Right Off the Bat, Manny is Being Manny

Already it's become clear why Kenny Williams rolled the dice on Manny Ramirez:

Manny is the most feared on-deck-circle guy in baseball.

Tuesday night, Manny was on deck getting ready to pinch hit in the ninth inning of a 1-1 game. Result: A.J. Pierzynski crushed a three-run homer that lifted the Sox to a 4-3 victory over Cleveland.

Wednesday, Manny was on deck in the eighth inning of a game the Sox trailed 4-2. Result: Paul Konerko crushed a three-run homer that lifted the Sox to a 6-4 victory over Cleveland.

And so it has begun, the Dreadlocked Drive to the playoffs. Manny's mere presence has guaranteed glory.

Hold on there, Fertility Drug Breath. We're going to need a larger sample size.

Manny never did bat in Tuesday's game, getting pulled back after A.J. hit his decisive home run. The Sox didn't want to impose upon Man-Ram after he had endured that exhausting flight from the West Coast to Cleveland.

So Wednesday's game became Manny's official Sox debut, and good old No. 99 delivered a 1-for-3 day (groundout, strikeout, bloop single and hit by pitch). Oh yeah — and that whole on-deck-circle intimidation thing.

Two wins since Manny joined the club, but my reservations about the acquisition have grown. First, I'm not buying into any magical "on-deck effect." Is Konerko really going to see better pitches just because Manny is on deck? Pitchers are going to fear Manny more than Konerko, who has put himself in MVP contention?

What really galls me — but doesn't surprise me — is that Manny immediately put himself above the rest of his teammates by neglecting to trim his locks to meet team standards, and apparently begging out of Tuesday's starting lineup. (Yeah, we know how taxing DH-ing can be, especially after a plane flight.)

Manny actually began playing games within minutes of putting on a Sox uniform. His pregame session with the media Tuesday was surreal comedy. He employed a weary-looking Joey Cora as his translator and responded in Spanish to reporters' questions — even though Manny is known to have a good grasp of English and has spoken it well in many previous interviews. But no matter. I'm sure Cora had nothing better to do. Besides, the strategy enabled Manny to more easily dodge a few tough questions about his controversial past.

Through all of this, Ozzie Guillen is revealing his true colors. Ozzie has talked about no player being bigger than the team. Ozzie has talked about how he makes the rules.

But along comes Manny being Manny, and Ozzie in essence says: "What do you want me to do about it? I can't control what Manny does."

Spineless. Hypocritical. Unfair to the team's good soldiers, such as Konerko.

But what do I know? The Sox are 2-0 with Manny in uniform. And there are plenty of on-deck appearances remaining.

And, unfortunately, there are much more urgent concerns in SoxLand. Freddy Garcia left Wednesday's game with an injury, Gordon Beckham's return to the lineup has been pushed back and the broken-down bullpen situation is desperate.

Maybe we should be thankful to have Manny to distract us from those things that really matter.