez it hurts your lineup," said Hargrove, who batted Jim Thome in the No. 4 slot Tuesday night. "Two of the hardest holes to fill in the lineup are leadoff hitter and the No. 4 hole. Fortunately we have some players who can do that."
David Justice played right field in Ramirez's absence, and Richie Sexson started in left.
Travis Fryman was a late scratch from Cleveland's starting lineup Tuesday because of back spasms. He was replaced at third base by Enrique Wilson .
Cleveland's Manny Ramirez charging toward RBI record
Right-fielder Manny Ramirez of the Cleveland Indians is the strong, silent type.
Boy, is he strong: Manny (6', 205 pounds) is so powerful that his nickname is the Baby Bull.
And boy, is he silent: Manny hasn't talked to reporters all season. Manny isn't mean. He's just quiet and a little shy. He prefers to let his bat do his talking.
Manny's bat has been a real motormouth for the past two seasons. Manny hit .294, with 45 home runs and 145 RBIs in 1998. He is doing even better this season. He was batting .345, with 14 homers and 67 RBIs, as of June 3.
Baby Bull is on a pace to break the major league single-season RBI record. Hack Wilson of the Chicago Cubs holds the record of 190 RBIs, set in 1930. If he keeps driving in runs at his current pace, Manny will knock in 212 runs this season!
So why might Manny hack up Hack's RBI record? There are several reasons:
Manny bats clean-up for baseball's most powerful club. The Indians lead baseball with an average of 6.8 runs per game (as of June 3).
Cleveland often has runners on base when Manny steps to the plate. Lead-off hitter Kenny Lofton has an awesome .456 on-base percentage. That means he reaches base almost half his times at-bat. Next up are Omar Vizquel (.390 on-base average) and Roberto Alomar (.434 on-base average).
Jim Thome bats fifth, right behind Manny. Jim averaged 36 home runs per season from 1996 through 1998. Pitchers can't afford to walk Manny with Jim ready to launch one over the fence. Manny has been intentionally walked only once this season.
"Manny's a great hitter," says Cleveland catcher Sandy Alomar. "And just the way the lineup makes him better, he makes everyone around him better, too."
Michael Weinreb
The Sporting News
Here, in the home clubhouse at Jacobs Field, amid the din of baseball's best team readying itself to beat the daylights out of another opponent, Cleveland shortstop Omar Vizquel sits quietly in front of his locker. Nearby, on one of the televisions, drones a major-league game in progress.
Across the room, right fielder/RBI machine Manny Ramirez is trying to play table tennis -- with both hands, his tattooed chest heaving with laughter to the tick-tock, tick-tock of the game as he awkwardly wields paddles righthanded and lefthanded. His head bobs and his eyes sparkle, betraying a boyish innocence not often found in big-league clubhouses these days.
Vizquel, after stealing a glance at Ramirez, gives a joyless hiccup of a laugh, then points to the TV and says, "Sometimes, I think that's the only place where Manny knows what he's doing."
The most dangerous batter in the most dangerous lineup in baseball turned 27 on May 30. In his sixth full major-league season, he has blossomed into one of the best pure hitters in the game. He is on a pace to drive in 203 runs, and while some of that might be attributed to the hitters around him, there is no dispute: Manny Ramirez is a star.
How good can he be? Former Cleveland scouting director Mickey White, one of the decision-makers who chose to draft Ramirez with the 13th pick in 1991, says: "That is why they play 162 games."
This much is abundantly clear: Ramirez hits with power (18 home runs through Wednesday). He hits line drives. He hits consistently (.345). He hits to the opposite field. He hits when he's behind in the count. He hits fastballs and breaking balls and knuckleballs. He hits Ping-Pong balls with both hands, for crying out loud.
But when he's tattooing baseballs all over the American League, he does it with a buttery swing, a swing that makes your knees -- and opposing pitchers' knees -- buckle.
A computerized scouting report on Ramirez shows his "red zones," where he hits the ball with the most power: Against righthanded pitchers, he likes the ball middle of the plate and in; against lefthanders, his power is middle and away. Show that to baseball people, and they say, "Yes, he dives over the plate against lefties."
Cleveland hitting coach Charlie Manuel doesn't let people tinker with The Swing. He doesn't even like to touch it himself. He has never seen a batter so free of tension, so decidedly nonchalant at the plate.
There have been swings like this before. Manuel compares it to a righthanded version of Tony Oliva. White, now working for the Pirates, saw shades of Roberto Clemente. Vizquel sees a mirror image of another lefty, Ken Griffey Jr.
It is no coincidence that Clemente is in the Hall of Fame. Oliva would be there if not for injuries. Griffey is headed there.
"One of the most beautiful swings I've ever seen," says teammate Sandy Alomar, eloquently simple in his analysis of Ramirez.
Yet analysis of Manny Ramirez is never simple. True enough, Manny Ramirez is a star. But he is an enigma, too.
He dyed his hair a Crayola shade of burnt orange-yellow this spring. He left his paycheck in one of his boots in a visiting clubhouse. He told a clubhouse attendant to wash his car. Said there was money in the glove compartment. And there was. About 10 grand. In cash.
He has worn other people's socks. He has worn other people's pants. He has used other people's bats.
Ah, yes, the bats.
Those accusations by unidentified Yankees earlier this month that Ramirez is using a corked bat appear to be more gamesmanship than reality.
The Cleveland organization was annoyed at the charges but also amused at the Yankees' reasoning. New York players noted that Ramirez changed bats after hitting the home run that aroused their suspicion because the bat made an odd sound upon contact. Truth be told, however, Ramirez is so cavalier about his bat selection that he picks up the first piece of lumber he encounters.
"A different bat in almost every at-bat," says equipment manager Ted Walsh. "There's no rhyme or reason to it. He'll just go to the bat rack and grab anyone's bat and go to the plate."
And the one that didn't "sound" right on the questioned home run? "He was using Sandy Alomar's bat," Walsh says.
(True story: Alomar grew tired of Ramirez borrowing his bats and sometimes breaking them. He banned Ramirez from his bat stash. However, because Alomar is injured and was back in Cleveland rehabbing, he wasn't around to guard his bats in New York. So Ramirez is back in Alomar's bats, using them to pound opposing pitchers.)
"He goes purely by feel," says Manuel of Ramirez, who has been known to take six bats from six teammates to the pregame batting cage, trying them all. "Manny makes it very simple. If the bat feels good, he uses it. If the pitch looks good, he swings at it."
See ball, hit ball. Pick up bat, swing bat.
No one knows why Manny Ramirez does what Manny Ramirez does -- except Manny Ramirez. He is not high on sharing his feelings with strangers. He has not spoken with the local media this season, although no one seems to know why.
So here's how best to gauge how bothered he was the day after the Yankees' accusations: Before he went out to stretch and take batting practice -- pausing to chat with friends in the stands from his old neighborhood, nearby Washington Heights -- he sat in the visitors' clubhouse at the Stadium with headphones on, listening to music and watching video of Roger Clemens.
The people who know him best tell you this: Manny Ramirez is misunderstood. They say he is shy. They tell you he speaks English more readily than he might let on, that his heart is as pure as they come.
They tell you he was hurried to the major leagues less than two years after he was drafted, that he hadn't even graduated from high school, that he came from a neighborhood where he was sheltered in Dominican culture, where his father drove a cab and his mother was a seamstress.
They tell you he's maturing, becoming more responsible. They tell you no one on this team, the best team in baseball, works harder. They tell you his fundamentals are improving, that he could be a Gold Glove outfielder if not for his sullied reputation, and that his baserunning is no worse than that of many big-league players.
But still, there are these moments. And they are so vivid, they cloud the vision of Ramirez's immense ability. Says his high-school coach, Steve Mandl: "Manny just happens to pick the worst times to do the worst things."
New York, 1998. Game 6 of the AL Championship Series. The Yankees' Derek Jeter hits a line drive, and Ramirez leaps and climbs the wall of Yankee Stadium, ready to save a home run in his hometown. The ball lands 6 feet below -- at the bottom of the wall.
Ramirez says he never saw the ball. He walks back to the dugout, shrugs, grins and says, "That ball almost hit me in my back."
Atlanta, 1995. Game 2 of the World Series. Ramirez, having strayed too far off first base, is picked off by Braves catcher Javy Lopez, destroying a Cleveland rally. Ramirez walks back to the dugout, shrugs, grins and says, "I thought I was Rickey Henderson for a minute."
Yet there is a blessed innocence to him. He is everyone's little brother.
"Anyone who knows him knows he's a good kid," says Mel Zitter, his old summer-league coach in New York. "He's not malicious at all."
His teammates try. He talks to Vizquel, to Alomar, to the other Hispanic players. He idolizes them, and they tell him this team needs him now, more than ever. They're counting on him.
"I try to hang around with him, but I can't be baby-sitting him all the time," Vizquel says. "I talk to him a lot. I think he's finally hearing."
Usually, his errors in judgment are harmless. Often, especially off the field, they are comical. The dropped fly balls and pickoffs are compensated healthily by his bat, by hit after hit after hit, by the extra practice and workouts. Even manager Mike Hargrove finds room to joke about the hair.
But there has to be a reason for these lapses, why the bulbs dim inside Ramirez's head.
"When he was in school, there was always some kind of problem. Nobody wanted to address it," Mandl says. "Then, I was watching an Indians game once with a kid who had attention deficit disorder. And the kid said, 'Coach, Manny's just like me.' And it struck me. That could be it."
The organization won't talk much about it. Assistant general manager Mark Shapiro says any psychological evaluations of Ramirez have found nothing out of the ordinary.
Yet, in the wake of Corkgate -- when there was room to wonder if the Yankees were just trying to play mind games with Ramirez -- here is how Vizquel, speaking to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, laughed off the notion that they would be able to rattle Ramirez: "If you can get inside Manny's head, come and see me. The psychologist on our team is trying to figure Manny out, and he is driving him crazy."
Dr. Charles Maher says Ramirez's problem is shyness, not ADD. Whatever the team shrink is doing, it appears to be working; the blatant errors are coming less frequently. Ramirez gave his team Most Valuable Player trophy from last season to Maher for helping him to focus, to concentrate.
"You guys," says Alomar, speaking to one reporter but chastising the media as a whole, "think he's stupid. He's not."
You wonder, then, what motivated the Yankees to make an issue of Ramirez's bat. And, honestly, whoever did it (word is Tribe members think it was Orlando Hernandez, who gave up the off-balance, one-handed home run), New York manager Joe Torre and G.M. Brian Cashman wish he hadn't. Had the Yankees won the series and been in a position they were in last season, it probably wouldn't have been an issue.
But the balance of power has shifted in the AL, thanks in great part to Ramirez. Cleveland has the best record in baseball and scored 23 runs in the recent three-game series at New York. The teams meet twice more in the regular season, but clearly the first go-round made an impression on a team that won 114 regular-season games in 1998.
"That's the best batting order we've seen from them in the last five years," says Yankees pitcher David Cone. "And we're talking about some impressive teams. These guys are very, very dangerous."
There are no prominent photos of Ramirez above his locker at the Jake. There are pictures of Jim Thome, a clipping about Sandy and Roberto Alomar from a magazine. There are pictures of Cleveland's coaching staff, of Clemente.
He reveres his teammates, especially the Alomars; he respects and listens to Vizquel. He has heroes such as Dodgers outfielder Raul Mondesi. He apparently doesn't understand that he probably is just as good as, if not better than, nearly every player in either league, although he turned down a seven-year offer for a reported $56 million last winter. His contract expires after next season, and there's talk of Cleveland trading him before he leaves as a free agent. There's talk of him returning to New York and playing for the Yankees.
"All I can tell you about New York," says Eric Goldschmidt, the latest in what has been a parade of agents since Ramirez signed his first professional contract, "is that Manny spends a lot of time there in the offseason."
It is a question of what Ramirez wants. Sometimes, that's hard to see -- and virtually impossible to comprehend -- from the outside. Sometimes, you wonder if he knows what he wants, if he is giving careful enough consideration to his situation, his future. Being blissfully unaware can be a charming quality. It also can be a source of immense frustration, on the field and off.
Ramirez talks to Mandl, his old prep coach, every few weeks. At George Washington High School in Washington Heights, one of the best baseball programs in New York, the money is just not there. They wear old uniforms because Ramirez promised to buy new ones and never did. They can't take batting practice because they can't afford to lose the baseballs.
They are raising money to build a new batting cage. All it would take from Ramirez is one check, but Mandl can't impose on Ramirez, can't bear to ask him for cash like that.
"Still, he remembers what it was like," Mandl says, "hitting with ragballs."
But this is where Manny Ramirez's vision is clouded. It is something he cannot comprehend. That he's not the boy anymore, that he's the one they idolize in Washington Heights. That he has eclipsed his heroes.
That he's the heart of the most dangerous lineup in baseball
Back to Main Page
Back to Manny Page
