http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/baseball/red_sox/view.bg?articleid=1158028
FORT MYERS - Jonathan Papelbon [stats] minced few words about the dark, final
days of Manny Ramirez [stats]’ tenure with the Red Sox [team stats] in an
interview in the April issue of Esquire magazine.
Papelbon described Ramirez as a “cancer.”
“It just takes one guy to bring an entire team down, and that’s exactly
what was happening,” Papelbon told Esquire. “Once we saw that, we weren’t
afraid to get rid of him. It’s like cancer. That’s what he was. Cancer. He
had to go. It (stunk), but that was the only scenario that was going to work.
That was it for us.”
...
“He was on a different train!” Paplebon said of Ramirez. “And you saw what
happened with that. We got rid of him, and we moved on without him. That
comes from the manager, and it comes from guys like Jason Varitek [stats] and
Tim Wakefield [stats] and David Ortiz [stats]. Nobody is ever going to be
allowed to do that. Even a guy like me, just heading into my fourth year in
the big leagues - if David Ortiz gets a little, you know - I’ll tell him what
’s up! I’m not afraid to do that. I’m not afraid to put him in his place,
because I think everybody needs that.
“And if somebody does it to me, I understand that. I most certainly
understand that. Varitek tells me all the time, ‘Just shut up. Do what you’
re supposed to do.’
“So Manny was tough for us. You have somebody like him, you know at any
point in the ball game, he can dictate the outcome of the game. And for him
not to be on the same page as the rest of the team was a killer, man!”
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