Manny Ramirez, Sage Philosopher

Manny Ramirez thinks his Boston Red Sox are going to come back from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Cleveland Indians in the ALCS. But if "it doesn't happen, so who cares? There's always next year. It's not like it's the end of the world."
Everyone is going nuts over those remarks and ignoring the fact that Ramirez is showing remarkable perspective. It isn't the end of the world, it's just a game, it's just sports. No one dies. I'm only two and a half weeks into mourning the lost season of 2007 for the Mets, but even I know, there will be next year and the world won't end before then, and if it does, it won't be because of the Mets.
So then what's the big deal? People perceive Manny's comments to mean he doesn't want to win, or doesn't care if the Sox don't win. First of all, athletes will never care as much about winning as the fans. It's too much of a business for them.
Second, Ramirez is performing incredibly well. He's batting .462 in this series, .429 in this postseason and he has 24 homers in the playoffs (88 games), the most of anyone, ever. Maybe it's this attitude that allows him to produce under all that pressure. He's like the anti-A-Rod. Don't you think A-Rod's postseason performance would improve if he stopped looking at every at bat as life or death?

As for the other Manny controversy, his showboating after a home run cut the Indians leads to 7-3. Under normal circumstances that's totally uncool to celebrate like that while losing. But you have to remember that it's Manny Ramirez. I'm not even sure he knew what the score was. He knew the Indians had just scored a lot of runs, but maybe he thought he'd made the score, 4-3 or 5-3. I wouldn't be surprised at all.