Cooperstown, prepare yourself. Five years after number 24 decides to hang up his spikes, you are about to open your gates to one of the most lethal offensive forces to ever play the game. He is unique with his style and he is unique with his personality and oh yeah, he’s hit a few home runs in his day. On Saturday, May 31st 2008, Manuel Aristides Ramirez stamped his ticket into the Baseball Hall of Fame when he became the twenty-fourth member of the 500 home run club.
Embarking on a journey that began on September 3, 1993 in Yankee Stadium when the young Manny Ramirez hit his first career home run off of Melido Perez. The ball would land in left field 390 feet later and Manny’s road to 500 home runs had begun. Ramirez blasted 236 home runs in his years with the Cleveland Indians before coming to the Boston Red Sox.
Manny then came out of his shell some might say and became the Manny that we all know him as today. You know what I mean, the “Manny being Manny” stage of Manny. Ramirez signed as a free agent in 2001 with the Boston Red Sox and has since hit 264 home runs in a Red Sox uniform.
In a game infested with scandals and ruined reputations, Manny Ramirez did things his way. No steroids or corked bats here. Not only did he do it the natural way, he did it the Manny way. He never took the game too seriously, he played the game the way it is meant to be played, just have fun.
When the Red Sox were down 2-0 in the top of the third, Dustin Pedroia and David Ortiz went back-to-back to tie up the game at two. After the sac fly, a pitching change was made and out came former Red Sox reliever, Chad Bradford with the game tied at 3-3. The flash bulbs went off at about 300 flashes per second and up came Manny Ramirez. In his first at bat, Manny flew out deep to left missing his 500th career home run by a few feet and his second at bat was a groundout to third. There was a buzz in the ballpark that this could be it.
The first pitch out of Bradford’s hand…BAM. Up and away it sailed, and the elevation the ball had, you could tell that it was number 500 before it was even close to the fence. Manny knew it, the fans knew it, it was a great moment and I can’t even begin to describe how amazing of a feeling it was to be able to experience that moment as a Red Sox fan.
Papelbon came out of the pen to nail down the save in the ninth and Manny Ramirez nailed down his place in not only Red Sox history, but baseball history. 500 home runs, 1,639 career RBI, and the fourth highest career batting average to have hit 500 home runs. If Manny Ramirez plays two more season in Boston and retires as a member of the Red Sox as he has openly expressed he would love to do, it’s going to be really hard not to one day see number 24 (Sorry Dewey) up on the right field façade among the immortals of Red Sox history.
