***John Henry On Manny Ramirez***

John Henry responded to the statements Manny Ramirez made to the Boston Herald's Rob Bradford during the All Star break, which are available for you to read (in full) in the post directly below this one. Here is part of what he said via email...

“I find remarks that we have been anything other than completely straightforward to be personally offensive,” Henry wrote. “Manny has been a crucial part of two world championships. I do not believe we would have won either without him. He has never played a more important role than he has thus far this year."

Pretty strong stuff, huh? But so were the words of Manny. I think Manny is making a HUGE mistake and that he should keep his mouth closed and just concentrate on helping his team win it all once again. We all know we never could have done it without him. No way, no how. And to the Boston Red Sox owners and front office, ignore his babbling and concentrate on getting us another pitcher for the bullpen. THAT'S a necessity - Manny can wait until after the season for the team to pick up one of his two option years.

In other, more happy Red Sox news, Big Papi David Ortiz returns to action once again tonight, but not with the big club. He will DH for Pawtucket for three, maybe four games before coming to the Sox. And it will be great to see him. He will be the best second half acquisition of 2008, bar none. And he will cement a lineup that has been flourishing most of the time, thanks to JD Drew hitting in Papi's number three spot. Boy, it will be so great to see him!

Click on the title of this post for more Soxiness on this slow baseball news day, slow except for John Henry's response to Sir Manny. To say that Ramirez is in Henry's doghouse might be quite the understatement. Comments? Should Manny have just SHUT THE F*CK UP? I'll leave that up to you in the comment section, and I'll be there to respond. As always, BE WELL.