Why Manny Ramirez will be around Connecticut this summer
Manny Ramirez was spotted at Dunkin Donuts stadium this past week taking in a New Britain Bees game. Why would Manny Ramirez be wandering around Connecticut watching low level professional baseball? His son Manny Ramirez Jr. will be playing for the New Britain Bees this summer. According to the Bees Instagram, you can expect Manny to be around the park being Manny all summer. That’s a pretty good promo to get people to want to show up at the park. New Britain is about an hour and a half from me but I will definitely try to get down to a game or two this season if Manny is going to be there. How great of a promo video would it be to get Manny Ramirez screaming KofSports after he hit the over on a semi-pro baseball game that his son is playing in?
The Bees are considered a professional baseball team but they are not a Major League Baseball affiliate so I personally don’t consider them a professional team. A lot of players that don’t work out at the Major League (Minor League) levels go play in this league to keep playing. That’s not the case for Manny Ramirez Jr., he just graduated from the University of San Francisco last year.
This raises an interesting topic. Do all professional athletes automatically pass along the genes to their children or does it also take the time and effort as a good parent/trainer to teach and develop their young to try and mirror themselves one day. I will come out and say that Manny Ramirez was a GREAT baseball player (hitter), he was actually my favorite player to watch growing up as a kid. However, I’ll admit that I could see Manny not being the best father figure for Junior. If Manny was a better father along the way, you have to think that Junior would have received a few better scholarship offers than University of San Francisco if he didn’t get drafted out of high school. Maybe now that Manny Sr. is done with baseball, he can take the time to work with Junior and get him to the big league level, he’s only 22. Then again, it might just be too late. It’ll be something that I keep tabs on over the next few years.
“Manny don’t need baseball, baseball need Manny.” – Manny Ramirez Sr.
