Yeah, yeah, yeah - I’m still behind. Let me enjoy the offseason! Anyway, on the news: Sox getting Julian Tavarez means a lot of good things I must say: the bullpen now looks overstocked, which is always good; Manny gets an old friend back; and the ugliest member of the team contest has been settled even before Spring Training.
For some reason I can’t find the Manny-and-Tavarez-buying-motorcycles story online except in this old cached page - must have read it in the GQ story on Manny last year. But here it is:
In ‘93, Manny and best friend Julian Tavarez decided they wanted to buy a motorcycle. So they asked two writers who covered the team if they could borrow $64,000. It was quickly explained to Manny and Tavarez that No. 1, motorcycles don’t cost $64,000, and No. 2, people don’t walk around with that kind of money, especially sportswriters.
Although, strangely enough, Manny seems to have really wanted a pricey motorbike in his Cleveland days:
‘‘He asked me if he could borrow $35,000," Hargrove, now managing the Seattle Mariners, recalled yesterday. ‘‘I said, ‘What for?’ He said, ‘I want to buy a motorcycle.’ Just busted my chops. (Link)
Meanwhile, scouting around the Intanet for the motorbike story brought me to this random excerpt from a Sox-hater:
I despise Manny Ramirez. The little scumbag tried to bed my girlfriend (at the time) back in his Cleveland days. I’m not going to go into detail here, but I know some things about Manny and his frequent roommate Julian Tavarez that would make for excellent tabloid fodder. (Link)
Anyway, you know the way George Steinbrenner collects players from teams who beat the Yankees in playoff games? (Bellhorn, Embree, Womack…) The Sox seem to be trying to always keep someone from the 2004 Cardinals around… heh. Man - if you asked me my favourite moments of the 2004 World Series, they would include: Card-turned-Red Sock Renteria grounding out to end the Series; and now Card-turned-Red Sock Julian Tavarez giving up the 2-run homer to Bellhorn in Game 1. Hopefully things work out better for Tavarez.