Manny Ramirez Signs With AAA Cubs Affiliate as Player-Coach. Really.

The Cubs have signed Manny Ramirez to serve as a player-coach at their Triple-A Iowa affiliate. “We are excited to welcome Manny to the Cubs organization and look forward to him working with our young hitters,” said Cubs president Theo Epstein. “Manny has made real mistakes in the past but he has owned up to them and moved his life in a positive direction the last couple of years. He is in a really great place right now and wants to share the lessons he’s learned along the way. We think he deserves another chance and that our young hitters will benefit from it.”

Epstein goes on to say that Manny “is not and will not be a fit” with the major league team, which is truly a shame. I’d selfishly love to see Manny sock dingers at Wrigley this season, though it’s not clear if that’s something he’s still physically capable of doing — he was released from the Rangers’ minor league system last year.

Nevertheless, the moral of the story is two-fold: I discovered that I’m entirely willing to forgive his past PED transgressions because he’s entertaining, and there should be way, way, WAY more player-coaches in professional sports.