You can't always get what you want....

So, I guess I'm not going to be one of the finalists for WEEI's Next Sports Blogger contest that they have been running.

I haven't heard anything from them, and from what I've seen on the internet from a few people who have -- they've been notified. I know tomorrow's the deadline but I suppose I'd have heard by now.
Well, you win some - you lose some, right?

Truthfully in retrospect - my first submission was probably vague and rather cutesy. I did say that I prefer to have specific topics to write about rather than about the sports scene just because that was a rather vague topic; there's so much that falls into that category, how do you capture it all. But there are some amazingly savvy sports folks out there who blog, so my general posts probably weren't enough to keep the judges interested. It is... what it is.

Which brings me to my thoughts for today... and once again they are about Manny.

I'm constantly amazed at how people are shocked that behaviours that supposedly aren't allowed or are frowned upon are compromised in his case.
The Dodgers are now just as responsible for "Manny being Manny" there -- as the Red Sox were when he was here.
He is their goose that lays the golden eggs -- and with that, comes privileges. Benefits and allowances that the ordinary person or member of an organization aren't privy to. And wake up kids - it's like that everywhere. There are "special circumstance" employees in every workplace, why would baseball be any different?

He is paid an insane amount of money to be a racehorse. He is a diva because he can be. It is allowed for him to be as such, and because it's always been that way - he will always continue to behave the way he does, because if someone threatens to tighten the reins on him, there is a fear of repercussion.

He is the ultimate spoiled child. Think of him as a 10 year old that always got his way; got every toy he ever wanted without having to wait for birthdays or Santa Claus - and never had any rules placed upon him. No bed times, no meal times, just life on his own terms. Then suddenly, at 10 - the parents decide that now is the time to conform to rules. What do you expect a person to react to that? What does any spoiled child do when their parents try to restrain them? They rebel. And act out. Who do you blame for that? Certainly not the child...it's the parent's responsibility to lay down the law. Parenting is a tough job but someone's got to do it.

The same rules apply in life. There are boundaries and expectations of all of us no matter what career field we are in. There are acceptable and unacceptable behaviours.

Listen up MLB; Manny is your toy..... you wound him up -- now you play with him.
Is it his fault that rules apply differently to him than to anyone else?

I blame the teams, the managements and ownerships for being inconsistent.
Accept Manny for what you made him. Because he will never be anything different....