[Business Day One] Cousin Manny
We all have that one cousin. We talk about him on the carride to the family reunion, wondering if he’s going to insult your grandmother or puke in your aunt’s bathroom or say something unbelievably racist at a restaurant. Any day that he behaves himself is a little victory and every so often, he’ll string enough good days together that you think he grew out of it. But then he’ll barrel through a ten year old nephew during the family wiffleball game and you realize that he’s not going to change.
The city of Boston has a cousin like that too. And his name is Manny Ramirez. Sure, it’s better to have a self-absorbed idiot in the family than, say, a criminal. But it’s just rough to have to keep rationalizing away his actions. The most recent was a physical altercation with the team’s traveling secretary. Allow me to sum up what happened: Manny asked for a high number of tickets (16) on the day of the game, and the traveling secretary said it might not be possible. An argument started and the poor employee was shoved to the ground. One closed door apology later and all is forgiven. It is, of course, important to note that a similar player-on-office staff fracas happened resulted in a player being fired a week earlier. Granted, that was a general manager that Shawn Chacon shoved instead of a humble traveling secretary, but violence in the workplace is still violence in the workplace. Well, at least on paper.
This incident just reminds us that Cousin Manny can do whatever he wants to do while part of the family. A few weeks earlier, he took a swing at Youkilis. That’s two acts of physical aggression in the month of June. And each is just washed away. Washed away like every other bafflingly moronic thing that he’s done for the past ten years. It’s not going to stop. Fans and faithful have been aware of this for as long as he’s been in Boston. But with violence in the equation now, it is very unfortunate that even that doesn’t give anyone pause.
If this was any other player on the Red Sox, he’d be suspended. But it’s Cousin Manny. And Cousin Manny can do whatever he wants, making a generally proud and decent organization a pack of hyprocrites. But they’re not thinking too much about that, I suppose. They’re probably too busy prying Manny’s butt out of the punch bowl again.


took great strength of character to keep on rolling the dice and reading the fantasy novels that made them happy. As these nerds grow up, they can either enter into an environment that supports such nerdery (like, say, a college full of geeky suburban kids) or hinders it (like, for instance, the U.S. Marine Corps or the National Hockey League). For those gamers, comic book buffs and ham radio enthusiasts that are fighting the good fight in inhospitable climates, we here at Nerds On Sports would like to salute you. As such, I am hereby instituting a new award in Business Day One. To honor men and women that practice their geeky trade in the field of professional athletes, I will be handing out the coveted Nerds On Sports Salute To Nerds In Sports. It is important to note that there is no trophy. It is an actual salute. So if you’re named, please feel free to stop by my apartment when you’re in Boston so I can salute you.
back to campus from a job interview downtown. The atmosphere along the marathon route is a very strange kind of electric. Everyone is cheering, more or less nonstop, for the entire duration of the race. The moment runners get into view, hoots and hollers go up and stay up. Once the main packs start passing, there is a long, sustained cheer that just doesn’t let up. Sure, people will take a break to enjoy a sausage or drink some oddly non-clear liquid from a water bottle, but there’s this feeling in the crowd that most of them need to be cheering at any given point. There’s an unspoken agreement between the throngs that line the road; the runners are doing the hart part, so we have to at least do the easy part.
