Who would of thought it would come down to this? Manny Ramirez literally threw himself out of Boston with both his mouth and actions. It started by a slap to Kevin Youkilis’ face, proceeded with a shove to the team secretary, and continued with his big mouth to ESPN DePortes.

Today marks the end of the Man-Ram era in Boston, and to be quite honest, it’s sad. Granted the Red Sox needed to get him out of the organization; it’s just a shame it had to happen like this. Manny Ramirez was one of the most loved Red Sox to date. Ramirez’ eight-year run brought 2 world championships to Boston, a feat that was missing for 86 years.

(Fellow writer Mike Comtois probably said it best when he said losing Ramirez is like losing a girlfriend. It’s true, it’s just hard to picture a Sox team without Ramirez in the lineup. Personally, it’s all I’ve known since 2000 when I was just 14 years old.  But hey, everyone must move on)

It’s tough to tell how Jason Bay will do in Boston. Sure, he’s coming to a much tougher American League, but he is now in the middle of one stellar lineup. Hitting between Youkilis and Ortiz will provide Bay with the much needed protection he was missing in Pittsburgh. Hitting between Ryan Doumit and Doug Meintkiewicz isn’t what we would call “ideal”. Bay had a tough ‘07, but his numbers have turned around this year. Fenway Park is a hitters ballpark certainly to a right-handed batter like Bay.

So what’s next? Now that the Red Sox clubhouse has been rid of the cancer, maybe the post All-Star break struggles are about to turn around. We sure hope so.

One thing is for certain, Manny Ramirez will never be forgotten. No if’s, and’s, or but’s about it, most of us enjoyed watching him roam left field, high-five fans, become a cut-off man in center field, and smash many home runs over the Monster. We thank you Manny, and hope Joe Torre and the Dodgers can deal with you.