With the Yankees already crossed off Curt Schilling’s hit list, he put former Red Sox teammate Manny Ramirez squarely his sights.
Schilling, on his weekly spot on WEEI radio in Boston, trashed Ramirez for the way he acted toward his teammates before being traded to the Dodgers on July 31.
“The guy got to dress in a locker away from the team for seven years,” Schilling said. “And then [when] he’s on this crusade to get out of here, all of a sudden he’s in the locker room every day, voicing his displeasure without even having to play the game that night.”
Ramirez’s commitment in the locker room has long been questioned by the Boston media, but in the middle of this season, Ramirez reportedly asked out of the lineup for several games and was not exactly hustling when he was playing. Schilling said the players most hurt by Ramirez’s antics were the role players.
“Nothing makes a guy that respects the game and respects human beings like Terry Francona feel worse than looking at a guy and saying, ‘Go ahead, [mess] with me, [mess] with your teammates, I’ll put you in the lineup,’ and then turn around to a guy who’s there every day early working his [butt] off who gets 110 at-bats a year and saying, ‘You know what? Yeah, I can’t put you in there tonight,'” said Schilling, who himself is out for the season with a shoulder injury.
“There were times when you had players who were on like fire duty, ‘Show up tomorrow, I’m not sure if you’re playing or not, we’ve gotta find out what [Manny] wants to do.’ That’s not fair to anybody.”
Immediately after the trade to Los Angeles, Ramirez turned back to his usual dominating self. Dodgers manager Joe Torre asked Ramirez if he wanted out of today’s lineup in a day game against the Pirates. The slugging outfielder asked to stay in.
“I’m Cal Ripken,” he joked.
Schilling talked about Ramirez’s .400 batting average in Los Angeles and what his teammates think when they see that.
“I wouldn’t say [they’re ticked], I’d probably say disappointed more than anything,” Schilling said. “Because the one thing about Manny is that he was … he was very kind, and well-mannered, but there were spurts and times when you didn’t know who he was. You know, he was always kind and nice for the most part, but he’d show up the next day and say, ‘I’m through with this team, I want out now.'”
Last week on the radio, Schilling ripped Yankees fans for being happy that Tom Brady was injured because the Bombers “sucked.”