What’s wrong with Manny?

Since September 1st coming down the stretch, including these last two playoff games Manny Ramirez has played 27 games. In those games he’s had 82 at-bats. In crunch time here Many is 18 for 82, a .219 batting average! In this last crucial 27 games he’s has only 4 HR’s and 13 RBI and he has 21 strikeouts!

It’s been widely reported that pitchers have been challenging and even overpowering Manny over the last month. This is something I can’t remember ever hearing other than if he’s been hurt.

Joe Torre has been asked about this repeatedly over the past month or so and Torre’s explanation has been simply that he’s out of sync. Torre has stated that he has no physical ailments and that he’s age is a non factor. Torre contends that he’s still Manny and at any moment and time, the real Manny will appear.

After game #1 Torre admitted, "He was still missing some fastballs."

For his part, Ramirez mumbled his way through a postgame interview Wednesday night. When asked if he felt he was finding his rhythm, he responded, "The picture in this post is from Game #1 against the Cardinals on Wednesday night. It’s Manny missing a Chris Carpenter fastball. It’s hard enough to hit Carpenter when everything is in your favor. How can you hit the ball with hair in your eyes? I’m just saying…….

"The playoffs, everything's different."

"I feel much better at the plate. I took advantage of a couple of pitches they gave me."

Manny is one of the great clutch hitters of our generation; of all time for that matter.  This is true for both in post season as well as the regular season, so it’s hard to count him out until you have seen him actually not perform an dthat can't be determined untill the playoffs are over. But to say that everyone in Dodgers camp is concerned is an understatement.

Stay tuned and we’ll all find out together if Manny is still Manny. - Keith A. Baker

Keith A. Baker is a sports agent in Stamford, Connecticut. His goal is to offer a unique insight to the world of sports and Major League Baseball in particular. Comments in his columns are for entertainment purposes only and do not reflect the views and opinions of his firm or his clients.

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Matt Holliday give-ith and then he take-ith away.

There are certainly games I can think of that was decided in the waning moments by a fluke. The last one that comes to mind was the on June 12th of this year when the Mets lost on the final play of the game as Luis Castillo dropped A-Rod’s routine pop-up. Remember that one? Catch it Louie… Catch It… CATCH IT! – Oh Louie…

There have been play-off games decided by flukes too but most of them had to do with fan interference, Jeffrey Maier in 1996 and Steve Bartman in 2003, but never have I seen a fluke alter the outcome of a playoff game the way this one did.

Holiday had opened the scoring in the game in the top of the second with a HR to left field. But with the game on the line and the final out in his grasp, the unthinkable happened…..

Holiday obviously lost the ball in the bank of lights behind first base. Lost in the madness was an absolute gem pitched by Adam Wainwright. Wainwright went 8 innings giving up only 3 hits, 1 walk and 1 run.

"It's tough to swallow. Obviously, I feel terrible. But I just missed the ball. It hit my stomach. I think I can catch a ball hit right at me."

With CY Young candidates Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright already have thrown and the Cardinals down 2-0 you would have to think that this one is all but over. But yesterday’s game was over too. It’s not over until they play all the games and get all the outs.

We make fun of Yogi for saying, "It aint over till it’s over” but he is smarter then we give him credit for.

I’ve seen a lot of baseball in my career, but this was one of the oddest occurrences I’ve ever witnessed. - Josh Bolan

Josh Bolan is a retired AP baseball reporter and now works as a freelance writer in Fresno California. Josh has been contributing to baseball publications as a writer since 1996.

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