When a couple of multimillionaire baseball players get into a tiff, they have lots of options for dueling it out.
In the current Jonathan Papelbon-Manny Ramirez feud, the courts might be where the spat will land.
As reported in the Los Angeles Times, Papelbon called Ramirez "a cancer" in a recent interview in Esquire magazine.
He said: "It just takes one guy to bring an entire team down, and that's exactly what was happening," in Boston, for whom Ramirez was playing at the time.
"Once we saw that, we weren't afraid to get rid of him.
It's like cancer.
That's what he was.
Cancer.
He had to go.
" Are these words defamatory? Have they injured Ramirez' reputation? Has Papelbon's rant hurt Manny's reputation, earning power and career, making him a less desirable employee to the Dodgers and anyone else? Above all, did Papelbon's remarks constitute an intentional, malicious character assassination? There are at least a few things that would militate against a successful suit: (1) Ramirez' reputation for being other than a team player and a quirky individualist was cemented in MLB's and the public's imagination long before Mr.
Papelbon launched his tirade.
(2) Both Ramirez and Papelbon are "public figures" that are generally entitled to less protection from defamation claims.
They're used to the heat...
or they should be.
Still, if Manny could get past these hurdles, especially by showing malice, an intentional desire to harm his reputation on the part of Papelbon, the words that could haunt Papelbon are, "Talk to my lawyer.
" Undoubtedly, Manny's biggest payday from the next two years will come from the Dodgers, but he might be also be in line for a juicy bonus to be paid by none other than Mr.
Papelbon and/or the Red Sox.