It's a shame it had to come to this. Ramírez put up Hall of Fame numbers in his seven-plus seasons in Boston and for most of that time he's been a fan favorite. But it's ending badly. His sit-down strike Friday night appears to have been the tipping point.
Manny's talent has allowed him to run through stop signs for his entire adult (we use that term loosely) life. He gets away with it. Things work out. He has success. Even when he blunders, it turns out OK.
That's the quality that has endeared him to so many Sox fans through the years. That, plus 35 homers and 110 RBIs per year.
So the ovations will keep on coming. The hits will keep on coming (he had another double in the third, and an RBI single in the sixth). With a little luck, there might even be another ring in it for Manny and everybody else on Yawkey Way.
But it looks like these are the final days of Manny Ramírez in a Red Sox uniform. He said it himself. Enough is enough. He's tired of us and we're tired of him.