One of the most captivating and polemic characters in the recenet history of baseball descended upon Kaohsiung in the spring of 2013. A star in Cleveland and Boston before his MLB career ended in a maelstrom of controversy around PED usage, the credentials of Manny Ramirez were and are stunning. 500+ homeruns, two World Series titles plus multiple other playoff appearances plus All Star selections and other accolades would be plenty for most. But Manny Ramirez wanted a new adventure so in early 2013 he signed a short term deal with the then EDA Rhinos. (now the Fubon Guardians)
Ramirez was fresh off an abortive comeback attempt in the Oakland A's minor league system after the 2012 season. Perhaps he felt that this was not the way he wanted his illustrious career to end. Perhaps he wanted a new challenge. And so, after a stint playing winter ball in his native Dominican Republic, it was announced that Mannywood was now to be based in Taiwan. While he was not the first nor the last foreign player to play in CPBL, he was the first major league superstar to make the jump, setting off a freeze of excitement in the island nation.
Ramirez's "new beginning" as he put it was that not only for him but for CPBL. The 2000's for CPBL where characterized less for heroics on the field than the shady underworld that had been uncovered off it. (perhaps I'll write about that at some point) The league had been severely weakend and brought to the brink of folding altogether a few short years before by a series of match fixing scandals that had sullied everything from regular season games to the 2009 Taiwan Series. Taiwanese baseball had been exposed to underworld figures in the past. The August 3rd incident of 1996 and the Black Eagles scandal of 1997 are well known but it was a series of matchfixing scandals from 2005-2009 that would rock the nation and see everything from lifetime bans to arrests as the Taiwanese police dug deeper and deeper into the quagmire. The end result would be the eventual contraction of the league to the current four teams and a sharp decline in attendance.
The league needed a compelling reason to get butts back in the seats and Man-Ram provided the star power required. To say the fans responded as the league had hoped would be an understatement. Ramirez was to say years later that fans had "treated him like baseball royalty" and that he remained in awe of their love for the game. To say he was quick to make a mark would be to criminally understate it. His first homer, which lives on forever in internet lore for the announcer's call of it, was the 7000th CPBL home run. The slugger would hit a cool .352 with 43RBI in his 49 games with the Rhinos. And then, it was over. A bout of homesickness or a desire to parlay his CPBL success into an MLB comeback? Only he knows. The ending of his Taiwanese adventure as abrupt as the beginning, Manny was going back to America. He would indeed attempt comebacks with the Rangers and Cubs but would fail to return to the majors.
His career would eventually wind down for good. Or would it? In 2020, with the coronavirus pandemic raging, the itch seemed to come again for the now 47 year old Manny Ramirez. He openly voiced a willingness to return to CPBL. However, nothing would transpire and Ramirez would eventually sign up for a new baseball adventure down under with the Sydney Blue Sox. He will play there this winter.
In CPBL, Manny Ramirez was a star that blazed brightly and went out all too abruptly. Yet he was an important part of the healing process for CPBL after the league had been taken to the brink. He brought the spotlight to Taiwanese baseball like nothing else would until the pandemic drove thousands of baseball straved fans from around the world to Taiwan's shores. He remains the highest profile foreign player to ever play in CPBL and a beloved figure in Taiwan for it. Whether he returns as a coach, player or whatever one day or not, he will find a league that now enjoys an eager international following. And it is worth noting that that following includes the former Rhino who watches faithfully on a regular basis.
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