It didn't rain in Southern California on Tuesday, and Manny Ramirez wasn't agonizing in the clubhouse before the Dodgers' game against Milwaukee over his recent struggles at the plate.
No one detected the Dodgers left fielder searching for answers, blaming himself for the team's mini-slump or worrying when he'd finally produce another RBI.
He wasn't exactly fighting back tears, as he punctuated a rambling chat with small bursts of laughter.
"Things are going great," he said, completely ignoring the itty-bitty picture, which was his hitting slide since that stadium-rocking, pinch-hit grand slam on his own bobblehead night July 22.
Ramirez has always been a big-picture guy. Make that a huge-picture guy. Where we small-minded folks saw a 7-for-42 slump, with only two runs scored and no RBI in 10 games, Manny saw a 17-year career as a .314 hitter with 538 home runs and 1,762 runs batted in.
"I'm good," he said, when someone suggested his hand -- hit by a pitch two weeks ago -- may be bothering him. "I'm a great hitter. Why should I worry?"
The negatives, of course, he also has made a career out of ignoring.
Monday night he disappointed an expectant crowd by flying out with the bases loaded to end the game, when a base hit would have won it. By the next day, it had never happened.
"Last night is over," he said Tuesday, discouraging the topic in the same way he has dismissed his controversial departure from Boston, his 50-game suspension for violating the game's drug policies, and last week's report that he failed a performance-enhancing drug test in 2003.
It's the way Ramirez has managed his stay in Los Angeles from the start, focusing on the happy stuff and sidestepping the serious -- mostly to the delight of his legions of fans.
"I love it here," he reminded us. "I wish I could have been here a long time ago.
"The East (Coast) and the West (Coast) are different. If you make a mistake in Boston, they let you know."
He laughed.
"I'm just happy the way I'm playing now."
The proof came about three hours later -- a line drive into the left field pavilion, a solo home run, No. 539, that made slump talk, once again, seem silly.
Then he doubled in two runs in the Dodgers' seven-run sixth inning.
If this has been the most controversial year of Manny's fascinatingly turbulent career, you'd never know it.
"Everything I do is extra now," he said, explaining why he's immune to the pressures of slumps, and even the expectations of Dodger Stadium fans that rise and chant his name in every clutch situation.
"I don't worry about hitting 40 home runs and this and that. I was telling (Rafael Furcal), I've accomplished all that. I can just go play.
"How many more years can I play -- three, four? Maybe you worry too much when you're young. You want to get a good contract. Now everything's gravy."
How about another World Series?
"I'm still hungry (about that). But I'm not worried about numbers anymore.
"I wouldn't stay around just to pass something or somebody. I'll keep playing because I like this game."
Ramirez's bumpy stretch may not have existed in his own mind, but his manager, Joe Torre, admitted before the game that his star had been "fighting it lately, just to get comfortable. His personality is fine. It's just a matter of him being a little more patient. He's lost a little patience lately."
But not his unlimited supply of nonchalance. Ramirez laughed when asked again about his recent skid.
"I'll be ready," he said, jumping ahead. "The playoffs is my time."
Ultimately, the rocky stretch figured to be just as meaningless as he makes it out to be. When it comes to swinging a bat, anyway, he's been relentlessly right for 17 years.
(Contact Gregg Patton at gpatton(at)PE.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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Must credit The Press-Enterprise of Riverside, Calif.
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