Major League Baseball

Manny's Taiwan vacation was big hit

Published Jun. 19, 2013 1:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

It was a fun three months for Manny Ramirez and fans of the Chinese Professional Baseball League.

Unfortunately, it came to an end on June 19 when the EDA Rhinos removed the mercurial slugger off their active roster.

That same day, FOXSports.com National MLB writer Jon Paul Morosi reported there was a chance Ramirez could be headed back to MLB, which his agent said was the plan all along.

Well, Manny's return to the majors took a step in the right direction as he signed a minor league deal with the Texas Rangers on Wednesday.

Ramirez, 41, will report to Triple-A Round Rock on Thursday, but there are no guarantees he'll be moved up to the major league club in Arlington.

"We'll evaluate him as we go," Texas general manager Jon Daniels told FOXSports Southwest. "There are no deadlines, no end dates. If he's productive and we feel he'll fit our culture in the clubhouse we'll give him an opportunity.

"If either of those ends don't pan out, kind of no harm, no foul."

Will Manny end up back in the bigs? We can only hope as Manny should be playing his amusing brand of baseball in major league parks.

He ranks 14th on the all-time home run list with 555, eight behind Reggie Jackson and 14 shy of Rafael Palmeiro — Harmon Killebrew (573) and Mark McGwire (583) rank 11th and 10th.

With 1,831 RBI and ranked 18th on the career list, Ramirez could easily climb into the top 13. He would have to pass Dave Winfield (1,833), Palmeiro (1,835), Ken Griffey (1,836), Ted Williams (1,839) and Carl Yastrzemski (1,844) to do so. It might be a reach to catch Melt Ott (1,860) and Willie Mays (1,903), but with Manny, you never know.

In the meantime, let's look back at some of his greatest hits from his whirlwind tour in Taiwan.

On one recent Ramirez homer we got a classic call as the Taiwanese announcer refers to the blast "just like (an) ex-girlfriend who will never return."

See for yourself.

And then there was his dressing as the Incredible Hulk for a train ride between cities with his team . . .

You either miss Manny Ramirez or you're a liar. #HulkTakesOverTaiwan twitter.com/NothingButSox/…
— Nothing But Sox (@NothingButSox) May 10, 2013

. . . and his slow home run trots are a thing to behold in any league. Go ahead and watch, we'll wait.

Back, good. Because you don't want to miss his frequent Michael Jackson impressions.

And to think, when Manny first showed up, some local fans confused him with Cincinnati starting pitcher Johnny Cueto. We think it's safe to say they know all about him now.

Mandy Cheng / AFP