THE RAYS and A ONE WAY
TICKET TO "MANNY-WOOD" ...
Manny joins the 500 HR Club

May 31, 2008 ... Manny Ramirez posed long enough for history to share his gaze as he contemplated what he had just wrought with one powerful flick of his wrists at 9:29 p.m. With a swing of his 34-inch, 32-ounce, all-black SSK maple bat, Ramirez sent a baseball deep into the Maryland night, the ball simultaneously landing in the right-center-field bleachers and the record books.

One hundred seventy-seven months after Ramirez hit his first home run as a 21-year-old playing in Yankee Stadium, the grand edifice whose shadows fall not far from the bodegas of Washington Heights where he grew up, the Red Sox left fielder hit the 500th home run of his career, one day after his 36th birthday.

It came with two outs and nobody on base in the seventh inning of Boston's 6-3 win over the Orioles, on his fourth at-bat of the game, and on the first pitch from Chad Bradford, the former Red Sox reliever whose submarine delivery had offered little mystery to Ramirez in earlier encounters and not a whit last night.

With his Brazilian-born wife, Juliana, sitting among the crowd of 48,281 in Oriole Park in Camden Yards, Ramirez hit Bradford's fastball 410 feet to become the 24th player in baseball history to join the 500 club, matching the uniform number on the road grays he wore last night. He becomes the third player to hit his 500th for the Red Sox, joining Jimmie Foxx and Ted Williams, both in the Hall of Fame. He also becomes the second player from the Dominican Republic in that fraternity, joining Sammy Sosa, who finished his career with 609.

The Sox had just taken a 4-3 Sox lead in the seventh last night on a triple by Jacoby Ellsbury off reliever Lance Cormier and a sacrifice fly by David Ortiz off Baltimore's third pitcher, Jamie Walker, when Orioles manager Dave Trembley went to the mound and signaled for Bradford.

Ramirez, who had hit home run No. 499 Tuesday night in Seattle off Miguel Batista, had lined out to the track in left in the first inning, grounded to third in the third, and lined to left in the sixth when he came to the plate in the seventh, his 14th at-bat since connecting off Batista.

The loud concussion caused by ball striking bat left little doubt that he would be circling the bases. He slapped the hands of the base coaches, Luis Alicea at first, DeMarlo Hale at third. He passed his loquacious friend playing first base for the Orioles, Kevin Millar, not a word passing between them.

Ramirez was met at home plate by the next Sox batter, Mike Lowell, who walked through Ramirez's proffered hand and embraced the Sox slugger. There would be more merriment in front of the Sox dugout, Ramirez engaging in what looked for all the world like ring-around-the-rosie with his Dominican lockermates, Ortiz and Julio Lugo. Then, he melted into the embraces, backslaps, and handshakes of the rest of the team, while the crowd, which would have been right at home at Fenway, celebrated.

When Ramirez went to his position at the end of the Sox seventh, he raised his gloved hand to the left-field stands in acknowledgment of their lusty cheers.

Dustin Pedroia and Ortiz had hit consecutive home runs in the third inning off Garrett Olson for the first Sox runs. Lowell was hit by a pitch and came around on Jason Varitek's base hit for the third run in the sixth, and Ellsbury, who already had stolen three bases for the second straight game, flashed flying feet as he tripled and then scored just ahead of Jay Payton's strong throw from left field on Ortiz's fly ball in the seventh.

The Orioles had strung a walk and three singles off Jon Lester for two runs in the second, and Brian Roberts had homered with one out in the fifth to tie the score again at 3. Ortiz, whose home run was his 13th of the season, one behind league leader Carlos Quentin of the White Sox, gave the team a scare when he came out of the game shaking his left hand after hitting a ball foul in the ninth. X-rays were negative.

Ramirez has already assured one and all that he intends to hit 600.

Jacoby Ellsbury had his second consecutive three-steal game, giving him 18 for the month. Since 1956, that's the most by a Sox player in any month since Tommy Harper stole 18 in September 1973, the year Harper stole a club-record 54 bases. Only five players in Sox history have stolen more bases than Ellsbury in a season by the age of 24, just one in the last 28 years. That was Ellis Burks, who stole 27 in 1987, when he was 22 (age by June 30). Tris Speaker stole 52 bases in 1912, when he was 24. The others were Harry Hooper, Buddy Myer, and Hal Janvrin.