It’s nice to see Manny Ramirez never changes He was taking a shower while the Dodgers lost game 4, removed from the game for a defensive replacement:

He also shrugged off the issue of Ramirez’s skipping the final inning of Game 4. Ramirez was taken out of the game in the bottom of the ninth inning for the defensive specialist Juan Pierre, even though Ramirez made an excellent catch of Raul Ibanez’s sinking line drive in the sixth.

According to Torre, Ramirez’s shower was not a sign of indifference, but a gesture of confidence that Broxton would do his job. Torre said that often when the Dodgers come off the field, Ramirez is waiting in the clubhouse in street clothes.

“He’s a cool customer,” Torre said. “But he certainly didn’t have any lack of respect because of that. I think the way it turned out, it probably doesn’t look good. But it’s nothing different than he had done before.”

As the author notes:

Ramirez’s cavalier attitude in the face of desperation was reminiscent of 2007, when his Red Sox were also down by three games to one in Cleveland during the American League Championship Series. “If it doesn’t happen, who cares?” he said at the time. “There’s always next year. It’s not the end of the world.”

The last part of his comment might have been true, but fans and reporters in Boston were nearly apoplectic at the remark. And Ramirez’s words might have been therapeutic for the Red Sox, who did not lose another game and won their second World Series in four years.