I am beyond ecstatic that we get at least another year of being able to smile and say, "don't worry, it's just Manny being Manny."  I'm not going to go Bill Simmons on you and give you 9,000 words (including footnotes) about a guy who high fives a kid in the outifield bleachers DURING a double play, but I will give you my take on Manny in traditional RW list form. 

10.  I think this whole saga is the perfect example of why Manny belongs in L.A., because if this was New York, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, or any other city that would falsely hold a grudge against Manny for trying to get paid, he'd get booed the second he lolly-gagged to first on a no-chance groundout.  In L.A.?  80% of the fans are stuck in traffic on the freeway or in the poorly designed parking lot and won't even see the first groundout!

9.  L.A. fans have short memories.  We're so busy with all of the rest of our lives that we have no time to hold a grudge.  In L.A., we love our stars and mildly care about everybody else.  You have to be Andruw Jones or Bobby Bonilla toward the end of his career-level bad and have an atrocious contract to boot for L.A. fans to even bat an eyelash.  If Juan Pierre, Jason Schmidt, Darren Dreifort, etc. were in any other city, they'd be getting booed every time they came to the plate or mound.  In L.A.?  Eh, we'd rather save our energy for the MVP chant every time Manny comes up.

I promise, this will get a little more analytical as we go along.

8.  Manny's not holding a grudge, and he shouldn't.  Both sides were doing exactly what they were supposed to.  This is a business above all else for those involved.  The Dodgers knew they were in the driver's seat with Manny and acted accordingly.  Manny tried to get as much money as he could for the services he's providing.  What's wrong with that?  Now, Boras is a jerk and everybody knows that.  The Dodgers misled the media to make it look like Manny was just holding out in an effort to garner sympathy.  But in the end?  Manny's getting $25 million next year.  Grudge?  What's the point of that?  Everybody's happy.

7.  Speaking of everybody's happy, you know who's happiest?  Dodgers fans.  I've had at least ten or fifteen random conversations with people about Manny today.  And I only knew about half the people.  The buzz is ridiculous.  I wrote this last year when we got him, but it begs repeating.  We haven't had a hitter like Manny in my lifetime.  And again, that's not an exaggeration.  We were never in the conversation for guys like A-Rod or Vladimir Guererro and I could never understand why.  But now?  Who cares!  We got Manny!  The Dodgers just went from 77-85 without Manny to 92-80 and an NL West title with Manny.  And if the last decade of the MLB playoffs has taught us anything it's this:  Anything's possible once you get to the playoffs.  I can promise that the odds of the Marlins, Angels, Cardinals, Red Sox (first time), and Phillies all winning in the last seven years were about a kagillion to one.  So I'll take another year of MLB playoffs here in L.A. in a heartbeat. 

Note:  Anaheim is not L.A.

6.  If there was ever a more perfect clubhouse for Manny, I don't know of it.  He'll be the clear-cut leader and veteran go-to guy.  Joe Torre will give him free-reign to lighten the mood.  Former Yankee great and current Dodgers hitting coach, Don Mattingly has said things like, "I think the best thing I've done with Manny is that I've him be and learned from him."  The young guys love him because he's just like Jeff Kent only the exact opposite.  It's just perfect.

5.  The Dodgers need Manny in the lineup.  I know that's stating the obvious, but it's more than a necessity, it's a luxury that we haven't had in L.A. in, well, I don't know how many years.  I was listening to Mattingly talk about what it was like playing with Ricky Henderson and he talked about how opposing teams had to game plan around Ricky.  They had to think about when he was coming up in the lineup and act accordingly.  Same goes for Manny only more so.  You think about when you're going to walk him, who you're going to pitch to, how to minimize guys on the bases before Manny comes up, etc.  Guys around him get better pitches to hit either because they hit before him, or because they hit after him and he's on base 40% of the time.  If Manny goes away I can guarantee you that 2-1 and 3-2 games would be the norm at Chavez Ravine, as they had been for the previous two decades before the Mannypulation of the lineup.  If the Dodgers gave up an early 3-run homer pre-Manny, every fan had that sinking feeling that the rest of the game was a mere formality.  Now we're thinking things like, "Manny has three more at-bats.  We can definitely cut into that 5-0 score.  Ethier and Kemp can get on, then Manny can bring them home."  Manny makes everything possible.

4.  There will not be any illicit drug talk with Manny.  Unless they start talking about happy grass that is.

3.  Why do the owners get a free pass when it comes to contract disputes?  Everybody talks about how greedy these players are and the gall they have to whine about their contracts.  But if you're ripping the players then you're implicitly siding with the owners.  Here's what you need to know about the owners and I'll go to my man Chris Rock when he talked about how people should want to be wealthy, not just rich.  To paraphrase he said, Shaq?  He's rich.  The guy who signs his check is wealthy.  And that's the way things are in the sports world.  If you're a star player, you're making millions of dollars while the owner makes ten times that.  But what if the rest of your life as a player is misrable in the interim?  What if your team is losing, you're getting booed all the time, nobody in your city likes you, and it's not your fault?  And on top of that you're infinitely more recognizable in the street than your owner.  Why don't we blame the owner there, especially in an Elton Brand/Clippers/Baron Davis example?  What, just because someone makes a ton of money playing sports he's automatically happy?  Now, I'm not excusing all of these guys giving up and not living up to their contracts due to things in their control (i.e. Andruw Jones eating the rest of the lineup and showing up weighing 300 lbs.), but we should give the owners their fair share of the blame too.

2.  Manny is one of the best hitters not just of our era, but ever.  When you factor in the fact that 85% of the players in his era are juiced and that he's not linked to any of it, it's just insane the kind of production he has on his resume.  Google things like "best OPS" or "best Slugging pct." or any other common stats such as HR, RBI, etc. and guess whose name you come up with on that list for all-time bests?  Yup, Manny.  Dreds and all.  The guy is one of the best three hitters in baseball right now and he's in his late-thirties.  As far as clutch?  I'll take Manny over anyone.  Best contact hitter there is in clutch scenarios.

1.  "If it don't make dollars it don't make sense."  Okay, so I'm quoting Pretty Boy Floyd Mayweather, but he has a point.  How many more tickets will the Dodgers sell now that Manny's there?  Just eye-balling it live last year, I'd say there was a 10% increase in actual attendance, not paid attendance.  And that, of course, is more important because of money for parking, concessions, etc.  Add to that the fact that you get those extra playoff games and the money that goes with that and you've got a golden goose in Manny.  The guy pays his contract tenfold because you can convince fans to pay for fake dredlocks underneath cheap hats.  And don't forget that if they failed to sign Manny that there are people like me who hold a grudge and will go to even less games because the Dodgers were charging more money than ever and not going out of their way to sign a guy like Manny who wanted to be here.  Manny will make the McCourts a slew of money and everybody involved will be happy, except maybe Scott Boras.  And that's the icing on the cake.

Just for good measure, it's just Manny being Manny.