Manny Ramirez - ESPN.com - Gary A. Vasquez/US Presswire

Ahh, so happy days are here again. Manny is officially a Dodger, and there was collective deep breath taken by all Dodgerfans. He is legit. He’s here for at least a year, and according to interviews he wants to be here. The signing of Manny was kind of like the weather here today in the Bay Area. Stormy at first, but sunny this afternoon. The ride was rough, but everything is bright now.

Let me be the first to say I was wrong. I was wrong here on this blog stating that he would get 4 years and that he had the last leverage. It ends up both had the leverage. Manny wanted to play and saw that the money was good given the economical circumstances. Frank McCourt saw his beautiful new Spring Training home not sell out on the first game and heard everyone ask about Manny. He knew what he had to do.

I wanted to pass on to all Dodgerfans this link to Jayson Stark’s article on ESPN.com. This was by far the best article I read today regarding the Manny signing. I seriously wonder how many articles were written about Manny in the last two days (I saw at least 20-30 just on 4 websites). This truly was the news of the off-season. Everyone was interested, and everyone had their opinions. The best part of this article was the story of how Frank McCourt really wanted to make sure Manny was ready to be a leader both on the team, as well as in the community. That is very cool that he wanted Manny to give 1 Mil to the Dodgers charity. From a tax point of view it’s good for Manny and for a just good thing for the community, it’s a great thing. It sounds like Manny did want to be a Dodger and hopefully he’ll be one even longer than this year.

I do give Frank McCourt credit. He came out looking good in all this. He didn’t overpay, he held his respect with Boras, he held out for the fans, and he is looking out for the Dodgers. I really think he will be remembered kindly in the future. What other owner of late has done so much for the fans in terms of spending, a new spring training facility and fixing up Dodger stadium? He has invested wisely and I think the fans will continue to respect him for it.

Here’s the other reason I was wrong. I had no idea on the power of Manny. I did, but I didn’t, even in myself. I thought the Dodgers could live without him at one point, but he brings too much. He brings hope. He brings flavor. He brings a bat. Suddenly the Dodgers are favorites and they have one of the best players in all of baseball on their team. It’s been a long time since that was the case going into the new season. The pitching is soft, but with Manny, there is hope and confidence.  You watch, the tickets are already starting to come in for the McCourts.

The best part of the day? My conversation with a Giant’s fan this afternoon. We were talking about Manny and what a difference he will make, and he ended by saying, “We should have signed Manny.” That’s the sweet part of this living up here. The Giants lost Manny to the Dodgers. It wasn’t ever a real possibility for them, but to most Giant fans, there was the hope of a slugger. They lost that hope today and it went to the Dodgers. Once again, the fans up here know the Dodgers got the better player, and now have the better team. Happy days are here again.

Hey Ned and Frank, next time your up here, let me know.  I’ll buy you a beer.  Thanks for seeing this one through…and making sure I don’t have to change my banner image above!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 4th, 2009 at 10:55 pm and is filed under Manny Rumors, Offseason Dodger News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.