Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Just Manny Being Manny!



Only moments before Ramírez walked into the Red Sox clubhouse, David Ortiz's booming laugh had filtered through the air, the big man nearly keeling over with merriment. The television, turned all the way up, had shown a segment of ESPN's "Pardon the Interruption" devoted to a curious story that had been making the rounds all day. A grill had turned up on eBay with a bizarre message and a series of seven photographs, among which were two of Ramírez standing next to the silver piece of heavy-duty cooking equipment.

"Hi, I'm Manny Ramirez," reads the ad, listed under the seller "mannyramirez1524," a member since March 18. "I bought this AMAZING grill for about $4,000 and I used it once . . . But I never have the time to use it because I am always on the road. I would love to sell it and you will get an autographed ball signed by me =) Enjoy it, Manny Ramirez."

So in the interests of journalistic integrity (and with an extreme curiosity), a reporter approached Ramírez. (OK, it was this reporter.)

Is the grill yours? Is the ad true?

He said it wasn't. He agreed about a week ago to help out a neighbor in Weston, Fla., by advertising the grill as his own to drive up the price.

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