Huge sigh of relief after a big fly
BALTIMORE - Five hundred times now he's stood briefly - and sometimes not so briefly - in the batter's box to admire his work, circled the bases, pointed to the heavens, and jumped on home plate.
One never knows what goes through the mind of this hitting savant, but at 9:29 last night, Manny Ramírez's 410-foot blast to right-center had to lift the weight of the world off his shoulders. His 10th homer of 2008 was also the 500th of his career. He had joked all week about not doing it at Fenway Park, then about not doing it on the West Coast, especially the last day, because he didn't want to delay the team's arrival to Baltimore with a lengthy news conference.
The affection for him is obvious, considering there were two brothers who grew up in Nahant, Mass., who were willing to give the 500th ball back to Ramírez after the game. There was a loving wife, Juliana, her eyes filled with tears, talking about how hard Ramírez has worked for this moment and how "he has a good heart."
The Woo brothers, Damon and Jason, 40 and 43 years old, were standing in the Red Sox clubhouse last night, guests of Ramírez. They were presenting him the ball, forgoing the chance to make thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, because as Damon Woo said, "This is for a young friend of mine, Ryan. I called him and I asked him if I could give it to Manny and he says, 'Yeah.' It's [Manny's] accomplishment. It's his achievement. It's his ball. He loaned it to me. He said I could borrow it for the night."
Damon Woo now lives in Manhattan and works for Standard and Poor's and Jason Woo works for the Food and Drug Administration in Washington. They had discussed the possibility of catching No. 500 before the game, never thinking it possible until they saw it sailing toward them in the bleachers in the seventh when Ramírez connected off the Orioles' Chad Bradford.
"It hit me in the neck, but I caught it," said Damon Woo. "We went down to the ground just to make sure I had it. My brother covered me on top just to make sure nobody could take it away from me. I just stayed underneath the seats and folks knew they couldn't get too close there. They were pretty quick about it. Thanks to the two Baltimore [police] officers."
Ramírez plans to sell the ball at auction and donate the proceeds to a local children's charity in the Greater Boston area.
Asked whether he would rethink giving up the valuable ball, Damon Woo said, "You can call me crazy. I've done some crazy things in my lifetime, but like I said, this is his accomplishment."
So many of the sellout crowd who came from New England or are transplanted New Englanders thought he would hit it in the third after Dustin Pedroia and David Ortiz had gone back-to-back. They simply figured Ramírez would keep the vibe going, but he grounded to third base. In his first at-bat in the first inning, he excited the crowd with a long drive to left-center, but the ball was caught on the warning track by Jay Payton.
Ramírez hit No. 499 in Seattle against Miguel Batista, a three-run homer in the sixth that tied the score at the time, 3-3. Since then he's been joking and kidding with teammates who have tried to keep him loose, not that Ramírez is ever anything but loose, though one wonders if the stress of the chase has been weighing on him more than he's let on.
Ramírez accomplished the feat in 7,263 at-bats, the 24th player (same as his uniform number) to hit 500. He did it in the eighth-fewest at-bats and he's the 12th youngest at 36 years 1 day. He also has the fourth-highest batting average among 500-home run hitters - .312.
"He's been waiting for this for so long," said Juliana Ramírez. "It's a big weight lifted off his shoulders. Nobody deserves this more than Manny. He's worked so hard for so long in his career. He has a big heart. He's such a good guy. This is the best birthday present he could ever get."
His first homer came against Yankee righty Melido Perez Sept. 3, 1993, at Yankee Stadium in the sixth inning with one man on. His 100th was against Tanyon Sturtze vs. Texas at Jacobs Field Aug. 8, 1997. No. 200 came April 9, 2000, against current Yankees pitching coach Dave Eiland at Tropicana Field vs. the Devil Rays. No. 300 came Aug. 26, 2002, while with the Red Sox against Ramon Ortiz at Fenway. No. 400 was against Seattle and Gil Meche May 15, 2005.
And last night's?
"As soon as I hit it, I knew it was gone," said Ramírez. "I am happy. I am proud of myself and all the things that I've accomplished."
He's hit 217 homers as a left fielder, 220 as a right fielder, and 63 as a DH. He's hit the most homers vs. Jamie Moyer (10), eight against Mike Mussina and Sturtze, six against Brad Radke, five vs. Randy Johnson, four against Andy Pettitte, and so on.
As Mike Lowell said the other day, "That's just remarkable. To have that power the opposite way that consistently. That's the type of thing we hitters really, really respect. That, to us, is what makes Manny so great."
There's no question concerning the company he now keeps in baseball annals. No question that at 36, Ramírez could play until he's 40 and get to 600, which he said was his goal from the time the season began.
He ran the bases at a quick pace as flashbulbs went off in umpteen directions. When he got to home he pointed skyward, jumped on the plate, and hugged Lowell, the next batter. He moved on to David Ortiz and Julio Lugo, and the three of them celebrated by jumping up and down and sharing high-fives. Manny then went to the rest of his teammates.
Before the game, his barber, L'Montro, took care of Manny's hair and gave cuts to several other Red Sox. L'Montro, who grew up around the block from Manny in the Washington Heights area of New York, always has been one of Manny's good luck charms. It's interesting L'Montro showed up on this night.
"Every time I show up, Manny does something big," said L'Montro. "I worked on his hair today and he did it. We're all happy for him."
Sean Casey now has seen three members of the 500 club get the milestone. He saw Ken Griffey Jr. get it in St. Louis when Casey was Griffey's teammate in Cincinnati. He witnessed Sammy Sosa's 500th.
"This was amazing, with three-quarters of the people here Red Sox fans," said Casey. "I think as a team we appreciate history. I think we appreciate that we saw Manny hit No. 500. That's something we'll always remember." 