Sure there was the occasional award-worthy performance, but it came with a lot of baggage. From the moment he stepped off the plane from Boston and into a tight National League West division race in 2008, Manny produced fantastic offensive numbers, but he left the Dodgers during a significant season-long slump in ‘10. That sort of says it all right there.

Let’s take a quick look back at how we got here.

Ramirez’s instant offense after his deadline acquisition brought an energy level to Dodgers stadium that hadn’t been seen in twenty years since the last time the Dodgers won the World Series in 1988. With this came inspiration to a young, talent-rich Dodgers team that had been waiting for a spark. This all allowed a .500 Dodgers team to overcome the defending NL West Champion Diamondbacks and win the division crown.

The 2009 season started out so promising with Jack receiving a batting practice ball from Manny Ramirez at Opening Day in San Diego. (Jason Branch)

Had it not been for a total meltdown in Game 4 of the NLCS by closer Jonathan Broxton (that, for some strange reason, Dr. Sportsfan and The Phoenix keep reminding me of), the Dodgers may have very well rode that inspiration all the way to a World Series Championship. From the moment of his arrival, the Dodgers organization built its entire marketing around Manny, even dubbing a section of left field seats “Mannywood” — and coincidentally charging outrageous prices to sit in those lousy seats and get a “Mannywood” t-shirt. The seats did not even come with bandana and dreadlocks headwear, which didn’t stop it from becoming a staple at Dodgers Stadium very quickly.

The party was seemingly just getting started in April 2009. One of my personal feel-good moments as a baseball fan came on Opening Day in 2009 when the Dodgers came to San Diego. As Manny was shagging an errant ball in the outfield during batting practice, he seemingly nodded in acknowledgment to my “Hey, Manny”, then flipped the ball high over the fence to keep it out of the reach of little kids, and into my glove. This was a definite high for me as a baseball fan as the Dodgers won the game and raced out to 21-8 record, the best record in baseball at the time.

Manny Ramirez had plenty of highs in L.A., but his time in Dodgers blue wasn’t the subject of multiple baseball pieces from CTU Sports Division just for the good times.

The first moment of drama came with the inept offseason negotiations between Manny and  the Dodgers. There were no other visible bidders for Ramirez, prompting team owner Frank McCourt to say “we are bidding against ourselves”. Despite McCourt’s statement, negotiations ultimately resulted in a highly-scrutinized two year, $45 million contract (with the second year a $20 million player option) for Ramirez. Suddenly, this spectacle looked like a small screen Sundance film.

It all came crashing down May 8, 2009: the day Manny Ramirez tested positive for steroids and would be lost for 50 games! With that, a promising 2009 campaign was instantly in jeopardy, and the integrity of a magical second-half run in 2008 suddenly came into question. Manny Ramirez’s presence was certain to not come without serious drama at some point, but this was a Hollywood-style bombshell fit for the cover of National Enquirer.

The “experts” were quick to write-off the Dodgers, but I maintained faith in the still-young Dodgers. I believed they would be just fine without Manny’s physical presence on the field and in the clubhouse, and they had already learned a lot from him. Those who know Jack Bauer know Jack Bauer’s track record of predictions…

When Manny returned, he was not the same. Maybe he was rusty after missing such extensive time, or possibly he was now playing worse off the banned substances. Either way, he was still a valuable asset who hit for a decent average and represented the only true fear factor in the lineup. And Manny still sold seats.

Even though the fans were clearly annoyed at the steroid news, they remained loyal and the energy Manny brought to Dodgers Stadium did not waver. Dodgers fans will never forget when Manny hit a grand-slam home run on “Manny Bobblehead Night” in late July 2009. Only a moment like that could’ve occurred in Mannywood.

Manny Ramirez touching home after his pinch-hit HR in late April 2010, his last great Dodgers moment.

Despite the drama, the Dodgers cruised into the postseason and advanced to the NLCS for a second straight season only to fall again to Philadelphia. After the dust settled, the sports paparazzi quickly questioned the future of the Dodgers, and the decision to bring back Manny at that steep price after a possibly tainted 2008 season. Manny quickly exercised his player option to return for $20 million in the wake of his sub-par 2009 season.

Ramirez came out of the gate sluggishly this season, partly due to poor health and an inability to stay on the field. It was clear by the end of April that Manny’s relatively short time of stardom in Hollywood was at its twilight, like many who tried to make in Hollywood before him.

The fans — once maniacally supportive — were no longer energized by Manny — even when he could play — and fan support quickly faded.  Like every fading Hollywood star, Manny did offer one attempt at a comeback, a game I had the privilege to attend in late April. He delivered a pinch-hit, two-run home run in the bottom of the eight against the hated Giants to win 2-1. This only delayed the inevitable collapse of Mannywood.

As a Dodgers fan, I was satisfied with the Dodgers’ decision to allow the Chicago White Sox to claim Manny off waivers. Even though it was the final act of the Dodgers’ fading playoff hopes, Manny had simply worn out his welcome and was clearly no longer the player he was paid expected to be. Despite the lows, I am thankful for the time he spent in Dodgers blue and memories he gave me.

At the end of it all, Ramirez’s time was just an overpriced Hollywood product — excuse me — Mannywood product.

The 2008 Dodgers’ record prior to the Manny Ramirez trade on July 31, 2008.

30-24.

That was Dodgers’ record after the arrival of Manny Ramirez (not including the postseason).

Jack will always remember when Manny tossed him that ball... or was it a syringe?

The Los Angeles Dodgers without Ramirez were an average team in a below-average division last season. This season, the Dodgers are off to a major-league-best 21-8 record. Manny certainly has been a big part of that, and he will be dearly missed. As a Dodger fan and someone who frequented many games last season in Dodger Stadium (as well as Opening Day this year in Petco Park), the contrast in the energy and attendance before and after the arrival of Manny was incredible. He was an instant fan favorite and still is, even leading the Dodgers to designate two sections in left field as “Mannywood” this season.

Fans and the Dodgers’ front office are the biggest losers of Manny’s recent positive test for performance-enhancing drugs and subsequent 50-game suspension. Dodgers Stadium is likely to see a drop-off in attendance and overall energy in the crowd without Manny in the lineup, but the 2009 version of the Dodgers, even without Manny until July 3, will be fine.

Without Manny, the Dodgers this season will be the same story as last season, an average team with a great manager in a below-average division. The difference this season is that the Dodgers will begin their campaign without Manny with a six-game cushion, rather than playing the entire first two-thirds of the season two games out of first place, as they did in 2008.

Joe Torre, the manager-extraordinaire of the Dodgers (Hank Steinbrenner, if you’re reading right now, I know you agree with me. No disrespect to Joe Girardi, but he is not Torre.) will keep the Dodgers ship sailing even without Manny. He dealt with the vicious New York media for 12 seasons, the calamity that is the Yankees’ front office, the A-Rod situation, and the Roger Clemens situation. He will, as he has been able to the past 13 seasons as a major-league manager, find a way to keep the Dodgers  together despite lacking the goofy demeanor and reliable bat that made Manny a clubhouse favorite.

Even without Ramirez, the Dodgers still have a lineup that strikes fear in the heart of the opponents. The development of the Dodgers’ young core of batters — James Loney (.276 BA, 20 RBI), Matt Kemp (.275 BA, 17 RBI), and Andre Ethier (.317 BA, 27 RBI) — has picked up where it left off after the NLCS last season. No doubt, having Ramirez in the heart of the lineup boosted the production of everyone around him, but these other three young hitters are another year older, and with that comes more poise. I don’t expect to see a significant drop-off in their production.

And in front of Loney, Kemp, and Ethier is a platoon of Rafael Furcal, Orlando Hudson, and Juan Pierre occupying the top two slots in Torre’s lineup card. Whatever combination of these three it is on a given night, the Dodgers will have a top of the order as good as anyone’s in all of Major League Baseball. At this early point in the season, Hudson, not Ramirez, is the MVP of the Dodgers, if not all of baseball, batting .342 with 17 RBI, .964 OPS, and 23 runs out of the number two spot.

I haven’t even mentioned Russell Martin yet, an All Star the last two seasons, who is off to a meager .242 start but bound to improve, and the veteran Casey Blake, who will not bat .225 the entire season. Even without Manny in the lineup, this team has eight solid pieces of lumber that can carry the load and maintain a team batting average that right now is tops in the NL at .283.

The last, and possibly most important, reason why the Dodgers will survive until July 3 without Manny: The NL West BLOWS, period. Sure, it is still early in the 2009 season, but the division’s record (not including the Dodgers) is a dismal 50-62 . The San Francisco Giants currently sit in second place at 14-13, thanks to pitching sensation Tim Lincecum and an overachieving 35-year-old catcher named Bengie Molina. The Giants have improved the past couple of seasons, but this team is still far away from contending for the NL “Worst” crown.

In third place are the San Diego Padres at 13-16, and this record is inflated by the Padres overachieving early and starting the season 9-3. The Arizona Diamondbacks are better than their 12-17 start and are likely to be the only team to challenge the Dodgers this season, with or without Manny. As for the Rockies, well they are still the Rockies after the anomaly that was their 2007 NL Champion season (Editor’s Note: Those bastards!).

The reality is that the NL West has not improved as a whole over last season when 84 wins was enough to win the division. I do not intend to downplay the addition of Manny, which was a huge boost to the Dodgers’ team and fan base, and made all the difference for the Dodgers in the postseason. But in last year’s regular season, the Dodgers were only six games over .500 during their two months with him. The Dodgers won’t continue to reach a .724 winning percentage without him, but they will still win more than half of their games between now and July 3. The Dodgers were bound to cool off anyway, given their hot start and scrappy pitching staff, which has benefitted from pitching all but four games against the aforementioned NL “Worst.”

And for those who want to push the panic button and jump ship, I remind you, Manny will be back July 3 having only missed 50 games out of a 162-game season. By choosing not to appeal the positive test and suspension, Manny will be back 28 days before the day on which he arrived last season. He’s helped to get the Dodgers off to a 21-8 start and six games clear of the second place, and will be back in time help the Dodgers make the push for the playoffs into August and September, and … possibly October?

It will be a struggle for the Dodgers in the 50 games without Manny because the schedule gets tougher with games against the AL West, NL Central and NL East (not to mention that the Dodgers’ pitching is still suspect). But the rest of their division will play these teams also, and the Dodgers are still the best team in a lousy division.

On July 3, I expect the Dodgers to still be in first place in the NL West, with a record around 46-33. I predict they will still play .500 baseball without Manny, which is exactly what they did last season. I see this team as approximately equal to last year’s squad. The improvement in the young offensive core this season makes up for the pitching, which is inferior to the 2008 staff.

As for Bill Plaschke, the L.A. Times writer who said as a panelist during Around the Horn on Thursday afternoon that Manny should never return in a Dodgers uniform, Jack “Bauer” of All Sports has this to say to Plaschke:

Do you really think the Dodgers would not bring Manny back, considering the 21-8 record with him, Dodgers Stadium’s average of 42,815 fans per game thus far in this economy, and the time spent in the offseason by the front office to bring him back? Come on Bill, you sound like Woody Paige! Manny is beloved by Dodgers fans — and will still be when he returns to the lineup — and moves merchandise. The Dodgers can’t afford to not keep him, even if they were to consider it, and need him to take the next step this season, which would be reaching the World Series.

(Do I hear any support out there for a spot on Around the Horn?)

Chavez Ravine will be Mannywood once again on July 3, and expect the Dodgers to still be in first place in the NL West when that time comes.

Opening Day 2009 in San Diego

April 6, 2009.

Baseball is officially back. And the Jack of All Sports served as Taking Back Sports’ representative at Opening Day, attending the Padres home opener against the Dodgers Monday afternoon.

(For those quick to point out the Sunday night game between the Phillies and Braves, allow me to point that in my opinion, there is no such thing as “Opening Night” in baseball, just “Opening Day”).

What a great day is was for baseball to return, at least in San Diego, with a 75-degree temperature at first pitch and not a cloud in the sky. My apologies to Cincy fans, who had to suffer through 35 degrees and rain. My sidekick for the game was my friend Dan, who came down from L.A. to help me cheer on the Dodgers. As we approached Petco Park on foot after parking, we saw a very packed block party across the street.

Despite losing 99 games last season and witnessing the circus departure of the beloved Trevor Hoffman (because Padres management is a joke), there was at least some excitement in San Diego for the return of baseball. The Padres celebrate their 40th anniversary this year; this was commemorated throughout the pregame, with the return of Padres legends Ollie Brown, Randy Jones, and “Mr. Padre” himself, Tony Gwynn.

I arrived at the stadium with Dan about two hours early to catch batting practice and take in the return of baseball. We took up residence in the “Park at the Park,” which is an area beyond centerfield with some bleacher seating and sand on the ground for kids to play in, and a large grass hill (watched over by a statue of Tony Gwynn) for fans to sit and watch the game live and on a big-screen television. For the time being, Dan and I made like little kids, trying to catch “BP” homeruns over the centerfield wall. But this is Petco Park, after all, and even during the day, it’s hard to clear the center field wall on the fly.

It was Padres batting practice when we first got there, so the Padres players were in the outfield — occasionally, throwing stray balls over the wall to fans. Dan — ever wanting his souvenir — ran wild into a group of people diving for a ball that the first person to get a hand on couldn’t secure. After a brief scrum between a 23-year-old Dan, middle-school-aged kids and a 40-something, Dan emerged covered in sand and with the ball.

Opening Day brings out the youthfulness in all of us, apparently.

Padres BP went on for another half-hour, and only one more loose ball of many was thrown over. Perhaps the attorney of Padres owner John Morse  phoned down to the coaches informing the team couldn’t afford to give away anymore stray baseballs.

(For those unfamiliar with the situation, John Morse is in the process of a nasty divorce and, after holding out for months, has given in and his full stake in the Padres is up for sale. This is a great thing for Padres fans and the city of San Diego, as John Morse never was willing to pony up and try to bring a championship to the city despite only missing a couple of bats to complement a great pitching staff between 2004 and 2007.)

Next came the Dodgers’ turn for BP, in which I took more interest because the Dodgers are my team and have many more players capable of clearing the fences in home-run-suffocating Petco Park. Now, with Dodgers players in the outfield, there were better odds for me to get thrown a ball too, right? Right! (Not “wrong,” as is so often the case with such an obvious setup for a sarcastic expression. Sorry Arnold fans.)

So the first stray ball to come to a rest on the warning track was approached by a jogging Manny Ramirez. Ever alert, I yelled, “Hey Manny,” first. He looked up in acknowledgment and saw me in my Dodgers hat with my glove and other hand raised. Sure enough, he flipped the ball high over the jumping little kids and into my glove.

Jason and Manny: two little kids at heart on Opening Day!

“Thanks Manny!”

Now each with a ball in hand, we approached our seats in the left field upper deck: row 26 of 27, the “cheap seats.” While there was a great view of the stadium and the city from that high up, home plate was a long way away.

With about an hour until the first pitch, we chilled in our seats and watched the conclusion of Dodgers batting practice and listened to all the announcements over the P.A. system. One announcement — the standard “Don’t drink and drive” announcement — got my attention as I instantly recalled the image in my head of a concession stand sign that read, “Domestic Bottled Beer … $8.50.” Lousy economy aside, who can afford to get drunk at those prices? Certainly not me, as you could probably guess, judging by where my seats were.

As first pitch arrived, the stadium looked about 80% full, to my surprise. While more seats filled up as the game went on, there were still at least 1,000 that remained empty. There was, however, a significant fan presence on the grass field in the “Park at the Park,” perhaps as many as 500. The attendance figure, announced between the seventh and eight inning, was in excess of 45,000 — a Petco Park record. It is appropriate to mention here, however, that about one-third of the crowd consisted of Dodgers fans.

For some, baseball’s return clearly isn’t a huge deal, but it is a big deal for me and many sports fans across the nation. Even today, there is still a certain aura surrounding the game that makes it exciting, whether it’s the beach balls appearing in the third inning (true to form, that’s about when the first beach balls started flying in the left-field cheap seats), throwing peanut shells down on the ground in front of you and kicking them through the narrow separation between your row and the one below (that’s what I did during the fifth and sixth innings), or the chance to witness a great pitchers’ duel or “slug-fest.”

And I’m not the only one with strong feelings about Opening Day. Around the seventh inning, some heated scuffles broke out between a few Dodgers and Padres fans. Nothing too serious — fortunately — and there certainly was alcohol involved, but it’s great that fans still show up with a passion.

The game went by rather smoothly until the seventh inning, with the score 3-1 Dodgers, yet it slowed down as the pitchers became more and more deliberate, which is to be expected in a tight game.

Dodgers starting pitcher Hiroki Kuroda out-dueled Padres ace Jake Peavy

This makes for boredom at times — and I was a victim of this — but it is part of the experience of going to a game, especially on Opening Day. It’s an acceptable side effect of a close, competitive ball game, as far as I am concerned. However, when one’s team is leading in a game by three runs or less, there’s also the excitement of possibly seeing your closer enter the game — one who is capable of hurling fastballs in the neighborhood of the mid-to-upper 90s.

Today, by the top of the eighth, my sole reason to stick around was to see Dodgers closer Jonathan Broxton enter the game. He’s not yet one of the game’s greats, but he’s young and getting better and has a fastball that tops out near 100 mph. It’s always exciting to see a guy throw that hard because very few pitchers in the game are capable of doing so.

So the Dodgers tacked on a run in the eighth while the Padres’ lackluster lineup did what it had done six of the previous seven innings — went scoreless. Top of the ninth, enter Broxton. True to form, he overpowered the Padres and retired the side, 1-2-3, capping a perfect opening day with a swinging strikeout on a 99 mph fastball.

My team won, Manny gave me a ball, and it was a beautiful day out — sounds like the recipe for a great Opening Day. But even if the Dodgers had been blown out, it still would’ve been great to be there and experience Opening Day.

“Welcome back, Baseball!”