The obligatory Manny Ramirez apology...

As any card-carrying member of Red Sox Nation will tell you, it's not summer until Manny Ramirez finds a way to feel slighted by the team's ever-tolerant ownership and management and demand a trade.

Good ol' Manny Ramirez. The man-child (has there ever been a more apt name for anyone?) who just can't seem to get out of his own way. He plays a kid's game with a kid's exuberance and playfulness. Unfortunately, the child-like manner in which he conducts himself on the field follows him off the field as well.

Manny is an interesting character - a man who is loved in this city for many of the same reasons that he is under constant criticism. We all know that Manny is one of the best hitters ever to wear a Red Sox uniform. His at-bats have always been must-see TV -- you never know when he's going to uncork one of those moon shots over everything. Hell, for all his misadventures in the outfield (cutting off a throw from center field, anyone?) he's more than adequate out there 90% of the time. The fans here love him, and he always seems to get a rise out of making us laugh along with him.

So why does this happen year after year? It's simple. Manny is good at one thing - baseball. This is why he isn't prone to extensive slumps; he doesn't have to think about those problems. Manny lives in his own world, of which he is the only member of the population. Great for his game, but not so great when it comes to owning up to the consequences of his actions. His whole career, he has skipped out of All-Star games, taken his sweet time running down the line, and sat out when his team needed him the most. And he's done all of this without so much as a slap on the wrist from the Red Sox.

So do we blame the Red Sox for this annual rite of the summer? Or do they know something that we, the armchair quarterbacks, the blowhards on WEEI, and the crusty newspaper columnists, don't?

I started off this rant by saying that Manny's ridiculous demands are a summer tradition here in Boston. Every year the Red Sox go through the motions of trying to trade him to another team. But his performance never wavers - he always hits for average, hits home runs, and drives in runs. Hell, he won a World Series MVP. The man-child himself said it the best, "My job is to play baseball." And he's pretty damn good at what he does. The rest? Well - that's just Manny being Manny.