There use to be a saying about “Manny being Manny” when Manny did something strange. Like when he went inside the door in left field as Fenway Park and came back barely in time for the pitcher to throw the next pitch. There was also the time playing left field he cut off a throw from Johnny Damon that was going to the cut off man, just delaying the whole process. Most of the time it was just Manny having a little fun. He just did it in some interesting ways.
Manny was also not the best in the field either, but the man could hit. How much was due to steroids we will never know. I did give him the 10 percent penalty. It is interesting he had his highest OPS in Los Angeles which was a hard park to hit in and he played there from 36 to 38. He still would have been a great hitter. He hit with power, was just a big guy and had a good eye at the plate.
Manny hit a career 555 home runs. That is 15th on the all-time list. Mickey Mantle was third when he retired with 536. Now he is 18th. You got to think steroids helped these guys. There are now 27 players who hit 500 or more home runs:
| 1 | Barry Bonds 4 | 762 |
| 2 | Hank Aaron 3 | 755 |
| 3 | Babe Ruth 2 | 714 |
| 4 | Alex Rodriguez 29 | 696 |
| 5 | Albert Pujols 23 | 662 |
| 6 | Willie Mays 1 | 660 |
| 7 | Ken Griffey, Jr. 61 | 630 |
| 8 | Jim Thome 119 | 612 |
| 9 | Sammy Sosa 198 | 609 |
| 10 | Frank Robinson 12 | 586 |
| 11 | Mark McGwire 147 | 583 |
| 12 | Harmon Killebrew 92 | 573 |
| 13 | Rafael Palmeiro 129 | 569 |
| 14 | Reggie Jackson 53 | 563 |
| 15 | Manny Ramirez 106 | 555 |
| 16 | Mike Schmidt 18 | 548 |
| 17 | David Ortiz 217 | 541 |
| 18 | Mickey Mantle 7 | 536 |
| 19 | Jimmie Foxx 37 | 534 |
| 20 | Willie McCovey 67 | 521 |
| Frank Thomas 82 | 521 | |
| Ted Williams 8 | 521 | |
| 23 | Ernie Banks 104 | 512 |
| Eddie Mathews 28 | 512 | |
| 25 | Mel Ott 21 | 511 |
| 26 | Gary Sheffield 122 | 509 |
| 27 | Eddie Murray 63 | 504 |
The number after the players name is where I have them ranked on my all-time list. It used to be that 500 homeruns was almost automatic like 3,000 hits. However, both kind of went away due to the steroid era. Of the 27, 25 cleared my number of 750 in my formula, which means I have to find a reason not to put you in the hall of fame. The only two who didn’t make it are Sosa and Ortez. I have written before I would Ortez in there as one of my 200. That leaves Sosa. I think he will make it eventually, but he will probably be pretty old.
