Manny Ramirez formally charged with domestic violence

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Manny Ramirez, manchild. Manny Ramirez the slugger, the goofball, the electric hitter, the drug cheat. Manny Ramirez self-absorbed, insecure, brazen, charming, not speaking, moth to a flame.

It seemed like we’d seen every side imaginable to Ramirez, save for this:

Manny Ramirez, wife beater?

Ramirez was formally charged with misdemeanor domestic violence by the Broward County state attorney’s office in Florida on Thursday. His wife told police Sept. 12 he slapped her, which caused her to hit her head on a headboard. Police said she had face swelling and a bruise on the back of her head.

Ramirez denied hitting his wife and said he ‘shrugged’ her. I don’t know what that means, not that it would be the first time Ramirez left us in need of a special interpreter. What, he lifted both of her shoulders up?

Whatever lasting feeling Ramirez left you with, there can be no tolerance for a husband lifting a hand against his wife, let alone a big, powerful professional athlete. Although for some reason, he’s not looking quite as big as he used to.

Ramirez is 39 and seemingly a mess. Rather than accept a 100-game suspension for testing positive a second time for a performance enhancing drug, he retired in April. ‘I’m at ease,’ he said.

Then last week, after already being arrested, he announced he wanted back in baseball and was willing to serve the suspension.

It seemed it was always the ‘mercurial’ Ramirez, some willing to put up with his eccentricities more than others, at least for awhile. No one, however, is going to put up with hitting a woman, particularly the Florida authorities.

They don’t figure to shrug it off.

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-- Steve Dilbeck