BOSTON — Seven minutes before the Boston Red Sox would play to maintain their 2 1/2 -game lead over the New York Yankees on Saturday night, it was announced Manny Ramirez would not be batting cleanup or playing left field.
Already he'd skipped batting practice and had not thrown a pregame baseball, making for a pretty light shift as far as his work day had gone.
As the trade appeared to die somewhere in the muggy corridor between here and Flushing, N.Y., Red Sox Manager Terry Francona said it was he who chose to give Ramirez a couple of mental welfare days, and that Ramirez agreed it was probably best. So, as the race in the American League East remained taut and on the verge of August, Ramirez will sit out a second day today, according to Francona, his fourth personal day since Wednesday.
Francona said he suggested to Ramirez in a meeting 30 minutes before game time, "that he sit and clear his head, take a few deep breaths, go tonight and tomorrow, have a [scheduled] off-day Monday, and he agreed."
Later, near the end of a week in which it was revealed that Ramirez had requested a trade, and then was booed at Fenway Park on Friday night, Francona observed, "I think he's got some things flying around in his head."
As theories gathered around Fenway, Boston was left to ponder if its Manny had been traded to the New York Mets, and whether anybody should be sad about that.
Through the course of Saturday, in the hours before the trading deadline and as various Manny watches went unrewarded, negotiations between the Red Sox, Mets and Tampa Bay Devil Rays shoved around big league players, minor league players and money. The principals remained Ramirez, who would go to the Mets, and Mike Cameron, who would go to the Red Sox.
The rest became a blur of Aubrey Huff to the Red Sox, Danys Baez to the Mets and prospects sprinkled over the Devil Rays, though midday brought word that the Devil Rays had fallen out and Red Sox General Manager Theo Epstein and Met General Manager Omar Minaya had carried on alone.
By evening, the Mets were grumbling that Red Sox demands had risen beyond what they considered reasonable, and told New York writers that they'd made their best -- and final -- offer for Ramirez.
Posturing, perhaps. But the sense among Red Sox officials was that Ramirez was still theirs, for better or worse. The players lean toward the former.
