Get your Manny for nothing and get your chicks for free.

Just when Dodger Baseball was going to fall behind the Galaxy in terms of relevance, the Red Sox give Manny Ramirez to the Dodgers. It was a nice gesture. Bean town Renegade Frank McCourt, spurned when trying to buy the Red Sox, buys the Dodgers instead. He is a parking lot guy and Dodger Stadium has one big ass parking lot so it was love at first stripe.

The Yawkey family trust rebuffed Frank’s substandard, heavily leveraged offer to buy the Red Sox in 2002. Those New England Bluebloods certainly had an issue selling the historic tragedy that had been the Red Sox to the parking lot guy. He lost out and immediately turned to Fox in an effort to buy the Dodgers. Fox does not have any Bluebloods and Aussie Rupert Murdoch has gone BK at least once. Leverage and substandard are part of News Corp’s heritage, pedigree and HR manual. Fox not only sold him the team but took back a $120 million second secured with a Boston parking lot.

The McCourt’s have done a nice job marketing the Dodgers, selling seats and hot dogs. Attendance and concessions are at all time highs. There is not an award for that category but Frank and Jamie are buying nice homes and making all the right lists. When they are done upgrading their lifestyle, we are all confident that they will make a concerted effort to upgrade the team right after the Dodger Stadium Mall and parking lot remodels are completed.

The Dodgers will draw 40,000 a game if they are in last place. They were the first real professional sports franchise in LA. The Dodgers were the first local team to have their own stadium named for them. They brought the first World Championship to Los Angeles in any professional sport. Actually, it was any professional sport in all of California, but no need to gloat.

Baseball was the game of our youths and we will always show up late, leave early and are committed to talk on our cell phones at the game in utter deference to this great game. I ditched school to watch the 1974 World Series Dodgers vs. A’s at Mike McGuire’s house. Please do not tell his parents, we were up to some hijinks back then and Mr. Dukakis cut me some slack on the ensuing detention.

Ok, ok back to Manny. We are star-f---er’s in LA. We are not cheering the Lakers with Eddie Jones and Elden Campbell, we need Kobe and Shaq. The Kings have been solid but who was going to the games before Wayne Gretzky? The Dodgers have grinded it out with home grown talent for years. But the last Dodger World Series was 1988 with Orel, Kirk, epic home runs, Bash Brothers and Tommy. There were not many personalities on those teams but Tommy Lasorda could light up the building on his own. He took the heat off the players and provided the sound bites and charisma that we need in LA or you are not in the discussion. Who has created any electricity in the Ravine since Gibby’s epic blast in the fall of 1988?

Manny has lit the building. I love a 36 year old, Hall of Fame baseball player with two months left on his contract all day long. We have only socialized one time and he was no nice and respectful, that I thought it was more about my powerful audience than his true inner self. Regardless, he hit a 92 mph fast ball into the left field pavilion on Saturday night with such speed and power, that the D’back left fielder noticed that the ball had just landed 47 feet behind him, 10 rows up in the bleachers when he saw it on Sports Center later that night at the Sheraton. I watched the pitch and missed the bomb as well but I do not get paid for or highlight my cat like reflexes on my current resume.

Manny is probably just here through the end of the season. GM Ned Colletti pissed his budget on Andruw Jones and Jason Schmidt. Hello, Ned, nice calls. Enjoy Manny and do not factor him being here next year based on your allegiance. Sign up, tune in and watch a superstar earn next year’s payday each game. Andruw Jones is getting $18 Million for his efforts and he is off the Subway diet and just plain miserable. Manny already has more homeruns with the Dodgers in less than a week than payroll busting Jones has since April.

Manny works hard. He looks like he might burn a blunt, raise a ruckus, and have some fun with his peer group. But Manny has never been in the news for any unsavory events. He might have been a cancer in Boston but he could be the cure in LA. Boston had not won a World Series since 1918. In 2004 Manny lead the American League in Homeruns, slugging percentage and was the World Series MVP leading the Sox to their first Title in 96 years. He was not named in the Mitchell report. He is not doing kabala or banging Madonna. He is one of the best clutch hitters in all of baseball. And there is not one team that makes it to the World Series who would not replace their left Fiedler with Manny Ramirez if they got the chance at the dance.

He pushed Red Sox owner John Henry’s buttons for sure. If you have seen John Henry, you would want to push his button as well. John Henry attended four different colleges and never got a degree. His company JWH & Company had $3.8 billion in customer assets when he became majority owner of the Red Sox’s. Today, JWH has $292 million in total assets under management. That is still a substantial sum of money but a surprising 90% decline for such a self important man and his reputable company. He looks like he only comes out at night and he has reputation as such. Under his ownership, the Sox have won 2 World Series and increased value exponentially. John, keep ya’ yap shut, and pay Theo Epstein well to make you look good.

He is part of the new breed of short term owners who lust for the spotlight that their contrived wealth affords them while they have it. Frank McCourt may be no different. Surprisingly, George Steinbrenner may be the last of the old school owners even though he gave the O’Malley’s, Yawkey’s and the Wrigley’s heartburn in his day with his antics. If the chips are down, I want Manny at the plate rather than John Henry in the suite.

Get your money for nothing and Manny for free!