Manny returns to upright and locked position in PCL games

By Ron Kantowski

Thursday, June 25, 2009 | 2:44 p.m.

NOW

Back in baseball's flannel and polyester uniform days when guys hit long home runs that crashed back to earth in the upper deck, they used to paint the seat to call attention to it. This was especially true in the Astrodome where, if I remember correctly, there were seats with a rooster and a cannon painted on them, to commemorate prodigious blows struck by the Flame-Tempered Louisville Sluggers of Doug "Red Rooster" Rader and Jimmy "Toy Cannon" Wynn, respectively.

This is why I think Southwest Airlines should do something special with the middle seat that Manny Ramirez occupied on his flight to Albuquerque for his rehab assignment, or whatever you called it.

I mean, when was the last time a ballplayer other than a Double-A utility infielder sat in the middle seat?

For a guy of Ramirez's stature to do it, well, that's more rare than a 500-foot home run. Or two unassisted triple plays in the same game. Or somebody in the middle of the order laying down a sacrifice bunt.

Southwest should cover Manny's middle seat with Dodger pinstripes and/or dreadlocks. They should put his number on it. And anybody who sits there should receive two little bags of peanuts and be allowed to preboard as slowly as he or she wants.

You know, like Manny running out a ground ball to shortstop.

THEN

"The Pilgrims didn't have any experience when they landed here. Hell, if experience was that important, we'd never have anybody walking on the moon."

-- Doug Rader