Happy Birthday to Manny Ramirez, one of the greatest all-around complete hitters of his time, also regarded as one of the better right-handed hitters of all time.

Manny Ramirez Career (1993-2011):

.312 BA, 2,574 HITS, 555 HR, 1,831 RBI, 1,544 RUNS, .411 OBP

  • 12x All-Star
  • 9x Silver-Slugger
  • 2x World Series Champion
  • Batting Title (2002)
  • 2004 World Series MVP

Coming up with the Cleveland Indians, where he spent the first half of his career, Ramirez established himself as an all-around great hitter, hitting for power and average. In 1999, Ramirez had a career year despite missing 15 games; Ramirez drove in 165 RBI, the most since Jimmie Foxx in 1938, also hitting for a .333/.442 AVG/OBP. In 2001, he left Cleveland for Boston, where he’d be a big piece of the Red Sox winning the World Series in 2004 and 2007. From 2003-2008, he and David Ortiz formed one of the greatest-hitting duos ever.

According to many of his teammates, Ramirez had a tireless work ethic regarding his preparation, being known for tee sessions, long batting practices, and constantly reviewing videos of his swings and the opposing pitchers. When it came to the games being in the batter’s box, however, while in the batter’s box during games, he kept his approach extremely simple, relying on muscle memory and pitch recognition from his training regimen. During his 19-year career, Ramirez hit over 30 HR and 100 RBI 12 times. 

Unfortunately, Manny Ramirez did fail drug tests, so his career and how much of it was a product of the use of performance-enhancing drugs. It’s anyone’s guess when Manny started using PEDs. Manny has been eligible for the base writers Hall of Fame ballot since 2017 but has yet to garner 75% of the vote needed for recognition. 

References:

  1. Manny Ramirez Career Statistics via Baseball Reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/ramirma02.shtml
  2. Manny Ramirez via Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manny_Ramirez#