How do you gain acceptance from the fans in a new situation in a strange city after being traded for one of the most feared hitters of this generation, all in the middle of a heated pennant race?

Well, how about by hitting a triple in your first at-bat with your new team, reaching base four times in that game, and scoring the only two runs in a 2-1, extra-inning win? Then you could follow that up with a three-run homer in the first inning of the next game to put your team ahead to stay, while playing stellar defense, something fans in that city aren't used to from their left fielder.

Do all that, Jason Bay, and you become an instant fan favorite, even in a notoriously high pressure city, where players on every team based in that city are routinely subjected to a level of scrutiny some guys are never able to adjust to.

Who knows what the long term holds for Bay, the 29 year old left fielder beginning his American League career with the Boston Red Sox after spending his first four seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates, but for now, if the signs scattered around Fenway Park are any indication, the guy has the fans eating out of his hands.

A random sampling of some of those signs:

"Manny Who?"

"Welcome to the Bay State!"

"FenBay Park"

"Un-Bay-Lievable!"

"Boston Loves BaysBall!"

"We're Bay-Watch Babes!"

and my personal favorite,

"Bay being Bay"

As of Sunday night, the Red Sox are now 3-0 in the Jason Bay era in Boston. The Bay State, indeed!

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If you love fiction and have a few minutes to spare, check out my website, www.allanleverone.com 

It's a shame that a partnership that has been as beneficial to both parties as the Boston Red Sox and Manny Ramirez has to end like this, with public bickering and contentious finger-pointing in the middle of a playoff race!

But the relationship between Ramirez and the Bosox has been a symbiotic one from the very beginning. The Red Sox have won two world championships in the last four years - after going zero for the previous eighty-six - with Manny Ramirez patrolling left field at Fenway Park, while Ramirez has become wealthier than he probably ever dreamed possible while growing up in the shadow of Yankee Stadium.

The facts are the facts, though, and the two warring factions have progressed well beyond the point of no return. So if you accept the premise that there is no scenario under which Manny would be playing left field at Fenway Park next year, the question becomes, would the Red Sox benefit more from trading Ramirez now or cutting ties with the mercurial slugger at the end of the season.

Conventional wisdom says the Red Sox cannot afford to trade Manny now, since they can't win without him. I believe exactly the opposite - it is imperative they move him now. Manny Ramirez has always marched to the beat of his own drum, and assuming the player who, even under the best of circumstances, is likely to take an at-bat or an entire game off will give his all to help a team he has come to despise would be a massive error in judgement.

Assuming he will give 100% because he will be playing for a contract, I believe, is an erroneous assumption. This is a man who has hit over 500 home runs in his illustrious career and who has been one of the most feared run-producers in the modern game. He knows - he doesn't suspect, he knows - that someone will give him big money over the winter, whether he runs out a ground ball or not; whether he plays a routine fly ball into a triple or not.

For a rapidly sinking team in the middle of a playoff chase, the promise of a left fielder potentially loafing his way through the final two months is an unacceptable risk. If Fox's Ken Rosenthal is accurate in his published report that the Red Sox, Marlins and Pirates are in talks that would send Ramirez to Florida in exchange for three players who would then be shipped to Pittsburgh in return for outfielder Jason Bay, they should bite the bullet and do it. Now.

Bay is a 29 year old who has averaged 31 home runs and 102 RBI per 162 games played, well below Ramirez's averages of 40 HR and 135 RBI per 162 games played, but still, his numbers would be enough to keep some pop in left field for the Red Sox, especially when you consider the fact that they will get nothing if they cut ties with Manny at the end of the season.

The Red Sox are a team trying to win now. The situation as it stands in Boston is ugly and, regardless of what people may think, is not going to get any better until it is resolved. Manny has brought the Sox two World Series titles and plenty of turmoil, and it is time to say goodbye, and the sooner the better for everyone.

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If you love fiction and have a few minutes to spare, check out my website, www.allanleverone.com