Manny Ramirez at George Washington High School in Washington Heights, Upper Manhattan, in the spring of 1991 — a senior season for the ages. Playing for coach Steve Mandl at the same school Rod Carew had attended a generation earlier, Ramirez hit .650 with 14 home runs and 40 RBIs in just 22 games and was named New York City's Public School Player of the Year. That June, Cleveland took him with the 13th pick of the draft and signed him for $250,000. He had been born in Santo Domingo and moved to Washington Heights at 13, and the rise was fast. Ramirez debuted for Cleveland on September 2, 1993, going hitless in Minnesota; the next day at Yankee Stadium, minutes from his neighborhood, he collected his first hit — a ground-rule double — then homered twice, off Mélido Pérez and Paul Gibson, with family and neighbors filling the stands. By 1995 he was a star on Cleveland's pennant winner, batting .308 with 31 home runs and 107 RBIs. In 1999 he drove in 165 runs, the most by any player since Jimmie Foxx in 1938, and in 2000 he hit a career-high .351. Boston signed him that December for eight years and $160 million, and in 2004 he was the World Series MVP as the Red Sox won their first championship in 86 years; a second title followed in 2007. He finished with a .312 average, 555 home runs and 1,831 RBIs, with 12 All-Star selections and nine Silver Slugger Awards. Then came the fall: a 50-game suspension with the Dodgers in 2009 after a positive test for a banned substance, reported as the fertility drug hCG, and in April 2011, five games into his season with Tampa Bay, a second positive test brought a 100-game suspension — and Ramirez retired rather than serve it. The writers kept him on the Hall of Fame ballot for 10 years, but in his final vote, in January 2026, he drew 38.8 percent, far short of the 75 percent Cooperstown requires. ⚾ He finished with 555 home runs and two suspensions — should Manny Ramirez be in the Hall of Fame? 👇️