What's in a name?

Despite being the lead vote getter for last night's All-Star game, Boston Red Sox slugger Manny Ramirez was a non-participant. Last week Ramirez cited a sore left knee for why he wouldn't be able to make it to Pittsburgh for the festivities.

When that same left knee lasted a 19 inning marathon with the White Sox Sunday, debate ensued.

Ramirez is not the first athlete to skip out on an all-star game because of a suspicious injury. He won't be the last. But he is the first player whose true motive can be neatly reduced to a phrase that while catchy, is technically meaningless.

"Manny being Manny" also explains (but isn't limited to explaining) taking unforeseen angles towards fly balls, not running out ground balls, poor number of outs awareness, the "borrowing" of teammates uniforms, seasonal grouchiness, sick days spent drinking with rival Yankees and keeping squalid living conditions.

Manny makes up for his Manniness by being the best run-producer of his generation.

But that isn't the only factor at play here. There is clearly something sonically pleasing about the phrase "Manny being Manny."

Was it pleasing from the start, or was it the familiarity bred by repetition that made it so? Such questions of the chicken-or-the-egg variety can not be answered on this space.

Nevertheless, if Manny stopped being Manny, there would no longer be a reason to articulate Manny being Manny.

Those continuing to do so would eventually be labeled as "off."

It is entirely possible we have a generation of sportswriters and Red Sox fans who encourage Rameriz's eccentric behavior just to indulge their vocal chords.

Then there is David Ortiz, the big loser in this sordid affair. Do you think it's fun to always have to be the jolly, "baseball-has-been-so-good-to-me" Dominican in the middle of the Red Sox's line up?

Does not a moody, unpredictable fire also burn in Ortiz's Latin heart?

Wisely, Ortiz knows David being David lacks that certain Je-ne-sais-quoi.