Bats: Francona Clarifies Comment About Ramirez

TAMPA, Fla. – Back in November, in an mlb.com column about the Boston Red Sox, the venerable Peter Gammons included this devastating quote from the former manager Terry Francona: “Manny Ramirez is the worst human being I’ve ever met.”

It was the kind of comment you tend to remember because of the profile of the people involved. Gammons is a Hall of Fame reporter, Francona is a highly respected manager never known for criticizing his players and Ramirez is one of the best hitters — chemically enhanced or not — of his generation. And it was right there, in (virtual) print, with attribution.

So when I wrote a column about Ramirez’s comeback Tuesday, I cited the Francona quote as a withering condemnation of Ramirez’s character. I assumed the quote was widely known, but now I know I was wrong. Francona, as it turns out, did not even know about the Gammons column until now.

Francona called me Wednesday to talk it over, and, as always, he was pleasant and professional. But he wanted to make it clear that he was surprised by his characterization of Ramirez.

“I was taken aback by that comment,” Francona said. “I don’t doubt there were times Manny made me pull my hair out – if I had any hair. But I would never say that about anybody.”

After speaking with Francona, I called Gammons. He, too, felt bad that Francona was spending much of his Wednesday doing damage control over the comment, which was said to have been made in exasperation during a game in 2008, before Ramirez’s stormy exit.

Gammons said that while Francona was obviously frustrated with Ramirez that night, it was very possible that he had misheard or misunderstood the exact words Francona had used.

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