From the Bean to La La Land

I have a special place in my heart for Manny Ramirez.

First of all, he’s a cool dude. I don’t think anyone can argue with that. Then there is his hair—dude is rocking some sweet dreds, and it’s always nice to see the different variations Manny tries when wearing his hat/helmet.
Finally, my senior year of college my oh-so-clever friends decided to nickname me Mannie after an especially bad bout with mono. One of them started calling me Mannie Ramirez. It soon combined with my other nickname and I was being called Manny Stamos (on a side note, I feel like I’ve written about this before which makes me sad that I A. am repeating blog posts and B. lack the capacity to actually remember things) so I obviously feel a special connection to #24.

But he’s #24 no more. Away Manny goes, but closer to me? Yep, he’s been traded to the LA Dodgers, soon to play under former Yankees coach Joe Torre. Even though it’s exciting I might be able to catch him in some Dodgers games, my love for the Red Sox runs too deep for me to not wish he’d stay in the Bean. And so it goes—the heart-wrenching world of professional sports leagues trades and drafts (of which I actually know very little about). Manny will be missed.

I do intend to continue spending my nights sleeping in my XXL Manny Ramirez Red Sox jersey. And I will wear it to the first Dodgers game I go to.