If he really wants to stay, he'd be better advised to keep his complaints to himself, or at least not let them out of the clubhouse. He's already had an incident this year in which he pushed the team's traveling secretary to the ground for not promising to provide him with the wealth of tickets he requested for a game.

The team dismissed that incident as nothing major, although you know if it had been the bullpen catcher who did that, it would have meant a one-way ticket out of town. Still, Manny has to realize that while he's a vital cog in the Red Sox machine, he's not irreplaceable. No one is on a team that Theo Epstein is running. He replaced Johnny Damon. He can replace Manny Ramirez if he becomes more trouble than he's worth.

What Manny needs to do is play just as hard as he can to prove that he's not in serious decline as a hitter. Put up the numbers, and everything else will take care of itself.

Ramirez is, after all, one of the greatest hitters in the game and a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer. Among active players, Manny is third in slugging, fourth in on-base plus slugging, fifth in RBIs, seventh in home runs, career batting average, total bases, doubles, and on-base percentage, eighth in walks, and 10th in runs. Two of the active players ahead of him are Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa.

All of that means that Manny, who is 36 and still has a few good years in him, will get his money, either in Boston or somewhere else. It may not be $20 million a year, but it won't be minimum wage, either.

He'll get his shot at 600 home runs and, if he can go four more years, maybe even 2,000 RBIs. He'll continue to be cheered by the fans in whatever city he ends up in. He'll retire with enough money in the bank to buy his own island and hire a bunch of people to tell him every day how wonderful he is.

Why do I just know it still won't be enough?

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