One thing you can absolutely take to the bank ..this is Manny's last year in Beantown. No way the RedSox put up with his crap again. I'd wager that the Sawx and Mets have a good understanding....the trade occurs in the off season, a two way deal..forget dealing with other teams, who try to extort a lot..Mets and RS were smart to walk away..for now..Mets will take on Manny's contract happily...with small concession on salary..but they won't have to give up any real talent..With Manny in Shea..Pazza will not be resigned. He'll either retire, or possibly go to Boston..smaller contract.makes a lot of sense..he could be the back up catcher..pinch hitter, and even DH..if they put Ortiz at 1B for maybe 25 games..Piazza would love the Green Monster..THis way the deal makes financiuals ense for both teams.. Sawx can use Manny money to try and replace his production..and the Mets lose Piazza salary..so it's not that bad a hit. And the Mets can decide to package Cameron or Floyd in a deal..
Piazza has doubles power and could use the wall to have more. Why does he suck away from Shea, though? He should never play road games for the Mets.
You can trade Manny to the Indians, the Sox will need to pick up part of that untradeable contract, but you'll get lots of top flight prospects.
After David Ortiz' and John Olerud’s back-to-back home runs (and roughly one hour before the trade deadline) Manny appeared in uniform in the BoSox dugout. Between 4:00 and 4:30pm, WEEI's Joe Castiglione & Jerry Trupiano announced that "Manny has requested a batting helmet". We could see from our left-field seats that Manny had a bat in his hands.
The chants of "We want Manny!" started well before the 8th inning... the chants actually originated with a bunch of kids in our left-field section, and we kept it going... NOT because we are Manny-worshippers (far from it), but because we wanted to see if he'd 'come out to play'.
Well, when Manny stepped up to the on-deck circle in the 8th, swinging the bat behind David Ortiz, you've never heard such a deafening ROAR from the crowd! I read that they were playing the theme from "Superman" for Manny’s grand entrance, but I couldn't hear any music nor Joe & Jerry on my radio earpiece... the crowd noise drowned it all out. The rafters were literally shaking with cheers and applause. My husband remarked that he hadn’t seen the atmosphere so electric at Fenway since the game we attended in 2003 when the Sox clinched the Wild Card… it was incredible.
Manny - as pinch-hitter for Adam Stern - delivered his game-winning center field single and Curt Schilling pitched brilliantly in the 9th to seal the Red Sox win. So “Mannygate” concludes with a storybook ending.
Many people around us who had never been to Fenway before - and a young Irish couple who were attending their first-ever American baseball game - were positively gushing at how exciting it was at Fenway when the game ended. I didn't have the heart to tell them that not every game there is so exciting, but admittedly Red Sox Nation at Fenway is very unique... most will stay in the park right until the end of every game, whether the Red Sox are winning or losing, whether 9 or 19 innings. And they're QUITE vocal in how they feel about what's going on with the team... LOL.
I have to admit I'm glad the Red Sox are hanging onto Manny for the time being... I think his absence from the team would affect the team in a negative way. But I also think there's a strong possibility he'll be a Met in the off-season. Time will tell...
BTW, Matt Clement was there during pitching practice (there was no batting practice) and we saw him drive off in his SUV with his wife after the game. He looked just fine... not a scratch nor bruise on him, he was smiling away. Very lucky man...