LAWRENCE — Many passionate Red Sox baseball fans — especially Dominican Republic countrymen — were dismayed late yesterday afternoon when word spread at the All Star Barber Shop that Manny Ramirez was no longer Boston's all-star slugger.
A fan favorite, who was even bigger in the city's Hispanic community than former Red Sox ace pitcher Pedro Martinez, Ramirez was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in a move that riled customers and barbers alike in the Broadway shop.
"I think it's bad. I just can't believe it," said Julio Medina, 21, of Lawrence, shaking his head in shock as he trimmed a customer's hair.
"It's going to disappoint a lot of people in the Dominican community. We're going to take it really tough. We took it tough after Pedro left. Now Manny's leaving. When is Big Papi going to leave? I think the Red Sox are really going to miss him," Medina said.
"Where are they going to get somebody who can hit like him? Manny's going to miss it, too. It's a long way from the Dominican people there in L.A., not like here in Lawrence," he said.
Medina, like many baseball fans in the city's Hispanic community, were hoping that the latest controversy of many swirling around Ramirez would blow over by yesterday's 4 p.m. trading deadline, and that the Sox would keep the man-child slugger around for at least another two years.
Ray Winning, 19, of Derry, N.H., isn't Dominican like his barber, Medina. But the Methuen native shared the disappointment.
"He's one of our best hitters. We can't be winning like we were last year without him," complained Winning, who didn't seem too impressed with the acquisition of Jason Bay, the Pittsburgh Pirates slugger that Boston landed in the trade.
"If he's (Bay) definitely coming, he's got a lot of proving to do — especially taking Manny's place. It will make a difference, but I think we'll still be able to pull through," Winning said.
At least on paper, the loss of Ramirez from the Red Sox lineup is a deal that would please rival New York Yankees fans.
But barber Bryan Cabreja, 20, of Lawrence is one Yankees fan who wasn't thrilled about the trade.
"We have more of a competitive advantage now that Manny's gone," Cabreja said. "But I'd rather see Manny with the Red Sox because that's what makes the rivalry between the two teams," he said.
Daniel Muthee, 27, of Lowell was surprised by the talk of Ramirez's departure and wondered how Boston could unload its best hitter.
"I'm not happy about it," said Muthee, a Kenya native, who works at Lawrence General Hospital and gets his haircuts at the shop.
"It's going to be different for the team and for us, the fans. It's not good for the team," Muthee said.
Not everyone in the barbershop was upset about the Red Sox trading Ramirez.
Juan Matos, 67, a native of the Dominican Republic, who described himself as a huge baseball fan as well as a loyal Red Sox backer, said the team would be better off without its star.
"Manny Ramirez is a good player, and he had a lot of years earning a lot of money," said Matos, who recalled how he enjoyed training ball players in his native country.
"But at 36, it's not fair for him to ask for the same amount of money or more than what he's been getting. I like Manny, but he's getting older and can't ask for that kind of money anymore. If he's going to be selfish, it's better off for him to leave," he said.
Matos fancies himself as a connoisseur of America's past-time. He treasures the experience of getting to see baseball legends Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente — both Hall of Famers who stared in the 1950s and 1960s — play in games he attended.
State Rep. William Lantigua, D-Lawrence, a Dominican native and "die-hard Sox fan," took the news hard yesterday at the Statehouse in Boston when he learned of the trade.
"I'm very upset and disappointed about the trade," Lantigua said in a telephone interview last night.
"A lot of people (in the city's Dominican community) are going to be very disappointed with the news. We do take our sports seriously. And we are die-hard Red Sox fans. It seems like the Red Sox have a lack of interest in repeating as champions," Lantigua said.
Lantigua recalled how devastated local Dominican fans felt when all-star pitcher Martinez signed with the New York Mets in 2005, the year after he helped Boston win its first World Series since 1918.
"But this is worse (than Pedro's departure)," Lantigua said.
"Manny was bigger than Pedro. He stayed here longer and helped us win two championships. Pedro pitched every five days. Manny would play every day and is a guy who hit 500 home runs. Pedro liked to visit Lawrence once in a while. But Manny came here more. He would show up at people's houses instead of the clubs," Lantigua said.
Lantigua worries that Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz — another Dominican countryman — will leave Boston, too, in a couple of years.
Meanwhile, Lantigua said he and other Red Sox fans will continue to "mourn" Ramirez's departure.
"The grieving will be over and we'll get back to the sport of baseball when we start winning," Lantigua said.
"But without Manny, we have less of a chance than we had before. I have a sense the Red Sox are going to lose the next five games in a row. Don't be surprised if he (Manny) becomes another Bambino. A curse of Manny instead of curse of the Bambino."
Lantigua said he thinks Ramirez still has a few good years left in him, and could come back to haunt the Red Sox. The legislator said that part of him wishes Ramirez would have wound up a Yankee. But that would be rough on Sox fans.
