I do not quite understand why sportswriters feel privileged to accuse a baseball player of faking injuries. I saw this last year with much of the Boston press, and it revolted me at the time.

Anybody who thinks Manny would intentionally pull himself out of a big game or intentionally strike out in a key situation should own up to the fact that the burden of proof is on the accuser, and that having a lot of innuendo implied by a large number of people is a poor substitute for actually saying anything worthwhile.

It's sad that you indulge in this speculation, when the rest of the analysis is spot on. The issue is that MLB is not in an "age of escalating salaries" right now. Manny's contract was signed several years ago when the expectation was that salaries would continue to rise at the rate that they did in the 90s. They haven't done so. With that in mind, it makes little sense that Manny is paid 50% more than Albert Pujols.

Manny shouldn't have gotten in the altercation with the Red Sox travelling secretary? I agree completely. Manny is a spotty defender? Yes, but he does throw out more baserunners than people often realize. He's also still one of the top hitters in the game. But I'm not seeing the case to be made that he's a malingerer. And I think the fact that this rumor has been so widely disseminated is a function of latent racism.

Case in point: Trot Nixon was universally loved by the Boston media, but repeatedly was in much worse physical shape than Ramirez, and repeatedly missed long stretches of time year after year as a result. Manny Ramirez, OTOH, was a 150+ game/year until his injury last year. And the first time he has a major injury, all sorts of people start calling him a quitter and a malingerer. That's poor.

If the Sox want to let Manny walk at the end of the year, that is their prerogative. I understand the notion that he's not worth that salary any more. I just hope that the Sox would have a better plan in place than the "replace Mo Vaughn with Jose Offerman" idea.

A lot of fans think it is easy to plug in a new player to meet needs. Sox fans know that often players like Julio Lugo and Coco Crisp come to Boston and underwhelm. One advantage to Manny's obliviousness is that he has historically performed at a very high level regardless of whatever nonsense is being written about him at the time.

Atheism as espoused by Dawkins et al. is an argument about belief and therefore has no merit since belief cannot be argued.

What do people argue about other than beliefs?

"Belief cannot be argued."

Well, not if you're unwilling to discuss it. But that seems more like a psychological issue than any serious philosophical point. People have been arguing about beliefs and belief systems for millenia. Yet with a few quick keystrokes you have rendered the entire field of philosophy moot.

Wow.

Here comes a few hundred letters from self-satisfied preening assholes who just have to let everyone else know how much smarter they are than everyone else.

yay.

may the douchebaggery commence!

-- debaser