Weekend Wrap: Manny a HOFer?

Congrats goes out to Manny Ramirez, who launched home run No. 500 on Saturday.

Yeah, i know, Manny has his quirks and he's a showoff sometimes, yada, yada, yada...

But anyone who can give a fan a high-five while turning a double play should be given some Fantasy Baseblog props. Here's that clip from a couple weeks ago, in case you missed it.




But the question that lingers now that Manny has hit the magical 500 mark ... is he an automatic Hall of Famer?

Lemme pull up his resume and while you're waiting, take a look at jack No. 500 at Camden Yards in Baltimore.




OK, got it.

Manny's HOF resume:

Home runs: 501 (he added one Sunday for good measure)

Doubles: 485

RBI: 1,642 (including 165 in 1999)

Career batting average: .312

Career on-base-percentage: .408

Career OPS (Slugging + OBP): .999

All-Star Games: 11 (with a 12th coming this year).


Verdict: As much as I hate the show-boating, water bottle in the back pocket routine, the numbers are staggering. Just the 24th player to reach 500 HR, it's almost an automatic HOF entry. Plus, he was doing it before the steriod era ballooned, which will free him from most steroid allegations, regardless of whether he actually did any (perception, after all is sometimes reality).

First-ballot HOF he may not be, depending on how he ends up his career. But as a general rule of thumb, if a player has been a first-round fantasy guy for more than 5 consecutive seasons, he's probably a HOF lock.

Perhaps the coolest thing surrounding Manny's milestone was that the person who caught it, Red Sox fan Damon Woo, presented the ball to Manny after the game and didn't want a dime for it.

Manny is reportedly going to be auctioning it off with all the proceeds going to his charity.

Next up: Junior sits at 599.