Who really cares, Manny?

Many versions of this Manny Ramirez tale

Manny Ramirez was surprised by the “backlash” from fans and the media when he sat out two games - including one with archrival Yankees - with an alleged sore knee last season and felt his teammates betrayed him in the ensuing blowup.

So says “Becoming Manny,” the new authorized biography of the ex-Red Sox slugger by UMass-Boston psychology prof Jean Rhodes and former Lawrence Eagle Tribune reporter Shawn Boburg, who had exclusive access to Ramirez in the days leading up to his trade to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

“On the Sunday before the trade, with his mother cooking in the kitchen . . . he sulked in his Boston penthouse apartment, gently tossing a soft baseball to Manny Jr.,” they write. “He had done his best to ignore the headlines despite his mother’s insistence on laying out the Boston papers each morning.

“He explained: ‘I’m private and I don’t let nobody penetrate my space. I go play the game, go home and that’s it. I don’t read about what people are writing about me, that’s not my style.’ ”

Manny, they said, felt betrayed by teammates who had “distanced themselves” from him in the days leading up to the trade.

Boston Herald - Full Story