Manny Manny Manny - Investigation!!

LOS ANGELES - Manny Mania is all the rage in Southern California. Manny Ramírez is crushing the ball. He says he wants to finish his career in California. The Dodgers are getting ready to market Manny caps complete with dreadlocks. The local media love Manny. Agent Scott Boras is smiling. It's enough to make a Red Sox fan's blood boil.

Manny is hitting .565 (13 for 23) with four home runs and nine RBIs in six games since being traded by the Red Sox. He initially said he was going to cut his hair, but that seems unlikely now. When the Dodgers return home next week, fans will be able to purchase brown and/or blue dreadlocks from stadium stores. The team will also sell blue skull caps and Dodger caps with sewn-in dreads. It's the Full Manny. "He's kind of brought a new life to our team," Dodgers catcher Russell Martin told the Los Angeles Times. "Everybody on the bench is looser and having more fun

ESPN's Jim Rome? Reporting "live from Los Angeles," Rome said Man-Ram coming to SoCal might be the happiest moment of his life, other than his wedding day and when his children were born. The network's poll of memorable images from the past week put Manny's opening press conference photo at No. 1 - ahead of all the Brett Favre stuff.

Feeling a little duped, Red Sox Nation? Still wondering if this whole thing was on the level?
You are not alone. The commissioner's office is investigating the circumstances of Manny's final hours with the Red Sox. The Globe has learned (from a source with direct knowledge of the inquiry) that Bud Selig directed Major League Baseball executive vice president Rob Manfred to contact all parties for an explanation of how things unfolded around last week's trading deadline. According to the source, Manfred has yet to report back to the commissioner.

Here's why Selig's office is looking into the matter:
The Red Sox had an option to retain Ramírez in 2009 for $20 million. They had the same option for 2010. Ramírez, who will turn 37 next season, wanted to be a free agent at the end of this season. His agent wanted the same thing. Boras inherited Ramírez's old contract and stood to earn nothing until Manny signed a new one. It was in the interest of the player and the agent to have the options dropped.

Manny's only leverage was withholding services and playing at half speed. So that's what he did. Sitting out games against Seattle and the Yankees, jogging down the first base line (and maybe even looking at those three strikes against Mariano Rivera), he sent the message that he wanted out. He made sure the Sox knew he could not be trusted to play hard if they kept him until the end of the season with the options intact.

MY TAKE ON THIS: This Bud's for you!! I don't care what Manny is doing in LA. They probably might not even make the playoffs. Mud in your face. Manny pulled this garbage all the time and everybody was tired of it. He was the one bringing the whole team and franchise down. He wanted to hold us hostage and he did. Luckily and fortunately for us, he shot his way out of town, but I do believe that he has shot himself in the foot. Every week, we had several issues with the man with the ugly hair. He will come down to earth. The guy has some kind of mental affliction and he is not seeking psychiatric treatment, so it's a matter of time before he goes bananas again. Perhaps when the Dodgers get eliminated from the race, he'll come up with one of his patented 'Manny being Manny' phony injuries and then we all can say together...."we told you so."