Let’s get the obvious out of the way:  Manny Ramirez would make the 2008 Red Sox a better team and give them a better chance of winning the championship this year.

More obvious stuff: Manny Ramirez was a major part of winning two titles this decade and without his involvement, there’s a good chance the sox don’t win either.

But in the end, he had to go.  Because as good a hitter as Manny Ramirez is, it takes a team to win a championship.  That’s rule number 1 in baseball.  And the 2008 version of the Red Sox could no longer be a team with Manny Ramirez in the 25 man roster.  At the end, the Sox would have been better off just giving him his unconditional release.  That would not been the wisest solution for the organization or for future Red Sox teams.  But for the 2008 version, it was the way to go.

I will miss him.  No doubt about that.  I will miss his ability to hit.  I can not recall ever watching a better hitter than Manny Ramirez.  Sure, he had issues.  But don’t we all.  He played with quirks and I found them endearing.  In the end, I knew he could play.  And when Manny Ramirez was a happy man, it was a joy to watch him play. 

Unfortunately, the joy in Manny Ramirez melted away over the last couple of months.  Only he really knows why it happened.  But in the end, he wasn’t part of the team and he certainly wasn’t playing for the team.  He was playing for money.  And that’s why he had to go.