Bye Bye Manny (Don't You Cry)

It finally happened. Every year there were rumors that Manny would be traded. Well, this year there were no rumors, only a trade. That's right. The longtime fan-favorite will no longer be seen in a Red Sox uniform. Manny Ramirez has gone to the Dodgers. The fist thing that crossed my mind was, "Wow, Manny's gone. I don't know how I feel about this." The next thing was , "Ha, he went to the Dodgers. He's playing for Joe Torre! That's ironic" (Manny ruined many games for Torre). And the third thing was, "This seems a bit familiar...Nomar Garciapara: longtime fan-favorite traded minutes before the deadline. Red Sox fans shocked. This is all too familiar..."

Now the last thought has a part two. After I thought of Nomar, I remembered what happened in that magical post-season: the Red Sox had the greatest comeback in sports history, and then went on to win the World Series. I had the same exact feeling about 50 minutes ago that I had four years ago to the day: a twinge of sadness, but a good feeling overall. It's ironic the way this trade happened. I think we'll have the same outcome that we had in 2004.

So Manny's gone, and we now have Jason Bay. He's a career .331 hitter in the five-hole, which is fine with me. He drives in about 100 runs a year and has somewhere between 25 and 30 homeruns a season. No complaints there. I'm excited to see how this turns out. Oh yeah, and I'll get to experience the majority of Bay's playing time this season in Boston.