Manny.

Tonight I will have the good fortune to witness Manny Ramirez's return to Fenway Park, which he called his home park for seven and a half years. I nearly wrote, simply, "called his home," but the fact is that Manny was never really at home here. He lived his entire Boston career in the Ritz-Carlton, for goodness' sake. He repeatedly asked to be traded, and his wish was finally granted during his final season after some questionable actions on his part during his final year or so here: fighting with Kevin Youkilis in the dugout, pushing Sox traveling secretary Jack McCormick over, sitting out with questionable injuries, and watching three Mariano Rivera pitches go by to end a game.

Of course, he also won the 2007 ALDS on a ball that was crushed, averaged over a 1.000 OPS during his entire time in Boston with countless other timely important hits, and while his defense was suspect, this wouldn't have mattered if the Red Sox didn't have an equally good hitter at DH for much of his time here. And whether he was really happy or not, he usually had a big smile on his face and it was always a joy to watch him play. Not only did he produce some of my favorite memories with the bat, but his quirkiness in the field sometimes led to hilarious plays—such as when he dived to unnecessarily cut off a relay throw from the center fielder, or when he made a running catch in Baltimore and jumped at the wall to high-five a fan wearing a Red Sox hat. Those are the kinds of plays that Kirby Puckett or Ozzie Smith might make, and be praised by Mel Allen on This Week in Baseball later.

As Manny returns to Boston, the big question is whether he should be cheered or booed. As with many things, the media and many people are oversimplifying the question. Either you're fer Manny or agen' him. Either you are a Manny lover and think pushing over 64-year-old men and repeatedly asking to be traded and disrespecting your bosses is perfectly fine, or you hate Manny and think he achieved his success by cheating and that he's a lallygagger who doesn't Respect the Game. But of course, it's more complicated than a simple binary question.

Personally, I recognize that he is an enigma personality-wise, and he probably didn't really want to be here sometimes, and probably didn't try 100% of the time. But some people can give 90% and still be utterly fantastic at what they do, and most of the time Manny was utterly fantastic. I'm also one to reserve judgment on players' personalities, as there are so many things we don't know about them, while when they're on the field, we can judge what we see. Did we know David Wells was drunk the night before he pitched his perfect game? Did we know Paul Molitor did a lot of cocaine early in his career? Did we know Roger Clemens did a lot of steroids? (Well, scratch that last one.) So, yes, Manny did lollygag sometimes. But lots of players do—Mike Lowell rarely runs as hard as he can down to first (which is probably smart, given his hip issues), David Ortiz doesn't run out pop-ups, and sometimes even Derek Jeter will make a mental mistake. Manny pushed over a team employee—but while McCormick was 64 at the time, he's not exactly frail, and the two had an argument. Manny may have done steroids, but dozens if not hundreds of players did at one time or another. I don't stand by his faults, certainly, but we don't know all the facts, and he wasn't the only player in history to have faults.

But when Manny comes to bat, unfortunately I can't make everyone in the stadium read this article, especially the players. (If someone knows how to get a link to the blog up on the scoreboard, let me know.) I can't sit down with Manny and explain to him how I feel. I have only the choice to cheer or boo. And it's my opinion that what he accomplished for the team, and the joy I received watching him play and watching the Red Sox win two championships,* far outweighs my feelings about how he left the team, how he complained, or how he wasn't in the game sometimes. So I will think back to the picture linked above, or when he disappeared into the Green Monster and was nowhere to be found, or when he ran out to his position with an American flag on the day he obtained his citizenship, and I'll stand, applaud, and cheer wildly.

Will Red Sox fans cheer or boo? I think they will mostly cheer, for two reasons. First, every player from the championship seasons, and actually most important players who have left Boston have been cheered upon their return, unless they went to the Yankees. Second, tickets for the series have been very difficult to get—more so than other series, and scalpers and resellers are charging very high prices for secondhand tickets. I think Manny is the reason for this, and I can't imagine people are paying a premium just for the opportunity to boo him. Maybe I'm just an optimistic guy and Red Sox fans are that negative, but I doubt it.

*As an aside: Why are players who did very little to help the 2004 championship team, like, oh, Pokey Reese called "one of the 25" and praised for their efforts, and cheered unquestionably, while a guy like Manny who was one of the three or four most important players for that team isn't cheered for his on-the-field efforts?


*Photo courtesy of shgmom56 via Creative Commons License