The 2008 Pirate's Cove Open

Pirate's Cove Mini-Golf in Yarmouth. If Mini-Golf had a Grand Slam, this would be one of the four courses on it.

We've dabbled in Mini-Golf all summer long. It's something Amelia enjoys very much and there is a small course in New Seabury that we've used 2 0r 3 times already. The place leaves a lot to be desired as far as a Mini-Golf venue. It has no water hazards, no mechanical adventures, and really not even a single prop. Its just flat astro turf and a loopy-de-loop that doesn't even work. After doing that with Amelia a few times, we decided the other night she was ready for the big leagues of Mini-Golf. We were off to Pirate's Cove in Yarmouth!

For those of you who don't know, Pirate's Cove is like the Augusta National of Mini-Golf courses. It's 36 holes, with pirates, caves, water hazards, and music. The place prints money. On any given weeknight during the summer, there are at least 36 groups on the course for five or six hours at a time. Amelia's eyes were wide as we played the 18 holes that day. We played, we watched others play, we laughed, we got wet, we reminded Amelia to always aim and take her time, the girls enjoyed the seriousness with which I play Mini-Golf, we ducked as Erin sent her shots sailing off to and fro, and we watched pirate animatronics yell at us from being "jail" doors. It was a blast.

It got me to thinking. How is Mini-Golf not an Olympic event? If Table Tennis and Badminton are Olympic Events, how can Mini-Golf not be? Imagine a 36 hole mega-complex of curves, twists, obstacles, and water. Imagine dog leg left par 5 holes with the best of the best Mini-Golfers from all over the world playing for their country in a match play format. I am one hundred percent behind this idea and will fight do anything in my power to make this happen. Besides, after seeing Amelia drill a hole-in-one on the 18th hole at Pirate's Cove, I'm thinking I might have a child prodigy on my hands here. Amelia Woods Whitaker-Reynolds. With my training and her ability, we might just have her ready for the 2016 Games, wherever they may be.

Summer Olympics Mens Basketball Live Blog

When I found out my beloved USA Basketball Team was going to play for the Gold Medal at 2:30 in the morning my time, I had to come up with a plan. So I cooked my steak, fiddled with the Wii Fit for a little bit, put Mealsie to bed, watched a couple of Mad Men episodes on DVR with Erin, and got to sleep at about 11. I was up by 2:15, took a shower, poured a Pepsi, and here I sit, ready to try my first Live Game Blog.

2:30 - Team USA wins the opening tap and LeBron drills a three. I'll have more on him later, but first, I want to make a comment on my love affair with Team USA. I actually had the conversation earlier in the night with my wife that the players made a three year commitment to the team and SO DID I. She's looked at me in disbelief quite a few times in our relationship, but the look I got for that comment takes the cake.

2:32 - A little up and down action and our first cheap call of the game on Bryant. I swear FIBA hires their basketball officials off the street.

2:34 - Ason Kidd (Jason without a J) makes a layup after driving the lane and then...UGH. LeBron draws his second foul. Remember kids, its five fouls and you're out in international play. This US team is deep, but LeBron is irreplaceable on any team. I have been so impressed by LeBron taking over this team from a leadership standpoint. As someone who watched every single Celtics playoff game from start to finish, I can say without any hesitation that LeBron is the most dangerous player in the NBA.

2:38 - Kobe, aka the only US player I can't get behind, draws his second foul and here you go. Spain has a couple of easy baskets from Gasol and fouls on our best two players. A note on Kobe - is there anything stranger than how huge he is in China. Its almost like the Communist Party has given him their stamp of approval because he is the only player evil enough to be revered in a place like China. His head is too small for his body, he cheated on his wife in what became a public story, and he knows how Shaq's ass tastes. I don't know a single non-Laker fan who enjoys the guy at all.

2:40 - D Wade slices the lane for a three point play and Spain leads 15-14...and before I can even finish typing that, Gasol makes a beautiful play on a lob, Melo misses a 3, and Navarro slices the lane for 2. I have a bad feeling about this.

2:43 - Atlanta Hawks fans...I just want to remind you about something really quickly...YOUR TEAM PASSED ON CP3!!! While everyone else is standing around, Paul gets to the rim twice.

2:44 - Its a Tayshaun Prince sighting for Team USA. Is it his length or his Tremendous Upside Potential you're putting him in there for Coach K?

2:46 - Dwayne Wade with a huge defensive possession and the Americans get the ball tied at 22. And now, the Spaniards have their first adversity to overcome. The third foul on a starter and Rubio is out with a hyperextended finger...steal, D Wade, FLUSH!!!

2:47 - And Garbajosa answers with a three of his own. Dwayne Wade has been an absolute revelation during this tournament. Becky Reynolds' favorite Olympic player has played like he's a high school senior trying to win the hand of the head cheerleader AND her friend.

2:50 - Weak call #12 and now Rubio has two fouls, we may have Marc Gasol and Dwight Howard bringing the ball up the court by the end of this one. I actually saw Marc Gasol at the TD BankNorth Garden before Game 6 of the NBA Finals...the man is LARGE.

2:51 - I'll leave it to Doug Collins, "This is the Gold Medal Game. Are we going to watch basketball or a foul shooting contest?" These officials look like I did the one girl's Pee Wee Basketball game I officiated when I was 16. Another touch foul on a late whistle and Coach K is starting to get that look on his face, but he can't find Ed Hightower to bitch to anywhere.

2:53 - D Wade hits a three, gets a steal, and just has the ball get away from him on what would have been a thunderous end to the first quarter. Instead, the quarter ends and Team USA takes a 38-31 lead. They're on pace for 158 points. Yikes.

2:55 - Lisa Leslie sounds like she drank like eight scorpion bowls after winning her Gold Medal yesterday. WOW! If she had asked Craig Sager for a kiss, I wouldn't have been even mildly surprised.

2:57 - Kobe and LeBron are back and Kobe immediately drills a 3. At the other end Dwight Howard crushes Pau Gasol on an Unsportsmanlike Foul. I don't hate this move as you know I believe Kendrick Perkins made Gasol his bitch in the Finals with his physicality.

2:58 - I'm officially dubbing Kobe the Red Dragon from here on out...and after a flush on the break, he misses a WIDE open 3 he's pissed about. I would hate to be Kobe's dog, he's probably cowers every time Kobe sneers on TV.

3:00 - Melo with a 3, LeBron a steal, and another foul. This game is starting to get wonderfully physical. I love chippy Europeans trying to mess with our guys. Do you really want to anger Dwight Howard guys, really? The US has quietly lengthened the lead to 1o.

3:01 - Ricky Rubio is a lot of fun. He's 17, has his Pete Maravich haircut, and has held his own with some of the game's best guards in this tournament. Let's call him the European Jacoby Ellsbury. Whoever ends up with him is going to have a very happy female fan base.

3:03 - The Red Dragon from Paul and then Gasol answers on the other end. This game is best described as frenetic right now.

3:05 - You would think that the crowd would be wholly pro-US because of the whole Spain makes slanty eyes in a team picture thing, but lets not forget that no one in the country of China knows that happened. David Stern, I love ya but I'm calling you out here. If our guys had ever done something so racially insensitive, you would suspended them for games and there would have been eight Outside the Lines Specials on ESPN about the issue. Spain has numerous NBA players who have lived in the US or Canada for years. They should know better and they should be reprimanded.

3:08 - Doug Collins is describing to us how the US is leading the Olympics in numerous offensive and defensive categories. Hey Doug - they're undefeated and averaging 30 point victories...I'm pretty sure we all figured out they might be leading some team categories. Great ANALYSIS.

3:09 - D Wade to LeBron for a 3 and the US has extended it out to a 14 point lead, 58-44. Future TrailBlazer Rudy Fernandez makes a nice hoop to answer. How many young, talented guys can Portland have? There's Fernandez, Oden, Roy, Aldridge, and like ten other excellent young players. I'm pretty sure there are only 12 roster spots in the NBA.

3:11 - Mike Breen with the stat of the night - the US is shooting 71% from the field with 2 minutes remaining in the 2nd Quarter. Thats not exactly something you see in basketball.

3:13 - Tayshaun Prince tips in a ball and Wade drills a 3. Rudy Fernandez then proceeds to knock down a ridiculous shot over Prince. This Spanish team is only down 9, check that 7, to a US team that hasn't missed anything all night.

3:15 - Chris Bosh knocks down a foul shot and another. If Jermaine O'Neal is anywhere near healthy, he and Bosh will be a brutal matchup for most teams in the NBA season to come.

3:16 - Another choppy stretch as Deron Williams gets called for an international backcourt (foot on the line versus both feet crossing the line) and Prince gets called for a ticky tack foul. Spain's coach is salivating over the fact that he can unveil a zone in the second half of a close game. ALL of the pressure will be on the Americans if this game stays tight late. Then we'll all have to watch the team stand around and have the Red Dragon jack up shots...I shudder.

3:18 - Spain continues to do their best European Soccer team impersonation with flops, chippy play, and talking. We've held our composure fairly well. Wade just misses a 3, but ends the half with 21 huge points and its 69-61 at the half.

3:20 - NBC has done a nice job of covering the Olympics by my estimation. The word that ABC/ESPN wants to make a push for the 2016 games is thrilling to any passionate sports fan. The Disney Group promises more live coverage of events and nobody does synergy quite like Disney. You'd have events on ABC, ABC Family, the Disney Channel, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, and highlights on ESPN News. You'd have discussion on ESPN Radio and highlight packages on Sportscenter. ESPN would send a veritable Army of people to cover the games. The Olympics are about the only sporting event that can't be oversaturated. People love the games, their stories, and the images they bring to our living rooms. No network has the ability or desire to bring those things to us more than ABC/ESPN.

3:27 - If I see another DIRECTV commercial taunting me for not having it or NFL Sunday Ticket, I think I will explode. My Dad has had Sunday Ticket since the fall of 1995 and I still don't. There are Internet issues, location issues, renting issues, and assorted other things keeping me from having it and it just isn't fair. Shame on you for kicking a man when he's down DIRECTV.

3:29 - I have my first Fantasy Football draft of the season at 10 this morning. I don't think there is a more exciting morning in sports for me all year than the morning I finally get to put my team together.

3:30 - "My president is Black...my Lambo is Blue...and I'll be God Damned if my rims ain't too..." Yeah, I'm quoting Young Jeezy at this point. No, I'm not delirious...yet

3:38 - An uneven start to the half by the Americans as they have turned the ball over three times in the first 2 plus minutes. Kobe the latest to turn it over with a travel. He makes me nervous in a close game...I feel him morphing into Laker Kobe...ugh

3:39 - Massive move by Gasol and we've got a 4 point game. A quick note on Coach K here that I'll be sure to expand upon later. The man can flat coach. The only reason I'm not completely freaking out here is that I believe 99 times out of 100, if K has the most talented team, he will win with them.

3:40 - Huge putback by Melo off a missed free throw, but he can't finish the three point play. Foul shots have been a weakness of this team all tournament...back and forth action, methinks its time to get LeBron to take this game over. And on cue, he has a great feed to Dwight Howard for a flush.

3:41 - Juan Carlos Navarro is KILLING Jason Kidd right now...Ason needs to find a nice seat on the bench and relax the rest of the way. Paul and Williams are so much better on both ends right now for this team.

3:42 - Craig Sager - You dissapoint me sir. Polo Shirts all tournament long...and just regular, powder blue NBC polo shirts at that. It hurts Craig, it hurts.

3:44 - Paul, Wade, and Bosh are in now with Kobe and LeBron. This is probably the US team's best lineup. We'll see if they can prove it. Lead is 4 after a nice follow by one of their bigs. Red Dragon takes a bad quick three and gives it right back to the Spaniards.

3:45 - Up and down action now and that truly benefits us. LeBron with two straight baskets, but he misses a foul shot. On the first hoop, Kobe remember he's not on the Lakers right now and fed the ball to the machine.

3:47 - The pace and energy are picking up. This actually should be a pretty fun stretch run here. La Tanqueta - Marc "the Tank" Gasol goes to the line and makes one of two. FYI - La Tanqueta is a Top 5 all-time nickname. In fact, I'm going to do what I can do to make people call me La Tanqueta from here on out. It beats the hell out of Yaris Hatchback.

3:50 - D Wade with another large hoop and we've extended it out to 10. Then the pace goes up and down for three minutes before Juan Carlos Navarro ends the quarter with a tough hoop to make it 91-82 at the end of three. This should be fun...

4:00 - My computer goes on the fritz at the same point as the American Defense. Spain goes bonkers with a lob to Gasol and a Rudy Fernandez 3. Two point game...and the Americans are on their heels. Again, LeBron needs to take this game over. He is an unstoppable force at this point in his career. Kobe makes a tough shot in a one on one situation. I'm grumbling as I type this about the poor quality of that one.

4:02 - LeBron gets a bad fourth foul and is one away from not being on the floor to take the game over. Great secondary break by us and D Williams DRILLS a 3 to give the US a 7 point cushion. Breathing room is so important here. 7 minutes to play.

4:04 - Great sequence by Dwight Howard...a block and then a finish off a Kobe feed. Then Rudy Fernandez buries yet another three.

4:05 - The Red Dragon with an answer of his own. Kobe drills the 3 and holds his follow through for all to see. Hate to admit it but he's been AWESOME. The lead is 11 off a James hoop.

4:06 - Rudy Fernandez = Rim Rocker??? This kid has been very impressive tonight. If you're a fan of the Trailblazers, you are positively giddy right now.

4:07 - Bad Kobe shows up as he takes a quick 3 from 25 feet. The officials have swallowed their whistles at this point and D. Howard is just shoving the Gasols all over the place.

4:10 - Rudy Fernandez has been everywhere tonight and after a Gasol ten footer, we're back to a four point game. 3 minutes + left...this is scary

4:11 - The Red Dragon buries a step back 3 AND THE FOUL (courtesy of Mike Breen). Rudy Fernandez fouls out and we all can take a deep breath...right? US 108 - 99.

4:12 - Navarro bangs home a runner, Wade gets fouled with no call, and Jimenez buries a 3. The lead is 4 again. Two minutes to play. Then D Wade hits a 3 of his own. The US team has been tested here, but they've managed to keep this lead at 4+ the whole fourth quarter.

4:16 - After a Navarro missed freebie, Rubio makes a huge play to retain possession. HUGE rebound for LeBron. Lead stays at six with 1:15 to go. Kobe slices the lane and rolls it home, Navarro misses again, and Bosh and CP3 combine for a solid rebound. Is it fouling time for Espana?

4:17 - Chants of USA...USA...USA break out in China. Who thought I'd ever be typing that on my laptop from Cape Cod? Anyone, anyone?

4:18 - La Tanqueta for 2 and its an 8 point lead with 32.9 seconds to go. Paul gets chased around and then Rubio gets called for an intentional foul plus a technical. This one is over. As much as I dislike Kobe the Red Dragon Bryant, he was huge for this team down the stretch. Happy 30th birthday Dickhead :)

4:20 - It won't rival the Celtics celebration here over the last 20 seconds as Coach K gets a water bottle bath from Kobe and not a Gatorade dunking, but these guys genuinely are excited about this.

4:22 - To quote Johnny Drama - VIIIIICTORYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!

4:23 - The Redeem Team has accomplished their mission and we are back in the saddle again...a nice touch as the guys come over to Doug Collins and give him dap. Don't forget, Doug was a part of the team that got completely screwed in the infamous loss to Russia in 1972.

4:24 - Unbridled joy out of the Americans and now we get to see my favorite part, the medal stand. You can bet our friends at Nike will have labels galore at this one.

4:25 - While NBC sneaks away to a commercial, let me just say a quick something about Coach K. I grew up a Duke fan, following K's every move over the years. I've seen every ESPN snippet about him, read 3 books by him, and seen him coach more games than probably anyone else in the world. Even though his program and I have grown apart over the past 10 or so years, mostly due to my Boston College allegiances, I still respect the heck out of him. The man is a true leader and one heck of a coach. It has been wonderful to see Coach K lead and coach this team to a Gold Medal. It speaks volumes to his ability that these millionaires respect him and listen to him. Congratulations K. You, more than anyone else involved, deserve this.

4:29 - Back to Beijing where the Kobe lovefest continues...he even just referred to himself by his self-proclaimed nickname (Mamba). Seriously Kobe, seriously?

4:32 - Becky Reynolds would be tearing up if she was awake because they just showed Johnny Dawkins, Chris Collins, and Wojo getting a picture taken to celebrate a moment they were a part of.

4:40 - Waiting around for the medal ceremony, during which I will surely get weepy. How is it that Marvin Gaye did the most amazing National Anthem of all time and no one had ever seen it until Nike made it into the team's anthem for these Olympic Games. I mean seriously, the version gives me goosebumps every single time I hear it. Its done by a legendary musician in a legendary venue, The Forum. In this YouTube era, I don't understand how I missed it, but I'm sure glad Nike revived it.

4:54 - What's just as exciting for me as a basketball fan is the fact that only three guys on this team are even 29 years of age. Kobe obviously won't be back, Michael Redd is 29, and we all know Kidd was there as basically a leader and valet for the young guards. LeBron, Dwayne, Melo, the two guards, D Howard and Bosh all will have the opportunity to be back. I hope they take it four years from now as well as a couple new young guys.

4:58 - It's nice to see how much Spain and Argentina are enjoying getting their medals. Sometimes, we as Americans focus so much on Gold Medals in team sports that we forget how amazingly cool it is to get an Olympic Medal of any kind. For these other teams, winning the Silver and the Bronze means a lot. They are all handling themselves with wonderful class and dignity.

5:00 - Goosebumps...the boys stepped onto the podium and are getting their medals. Just phenomenal stuff. They get their flowers and we'll get to see the anthem during which I don't expect to do much typing. I'm sure it will be hard to see the screen through the welling of tears.

5:04 - I've got about three hours more sleep to get tonight. Thank you, Team USA.

Team Redeemed

Too Manny Memories Part II

3. Manny Being Manny, the Early Years
The quirks of Manny were evident in Boston right from the start. You know the guy that smokes cigarettes every time he's out drinking but "isn't a smoker" so he's always bumming cigarettes off the people he's out with five nights a week? That was the way Manny chewed tobacco. We're not talking about dip here, we're talking about the real thing, Red Man Extra Gold. Manny wouldn't chew Red Man or anything else. For a guy who wasn't a chewer, he sure was picky about his chew. And since Manny wasn't a "tobacco chewer", he always got his chew from Rick Downs, our newly hired hitting coach. Rick used to get one of us to pick up a few pouches every so often. We eventually bought pretty much every pouch of Redman Extra Gold in town, to the point that I was searching for it while on vacation in Maine and all over the Greater Boston Area. Everytime I asked a different store owner to order it for me and that it was for Manny Ramirez, they never seemed to believe me. Somehow someway we ended up keeping Manny in supply for the whole season.
2001 was the 100th Anniversary of the American League, a league the Red Sox were a Charter Member of. While that meant little to any of us, or the fans for that matter, it did mean that we had a special patch on our uniforms and on our hats for special occassions. That year, the Sox also had Carlton Fisk Day, where we had a special hat to wear and after the September 11th tragedy, we wore hats with an American Flag on the side. You can see where this is heading. Before every game, I quickly browsed the dugout to make sure everyone had their correct hat on. Wouldn't you know that 9 times out of 10, Manny would be running around with the wrong hat on and I'd have to fly all over the place, running up the tunnel, digging through his locker, etc. just to correct it.
Sometimes Manny would remind you that he had the heart and soul of a ten year old boy. It was the middle of the summer and as batting practice began, Manny came over to me and asked me to do him a favor. I, of course, told him no problem and asked what he needed. His reply, "Papi - I need you to get me a cake and card for my fiancee for her birthday. It's today." Before I could even begin to question what I was being told, Manny gave me a $20 bill, spun on his heel, grabbed a couple of bats, and was out the door. My head was spinning. No one at that point even really knew that Manny had a fiancee. Where did she come from, who was she, how long had they been together? It seemed like something that would come up in a conversation or make the papers in a town like Boston. Then, I realized that a man making $18 million dollars this season was asking his bat boy to go out and get a cake and a card for his fiancee about one hour before he had to be on the field for a game. I rushed to Star Market, picked out a card I hoped would make a little sense (I distinctly remember balloons on the front and a simple message inside), and had someone put Happy Birthday on your run-of-the-mill supermarket cake. I debated Feliz Cumpleanos, but truly had no idea if this woman was Black, White, Latino, Asian, or even a woman. I snuck back into the clubhouse, avoiding the Family Room in case she was in there, and gave it to a beaming Ramirez. To this future hall-of-famer and multimillionaire, a cake and a card were apparently an appropriate gift for his future wife. I never found out if she go anything more than that...
4. Generosity
The story of Manny leaving $20,000 in his glove compartment when a clubhouse guy took it out for a carwash is well-known. Supposedly Manny told the guy to just keep it. I never saw generosity like that out of him in our year together, but I do remember a few times where a simple gesture made me feel like a million dollars.
By the time the All Star game came around, Manny and I had made fast friends. He was tearing the cover off the ball and apparently he was happy with my ability to take his bat from him on yet another intentional walk. Major League tradition dictates that players who go to the All Star Game bring back something for their teammates. Nomar brought back enough souvenir hats for everyone in the clubhouse after the Atlanta All Star Game in 2000 for example. I don't remember if Manny brought back anything for everyone after the game in Seattle in 2001, but he did pull me aside and give me his Majestic Batting Practice Undershirt. I still have that shirt today. It's baggy and its green, but it reminds me of the friendship I once had with the hitting savant from the Dominican.
The biggest gesture that Manny ever made to me involved the stinginess of the Red Sox Ownership Group at the time. My good friend John and I had been told that we were going to get to go on a road trip that August with the team. The teams and places escape me, but I distinctly remember that Cleveland was involved. You can imagine what a kid from Hermon, ME thought about getting to go on a 10 day road trip with his idols. I would get to put on my uniform on the road, see cities through the eyes of professional athletes and get treated to the good life. As a 22 year old, I knew some of the guys would take me out and show me a great time. At the very last moment, someone upstairs decided it would be too expensive to take us on the trip and crushed our dream of traveling with the team. I literally had to take my own bag off the truck. It was devastating. Manny somehow found out and offered to pay my way on a later trip to New York. I had to decline because Becky and Tony, my parents, were having their 25th wedding anniversary party back home that weekend. Manny was at least kind enough at that point to sign a jersey to my father for his 25th wedding anniversary. To Tony, Happy Anniversario 8/16/01, Manny Ramirez - later, I realized the date was incorrect and managed to fix it to 8/14/01, a story that will live on in my family forever.

Too Manny Memories

This is the Manny Ramirez I choose to remember - fairly clean shaven, barely baggy pants, hair shorter than mine, and hitting lasers all over a Fenway Park I was in every night during the Summer of '01...

There have been a few times in my life as a sports fan where I've seen something happen even before it does. You obsess over our American Sporting Culture like I do and eventually you'll feel that you can predict the future. That has happened to me just twice, once when I told my old Boston College roomie Matt Rutledge that Terrell Davis would have a migraine during the Super Bowl and once as I knelt by the on-deck circle for a Red Sox/Indians game sometime in the late summer of 2000. For those of you who don't know, I was kneeling there because I had lucked my way into the position of batboy for the Boston Red Sox. Its a long and fun story that I will get into more and more as I write, but at this moment I was in awe of a ridiculously strong Cleveland Indians lineup and one Manny Ramirez. As Ramirez rocked back and forth in the batters box that game, I remember thinking to myself - this man is about to be a Free Agent. I began picturing him in a Red Sox uniform. A pipe dream, a whim. I quickly snapped back into reality and moved on. After all, this was the 2000 Boston Red Sox we are talking about. Sellouts were not yet a foregone conclusion, the team was about to be put up for sale, we needed more starting pitching, and most of all, the Indians were thriving due to revenue from Jacobs Field, which was selling out every night.

Manny Ramirez did indeed come to my Boston Red Sox in the winter of 2001. I was a Senior at Boston College in a Mod Full of Sox employees and fans. I'll never forget the excitement that we all felt when the deal was announced. After the Sox had missed out on Mike Mussina, Dan Duquette had thrown himself and the Sox headlong into the Manny Chase. We watched the SportsCenter special with Jeff Moorad finalizing the deal and laughed as Manny tried to bring his own clubhouse guy from Cleveland with him. You can imagine the number of jokes that winter about how Manny was coming to Boston because he heard the batboy gave the best BJs in the league. We laughed, we celebrated, we were excited. That's what I choose to remember about Manny Ramirez. The excitement and fun he brought to my life personally and to Red Sox Nation in general back in 2001. There was a youthful exuberance then, a sign of things to come for our team. We had spent the money on a surefire Hall of Famer in his prime and we were going to get eight to ten years to enjoy it. And without further ado and in some semblance of chronological order, here are my favorite Manny moments.

1. First Impressions

For a guy who isn't the tallest man in the world, I am always amazed that my first impression of Manny Ramirez was that he was short. The team got home from a season opening road trip that included Hideo Nomo's no-hitter at Camden Yards and I'm watching them all come in, running down a mental checklist of new guys. Nomar strides by with a smile and here comes the Feared Slugger Manny Ramirez and he's like 5'8" tall?!?! I kept looking around for the rest of him. I mean , fans always picture the men who hit the ball as far as Manny to be larger than life, behemoths. Later in the year, the Sox acquired Dante Bichette. Bichette looked like a Slugger. He was huge. Manny was, in a word, underwhelming. He bounced in, even after three in the morning and smiled. I figured that was a good sign, even if his height wasn't. Before I could think any more about it, the clubhouse guys and I began a long night of getting the clubhouse ready for our season opener against Minnesota the next day. On the night I first met Manny Ramirez, I got three hours sleep on the clubhouse floor the night before my first and only Opening Day.

2. The Fist Bump

The voicemail was waiting for me after the game. "Dude, Birt and I totally saw you giving dap to Manny after that homerun. Unreal." It was one of my best friends growing up, Sean, checking in to remind me how ridiculous my life had become. Manny, in a sign of things to come, had stepped to the plate on both of our Opening Day Debuts at Fenway and hit a bomb over the Green Monster on his first swing. That fist bump was probably my favorite memory of Fenway. A cool, rainy day following a night with barely any sleep and the place was alive and rocking. As he crossed home plate, Manny jogged by with a quick fist bump and a smile. It was like living in a dream.