Manny ready to ‘follow the rules’

 

LOS ANGELES – How long it lasts is anybody’s guess. But Manny Ramirez is trying a new tack with his new team in a new league on a new coast.

Fitting in.

He’s going to cut his dreadlocks because, he said during a madcap introductory news conference behind home plate at Dodger Stadium on Friday, “They got some rules here, and I don’t want to be treated differently than anybody else.”

He paused, then concluded the thought.

“You’ve got to follow the rules,” he said, without a trace of irony.

Ramirez wore No. 99, not to honor Barbara Feldon or Anne Hathaway or Mitch “Wild Thing” Williams or Turk Wendell or even reprise Wayne Gretzky wearing 99 for the L.A. Kings two decades ago. Ramirez couldn’t have the number he wore in Boston, 24, because it was Walter Alston’s and is retired. Then he asked for 30 but missed it by a week because newly acquired third baseman Casey Blake grabbed it. His next choice was 34, but that was worn by Fernando Valenzuela and, while it isn’t retired, it might as well be. So he said he didn’t care, and the Dodgers gave him 99.

By the time he decided on something else, it was too late. The Los Angeles Dodgers already were cranking out Manny 99 jerseys, expecting to sell plenty to the 30,000 fans who bought tickets to games this weekend since the trade.

“Ninety-nine is fine,” he said. “I’ll stay with it.”