A New Take on Manny being Manny

I had the privilege of watching the Indians and Red Sox Tuesday night at the Jake. I will never call it "Progressive Field". I had excellent seats on the 3rd baseline right next to the foul pole. I never intended to do much except visit with my brother - in - law and eat as many hot dogs as I could since it was "dollar dog" night. I ate six with no problem, but the other two were frozen by the time I was done with the first six. Yes! It was cold!
The first couple of innings I was intrigued with watching Manny Ramirez. Our seats were only about 20 yards away from him. He would take his glove off and play with it, or hold it with his right hand. He would pull out a bag of seeds and fill his mouth. While he is doing all of this, the game was in motion. The pitcher was in his wind-up and so on. I always believed that Manny was a terrible, lazy fielder, but even though it seemed like he could care less what was going on, he never missed a play. He made everything look so easy from fielding ground balls, to catching hard shots into the gap. His cut-off throws and one throw directly to 2ND base were precisely accurate and effortless.
The game got into the later innings and Manny would look around and smile, watch the scoreboard. A few fans dropped their signs over the wall and Manny walked over and picked them up and threw them back to the fans. Ryan Garko was injured and most players were chatting with each other, but Manny was down on one knee and clapped as Garko made his way to first.
He was constantly heckled throughout the game and never acknowledged anyone, but would occasionally smile and look at some fans. At one point during the 9Th inning, I leaned over as he went to retrieve the ball that got away from him while they were warming up and said, "Manny, I respect your game and the way you just have fun." He looked up and pounded his fist against his heart and pointed at me.
It was great to see a superstar playing and just having a lot of fun. That is Manny being Manny!!!