October 21
L.A. Daily News
columnist Ramona Shelburne
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It sounds bad. Really bad. Not even Joe Torre could deny that. In the moment Philadelphia's Jimmy Rollins crushed Jonathan Broxton's 1-1 fastball for a two-run, winning double Monday night in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series, the Dodgers' Manny Ramirez was already in the showers, blissfully unaware of the punch to the gut his teammates on the field were enduring. "I was taking a shower," Ramirez said with a nonchalant shrug. "I came out and saw it on television. Then everybody started coming in and they turned the television off. "After a loss like that, it was quiet in here. But everybody got over it. It's baseball, you know. They play great, they're pitching good and ..."
September 19
L.A. Daily News
columnist Ramona Shelburne
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He has said so little, you almost forgot what it was like to hear him talk. At best, Manny Ramirez's silence has been bemusing. At worst, it has been infuriating. Did he have anything substantive to say for himself? Did he hear what others said about him? Did he care? A couple of months have passed since his return and things have mostly blown over, though the stain will never fully go away. But as he stood in front of home plate Friday night, watching his majestic 19th home run of the season fly over the left field fence in the fourth inning of the Dodgers series-opener against the Giants, one thing seemed clear to both him and everyone in the ballpark: Without Joe Torre, would Ramirez ..."