Manny Ramirez, if you're truly sorry about creating this whole mess, if you mean what you say about letting down your teammates and your fans, you'll get in touch with a disillusioned teenager named Jesse Quintero. Don't worry, Manny, I'll help.
Until Thursday, you see, Quintero was one of the local masses who loved your loopy dreadlocks and worshiped your every at-bat. He's 19, from Long Beach, and has your poster tacked to his bedroom wall. Every morning, every night, sometimes in the afternoon, he finds himself listening to the radio, ripping through the Internet, reading the papers, keeping track of everything you do.
But not anymore. Not after this.
I met Quintero, a barrel-chested former high school pitcher now putting himself through junior college, on Thursday in the stands at Dodger Stadium. He wore a black Jackie Robinson T-shirt and a deep, dark frown. "I'm mad," he said. "You want me to be honest, right? I'm really, really mad. This guy, everybody believed in him. Me, I don't believe anymore."
I'd spent a good hour trolling the stands. Several other fans had seemed far less certain, far more willing to let loyalty be trampled. Several looked down when they spoke about supporting Manny, as if ashamed. Quintero? He looked me in the eyes and played it straight: fastball, down the pipes.
"Far as I'm concerned, Manny shouldn't pick up his own option," said Quintero, referring to a contract provision allowing the left fielder to leave at season's end. Quintero sat with his 14-year-old brother in the left-field section the Dodgers recently christened "Mannywood." Last week, when I wrote what in hindsight was a foolish column that called for the Dodgers to sign Ramirez to a long-term deal, those stands buzzed with enough energy to light every lamp from here to Tijuana. Thursday night they were half full and had one-quarter the wattage but plenty of steam from one ticked-off guy. "He should walk away," Quintero quipped. "He should be embarrassed, because he made us and our whole city look bad."
He told me how, when he heard the news this morning, he felt as if he'd been punched. Quintero was raised a Dodgers fan. He has photos of himself at Chavez Ravine, age 5. He grew up hearing tales of glory but learned to love the team when it was down, through the sour years, through Shawn Green and Raul Mondesi and Adrian Beltre. He has been on road trips to see his team play in San Francisco, San Diego and Phoenix.
