Year of the Manny

It's been a year since Mr. Ramirez came into my life (officially at least, I considered him one of the hated idiots in the now infamous '03 & '04 ALCS). But on July 31, 2008, during a press conference announcing that the World Baseball Classic Finals would be played at Dodger Stadium, cell phones starting buzzing about the Boston slugger coming to LaLa Land. Who knew that the story of the day would dominate the headlines for the next year, from his debut weekend to his dominant postseason, Manny was and has been the lead story for Dodger writers, bloggers, fans and followers since the day he arrived. Even during a tumultous offseason in which not much actually happened, Manny's status was the story. And as winter turned to spring, at least according to the calendar, Spring Training started and a few days after day one at Camelback Ranch, Manny was officially ours once again.

A heroes welcome ensued with more press descending on the desert every day, just itching to know what Manny was thinking during his days away from the team, and what his thoughts were turning to now that the savior had signed. The spotlight stayed bright as Opening Day approached and #99's grand entrance through the fans of the Left Field Pavilion capped a comeback story for the ages. The man who had brought the Dodgers to the brink of the World Series just six months earlier, was ready to start the second journey with his newfound blue-clad bretheren.

BUT. There is always a but. Manny's magical story would take a dark, 50-day detour after testing positing for PEDs. This after the succesfull launch of Mannywood and a home winning streak unmatched by any other team in the modern era. Just when Manny was about to be eclipsed in the news by a team story, he was once again singled out and stayed at the top of most reporters minds throughout the nearly 2 month hiatus. But, yet another but, these Dodgers did not fold. And although the story about how the team would perform sans the big slugger was still the focus, the results were not as expected with the team winning 29 of 50 games, Juan Pierre becoming the most unlikely of fan favorites, Ethier & Kemp keeping fans in their seats until the very last pitch, and a pitching staff thought to be a weak spot, winning on a regular basis.

Then Manny returned - again. And all of SoCal celebrated. His first games in San Diego were sell outs with more Dodger Blue at Petco than Padre brown and gold (maybe the color scheme is where it all went wrong for San Diego?). In any case, ManRam was back and with his one year anniversary approaching, he had saved his best for most recent.

His pinch-hit, grand-slam on bobblehead night into Mannywood (the preverbial dream shot for us in the Marketing Department) reignited the fandom surrounding Ramirez. Just as he was a year ago, he is once again front and center on a team now poised for another playoff run. The storylines could fill a book, and definitly a blog, but its only been one year. All that we've endured and enjoyed, marveled at and were mystifed by, has all taken place in a 365 day chapter of Dodger history we won't soon forget. I feel privalged to have had a front row seat for the Year of the Manny. We may not know what's to come, but we do know who to watch to find out what happens next. No one should leave this one early, year two is just beginning.

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