Baseball – Buddy Lewis, Johnny Damon, Manny Ramirez, Irish Ballplayers

Buddy Lewis (b. 1916) was a two-time All-Star who played for the Washington Senators his entire career.  Only Ty Cobb had more hits before the age of 24 than Lewis, who had played six seasons up to that point.  He then left baseball for three seasons in the prime of his career to serve in the Air Force during World War II. http://fairandunbalancedblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/baseball-losses-in-2011.html  

Johnny Damon, DH/OF (2.1 WARP, Rays)—The Rays surprised many in baseball when they opted to sign Luke Scott to a one-year, $6-million contract to replace Damon as their designated hitter. Scott hit .220/.301/.402 with nine home runs and .a 256 TAv in 236 plate appearances last season before undergoing shoulder surgery. Damon had a .261/.326/.418 slash line with 16 homers and a .284 TAv in 647 trips to the plate. Scout's take: "He can still play, and he can still help someone. I'm really surprised the Rays didn't bring him back, because he seemed like a good fit there. He's getting older. He's 38 and doesn't have the home run power he used to, but he can still help and be a productive player. It's just hard for me to believe he's going to wind up as either a platoon player, a bench guy—or even out of baseball." http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=16004

Manny Ramirez is one of the best right-handed hitters of his generation.  As his career hits its twilight, you can argue either way that he does or does not have a Hall of Fame career.  On one hand, he was suspended twice for PED usage.  Once for 50 games in 2009 with the LA Dodgers after testing positive for a female fertility drug, and the other a 100 game ban in 2011, in which he decided to retire with the Tampa Bay Rays.  However, after sitting out the full season, Major League Baseball has agreed to reduce the sentence to 50 games after Ramirez stated his interest in returning for the 2012 season.  On the other hand, Ramirez has accumulated 69.6 fWAR, with a career OPS+ of 154.  He has hit 555 home runs in 19 seasons, is a 12-time All-Star, 9-time Silver Slugger, and finished in the top 10 of MVP voting 9 times http://mlbreports.com/2012/02/10/manny-jays/

First, Irish players had to display superior performance to earn regular positions. Second, they generally were relegated to less important field positions. Regular Irish players were also more likely to be assigned to fill in at field positions other than their regular ones. Last, the Irish were underrepresented as managers. The evidence also suggests fan discrimination, with the presence of Irish players positively correlated with their cities’ Irish populations. These patterns, again with the exception of pitcher, mirror those observed for African Americans in the first decade or two after Jackie Robinson broke the MLB “color line” in 1947. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/baseball-racism-the-irish-in-1880/