Manny Ramirez is more than a handful for Larry Bowa
"He's probably the hardest guy I've ever coached."
Dodgers 3rd base coach Larry Bowa doesn't mince words when talking about his dealings with Manny Ramirez. Bowa sums up the experience from his position on the Jim Rome radio show:
"He's probably the hardest guy I've ever coached. I don't mean that to be disrespectful to Manny but there's some days Manny will give you everything he has and there's other days where whether it's his body not reacting or, I don't know, something going on in his mind, he doesn't give you everything he has. He'll run three quarter speed and as a 3rd base coach, the first thing you say in spring training is, 'You give me everything you have everyday and I make my decisions accordingly.'
The other night we had a play where he was at 1st base and Matt Kemp hit a ball in the hole and he beat the ball to 2nd. He also hit a double and he had to hustle into 2nd base. And then he's on 1st base and Matt Kemp hit a ball to right center, the guy picks it up and he drops it. And I'm saying, 'Okay, Manny's in a good mood tonight.' So I send him and, you know, between 2nd and 3rd he just like broke it down. And those are tough guys to coach.
It's hard to react to something like that but instinctively you gotta say this guy's not going to score from first on a double...
Something you have to live with as a 3rd base coach."
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