Manny-copa County

Two days ago, a breathless Red Sox fan stopped me on the street.

"Did you hear Manny bought a house in town?" she said.

That would be Manny Ramirez, and if he did buy a house in Maricopa County, he would be one of many athletes that consider Arizona a part-time home. No big deal.

But think about it. The Diamondbacks need a slugger. They need someone to juice up their fan base. And if you're going to make some kind of offer to Adam Dunn, why not really stretch yourself and make a run at Manny Ramirez?

It's a question that makes my head ache. The Diamondbacks can't afford to get sideways financially, and they already have a surplus of left fielders. General Manager Josh Byrnes has already told Eric Byrnes that he may seek his approval for a trade, depending on how the offseason goes.

But the Diamondbacks can't afford to let the fringes of their audience get bored all over again, and beat writer Nick Piecoro just outlined how the Diamondbacks' television ratings dipped 15 percent last season. That sounds ominous. Can't blame all of that on Daron Sutton.

I also know that the five-tool player Ramirez now claims to be - a guy that runs hard and scores from first on a double - is not the same Manny fans grew to loathe in Boston. His fabulous stretch of play in Los Angeles has been a salary drive, and nothing else. In the locker room after the Dodgers' final loss of the season, Ramirez declared himself open to the highest bidder, and expressed no loyalty to Los Angeles. It took about five minutes for his real colors to shine through.

Yet Ramirez is the most fascinating player in baseball. He is Barry Bonds with personality. And for all of his flaws, I can't think of another player I'd rather watch.

Just imagine what he would do to the baseball community in Arizona.

AZCENTRAL.COM

Warren Sapp's never been one to mince words, and I think he nailed it perfectly.

"Nobody tells you how bad it is," the former defensive tackle said on Showtime's "Inside the NFL." " ... any person that calls me on the telephone, [I tell them] do not go anywhere near Oakland."

Sapp, who retired after the 2007 season -- his fourth with the Raiders -- said that Lane Kiffin, fired this week by owner Al Davis, never got a fair chance in Oakland.

"He came in there with a change of mentality. The whole system," Sapp said on "Inside the NFL." "He changed how the locker room looked because it was going to take that kind of overhaul for Oakland to become the proud franchise we all knew it was."

Sapp said Oakland won't change for the better until Davis doesn't own the team anymore.

"[Davis] is the common equation," Sapp said on "Inside the NFL." "You take him out, put him at home watching film or whatever he is doing -- you have a functioning football organization. But once he comes over the top, he goes and starts moving it around.

"Al Davis knows football -- it's just '60s and '70s football. That's what it is. He's thinking that Cliff Branch is outside and [Jim] Plunkett is dropping back and you can throw it 80 yards down the field -- deep ball, deep ball, deep ball."

Sapp even said that Davis would call in plays when Sapp was playing for the Raiders.

"I remember the first two weeks I was there, we played a preseason game. Somebody came up one time and said, 'We're going deep right here, dog.' I said, how do you know? He said, 'The phone just rang.'

"All the preparation that goes into a week of work is there, the practicing that you have to put in order to do these things, sometimes [Al Davis] messed with that part of it and that's what kills you," Sapp said on "Inside the NFL."