Let’s discuss one of Major League Baseball’s most iconic characters—Manny Ramirez. For years, the man was a walking highlight reel, a hitting machine, and a Yankees killer.
Boston fans adored him. Yankees fans? Well, let’s just say they respected him in that “we hate how good you are” kind of way. But here’s the kicker: Manny revealed something that might make some Red Sox diehards spit out their chowder.
“I’m always a Yankee fan,” Ramirez admitted on The Bronx Zoo podcast. Yeah, you read that right. The guy who terrorized the Yankees for nearly a decade? Secretly a fan all along. Plot twist of the century.
The Yankee Slayer Who Loved the Yankees?
Let’s put this in perspective. Manny played 203 games against the Yankees. His numbers? Absolutely brutal if you were wearing pinstripes—.322 batting average, 55 home runs, 165 RBIs.
That’s MVP-level production, and he saved some of his biggest moments for the biggest rivalry in baseball. The guy was a thorn in the Yankees’ side, a one-man wrecking crew in October, and a key reason why the Red Sox broke the curse in 2004.
And yet, deep down, he was pulling for the team in the Bronx. That’s wild.
A New York Kid at Heart
Ramirez’s revelation isn’t as shocking when you consider his roots. Born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, he moved to Washington Heights as a teenager, just a few subway stops away from Yankee Stadium.
He played high school ball at George Washington High, dreaming of suiting up in pinstripes one day. “That was one of my dreams, to play with the Yankees,” Ramirez said. “Didn’t happen, but I got two World Series.” Not a bad trade-off.
And he never lost that admiration for Yankees fans, either. “The Yankees fans are the best,” he said. “They demand a lot, like Boston fans, because they want to win.”
A Boston Legend, Regardless
Even with his childhood Yankee fandom, Ramirez’s legacy is forever tied to Boston. From 2001 to 2008, he mashed at Fenway Park, hitting .312 with 274 homers and 868 RBIs.
He was the 2004 World Series MVP. He was part of that Red Sox team that finally exorcised the ghosts of 86 years of heartbreak. And in 2022, he got his due with an induction into the Red Sox Hall of Fame.
So, does this confession change anything? Probably not. Yankees fans might chuckle, Sox fans might cringe, but Manny will always be Manny—one of the greatest right-handed hitters the game has ever seen, no matter which team he secretly rooted for.
