Mr. Manny Ramirez is showing all why he should be a first ballot Hall of Famer.
For 12 years he has been a force. He has averaged over 100 RBIs during that time missing the mark only twice. And now he has 400 HRs.

Manny has been the most-feared baseball hitter since he came up in 1993. Only Jim Thome comes to mind. Comparing their stats at Baseball-Reference.com, Manny has more RBIs, doubles, hits and a better career average. Besides Thome is a lefty.

I found it fitting that Manny would hit No. 400 against his first manager Mike Hargrove. Boston.com reports a couple of Hargrove memories.

When the Boston Herald asked Manny about his feat the slugger did a flip-flop.

So was he happy about it? Ask him when he starts to hit. It's probably hard to concentrate on a homerun when your team has lost two in a row and you're batting .248.

Is there a better right-hand batter in baseball?

On a WEEI broadcast this weekend (I believe it was the Dennis & Callahan show), Peter Gammons argued that Albert Pujols was better.

I give credit to Pujols, he is off to a great career. He's 25-years-old and has already accumulated 169 HRs and over 500 RBIs in four years. But considering he bats in the National League, where fastballs are still the norm, I'll give the edge to Ramirez.

Albert Pujols has had Jim Edmonds batting behind him for his whole career which can't hurt considering Edmonds has over 300 HRs and a career batting average of .294.

Manny hasn't been as fortunate. Even now he has been moved to the clean-up spot. He told the Boston Globe, "It doesn't matter where I hit, I'm Manny Ramirez."

I couldn't have said it better myself. Manny is now in the company of greats like Mays, Robinson, Williams, Foxx and Bonds. He'll be in their company a long time too.

It's funny how some newspapers have focused on the Sox even though they are thousands of miles away from Boston.

Today I was searching the Web for interesting news about Manny's feat, when I found an article about Boston's favorite team at, of all places, Knoxnews.com. Knoxville as in Tennessee.

The Q and A article focused on Johnny Damon's role in Boston and his book. It was interesting, but weird. Why Tennessee?

I guess when there isn't any football...

It's funny that Damon has become the unofficial face, beard and hair for the Red Sox. Even the Sacramento Bee previews tonight's game against Oakland using Damon as its centerpiece.

He'll be a free agent at the end of the season. With a string of two incredible seasons, it will be difficult for the Red Sox to keep him. He's batting .382 or something crazy like that. He'll demand big money. Even a home team discount will not help here, I'm afraid.

But we are getting a little ahead of ourselves.

For the first time, the Sox will enter Oakland as World Champions. With that, the Mercury News reports the fans too return as winners.

Isn't it a great feeling?

Reader comments: Now that Manny has reached the 400 HR milestone is there any doubt he will be a Hall of Famer?

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