Manny being depressing

I’ll be honest: I was looking to write something on Manny Ramirez returning to the majors. It would have been half-speculative and half-silly. Which team would benefit the most? Which team would even consider it? That sort of thing.

But when I was doing research for the post, I came across this wonderful feature from Sports on Earth about how Ramirez was singlehandedly reviving Taiwanese baseball, and it ended like this:

It seems as though Ramirez’s polarizing career will end in one of two ways. The happy ending is he sticks out the rest of the season in Taiwan, stays healthy, leads the Rhinos to a CPBL championship and leaves Taiwan a baseball hero.

Then there’s the alternate ending -- the one where Manny pulls a Manny and disappears midseason. He leaves his teammates hanging, wondering what could have been, and rips the hearts out of Taiwanese fans who are just starting to trust baseball again.

The next day, Manny left the league. I’m not going to judge the man without knowing all the details, but it sure seems like incredibly poor timing, to say the least.

So, no, maybe it’s not the right time to wonder where Manny would have gone. Maybe it’s time to sit back and realize that Manny Ramirez is a complete weirdo. Again.

(Also, Yankees. He would have ended up with the Yankees.)