Thursday, October 18, 2007

Manny Being Manny

"It doesn't happen, so who cares? There's always next year. It's not like it's the end of the world." said Manny Ramirez. The streets of Boston are probably still saturated with backwashed Sam Adams and clam chowder from the Massholes' collective spit-take at the news. Honestly though, are Manny's comments really that big a deal? Of course he would have been wiser to keep these thoughts to himself. However one should consider the possibility that this very attitude allows Manny to excel in the big situations that he is downplaying.

Nearly everybody believes that some players are "not clutch". Most would argue that these players' performances are adversely affected by an inability to handle the pressure of a big situation. Perhaps Manny's blase attitude helps him tune out the postseason pressure.

The results certainly speak for themselves. Manny has OPSed 1.373 in his past 14 postseason games. For frame of reference, Barry Bonds posted a 1.378 OPS in 2001 (arguably the greatest single season of all-time). If I were a Sox fan, as long as Manny kept hitting like that, I wouldn't care if he ran a batch in Ted Williams' disembodied head.

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