The Manny Ramirez Saga

Oh Manny. AP File Photo

Am I the only Dodger fan who wants to see Frank McCourt and Scott Boras bound and gagged Pulp Fiction style and fisted until they can come to terms in the Manny Ramirez negotiations?

Throughout most of the off season I had been praising the Dodgers, Ned Colletti and McCourt for how they handled Boras’ wily ways of picking the pockets of teams looking to sign free agents. They refused to take the bait in believing that the San Francisco Giants and the Washington Nationals were serious contenders for Manny.

In fact that $100 million plus multiyear contract that Boras and Manny had shimmering in their eyes once the final out was made in game five of the NLCS had eroded just as quickly as my 401k balance. The seven year contract dwindled down to five years to four years and now to two years.

What was very astounding was how the Dodgers were able to beat Boras. With no other clubs biting the bait, the Dodgers remained steadfast in making no offer longer than two years. Remember this is the same management that gave Juan Pierre a five year $45 million contract and Jason Schmidt a three year $48 million deal. And despite many people in the media crying about how another team could swoop in take Manny away, the Dodgers held fast.

They had gotten Boras to agree to a two-year deal for around $45 million. The Dodgers won. They beat the dreaded Boras.

Only Manny still isn’t a Dodger. What the fuck?

After reading Dylan Hernandez’s article in the LA Times Monday morning, it seems like the reason for this is that McCourt is butt hurt.

In response to the Dodger’s last two-year $45 million offer, Boras and Manny made two rebuttal offers that bridged the actual value of the contract due to deferred payments. To put it in a nutshell, only $1.5 million separates the two parties, and the final offer that was made by Boras did include deferred payments.

But McCourt refused to listen to the offers. "We didn't get a yes answer, and that's the issue," McCourt said, "which, by the way, Scott is entitled not to say yes. That's how it works. But we're entitled to say we're at the end of the phase of a process here.”

So after getting Boras and Manny to finally capitulate to the Dodgers, McCourt is just going to walk away because he didn’t get the unconditional surrender? This isn’t World War II. It’s like fighting for four months trying to get a blowjob, then when finally getting him on his knees with his mouth open you walk away.

This is just ridiculous, and it just seems it’s indicative of how the Dodgers do business. Bad business decisions seem de rigeur for the Dodgers. And though they made it to the final four in the playoffs last season, that goal seems so far away from where we sit today.