If you’ve ever wondered where the expression "Manny being Manny" came from, this video does a pretty good job explaining it all:

It’s possible that the greatest highlight in baseball history comes at about 1:00 of that video. On a ball hit to the outfield, Johnny Damon chased it down, turned, and fired to the cutoff man. Ramirez, who apparently was in his very first inning as an outfielder, dove to prevent the throw from reaching the cutoff man. Actually, "dove" doesn’t do it justice. Ramirez reacted as if the baseball were filled with liquid explosives and thrown at a schoolbus that had just entered an intersection.

While his legacy will be debated for years to come -- the Hall of Fame debates five years from now will be absolute anarchy -- there is absolutely no question that the game of baseball is much, much duller without Manny Ramirez around.