Youk Deserved to Get Slapped!?

So last week Manny Ramirez slapped Kevin Youkilis in the dugout and it has gone largely unnoticed in Boston. In fact, for all of the Manny Being Manny moments we've had over the years, this one is getting the least amount of air time, both in the papers and on the radio. It's almost like it never happened. Maybe it's the fact that the Celtics are on the verge of crushing Kobe and the Kobette's for banner number 17 or the fact that we've all been so wrapped up in the Stanley Cup Finals (yawn).

It appears that the real story is now coming out on the fight and it's apparently Youk's fault. Check out this Boston Herald article that explains Youk's intensity and his frustration at making an out. Still don't see how it's Youk's fault?

I guess I get it now. Youk plays hard, has always been a team guy (remember how they kept optioning him to AAA a few years ago because he was the only one with options left even though he was better than most of the players on the team?), rarely makes any mental mistakes, plays flawless defense at first base, always talks to the media following a good or bad night but apparently has a penchant for taking things out on the water cooler in the dugout. I'm cool with that.

On the other hand, we have Manny Being Manny who likes to take days off when the team is shorthanded, lollygags to first on almost every play, stands in the batters box admiring long balls that sometimes don't even go out of the park, makes a ton of baserunning errors and never talks to the media. This is a guy that even President Bush made fun of for not showing up at the White House earlier this year for a team gathering and Bush bashed him for always using the excuse that his grandmother died.

And somehow people think Youk deserved to get slapped? I don't get it. This isn't another Manny Being Manny moment. This is Manny Being an Idiot and apparently he's going to get a free pass on this one.

The incident takes place around the :30 second mark of the video below. I wish John Madden could do the play by play on this video because it would go something like this . . . "Okay, watch right here. We see Manny coming back to the dugout. Keep watching. Wait for it. Right here. BOOM! There's the hard slap to the face by Manny. I don't know what Manny was thinking but he gets the Thanksgiving Turkey leg for that hit."


From now on, when someone gets sucker punched, I think it should be called "getting Youk'd."