Let Manny be Manny somewhere else

Manny Ramirez may be a Hall of Famer in the eyes of many, but if it were up to me, I’d leave him out.

My Hall of Fame test goes something like this: When I have a child, and I take them to Cooperstown (trust me, I will), is Player X someone I want them to know about in the context of baseball history? It may not be tried and tested, but my opinion of Ramirez is pretty clear.

Manny’s antics and willingness to quit on the Boston Red Sox coupled with the recent failed drug tests is why I would not want to waste time telling my future kids about Ramirez. Because he was a less-than-stellar citizen of Major League Baseball, I would keep him out of the Hall of Fame.

And for those same reasons, I would advise the A’s to let Manny Be Manny somewhere else. The A’s don’t need a distraction like Manny hanging around the clubhouse. His goofball attitude would be a bad influence on a young, innocent team.

If the A’s do sign Ramirez, they would be without his limited services while he serves a 50-game drug suspension. When he’s eligible to play, they’d be getting a player that hasn’t played a Major League game in over a full year. And when he did play, for the Tampa Bay Rays at the beginning of 2011, he was so useless that he quit after five games. He went 1-for-17.

This isn’t Frank Thomas or Hideki Matsui. The A’s aren’t getting a great clubhouse presence with a few home runs left in his bat. They would be getting a flawed player trying to see if he has anything left — a year after he already decided that he had nothing left.

When you’re trying to create an identity for this team, why would you even consider bringing someone like Ramirez into the clubhouse?

Besides, the A’s have plenty of in-house DH candidates: Brandon Allen, Chris Carter and Kila Ka’aihue. They are all young, inexpensive and will work hard because they all have something to prove.

The A’s are better off leaving Ramirez to rust on the scrap heap.