Manny

The Yankees need to sign Manny Ramirez. Up until this weekend, this wasn’t a necessity. It would have been cool had it happened, but the Yankees and baseball fans in general didn’t need it. They do now.

From a purely baseball perspective, it would make the Yankees terrifying. The heart of their order would be some awe-inspiring combination of Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez, and Manny Ramirez. Yankee fans would fawn over this, and it would really be a focus of animosity from other fans. But just as a baseball fan, it would be really fun to watch a lineup like that.

I would also like to see the Yankees do it as a way to taunt people clamoring for a salary cap. There is absolutely no reason for a salary cap in baseball; there is the same competitive balance across the league as there is in football. Seriously, the Lions went 0-16 this year, the salary cap sure didn’t make them competitive. And football, despite its salary cap, has had more repeat champions in recent years than baseball has; since 2000 only the Red Sox have won multiple titles, compared to the NFL, where in that same time period the Patriots have won three Super Bowls, and the Steelers two. So hopefully people will just back off this salary cap nonsense, and even though this signing wouldn’t cause people to calm down, the righteous indignation and fury that it would stir up would at least be entertaining.

Finally, it would get people talking instantly. Nobody would benefit from talking about Manny more than Alex Rodriguez. If not completely, it would shift the majority of the spotlight from A-Rod’s steroids disclosure onto Manny, the enormous amount of money that the Yankees paid, Manny v.s. the Red Sox, and all sorts of other storylines. Derek Jeter didn’t come through and stick up for his teammate (really people, he’s a terrible captain. Can’t field his position either), at least he could gush about Manny as a hitter. I’m sure Skip Bayless would love to yell about Manny on First and Ten. ESPN has an article up now about how Bud Selig is considering punishment for A-Rod. I don’t even want to get into how reprehensible it would be to punish him, so I’ll just say that it can’t help him for this conversation to be floating around. Manny would steal that conversation, and he’s such a weird guy that it wouldn’t even matter.