The Front Row: Ramirez is on the move

MANNY TO L.A.: The Manny Ramirez soap opera has mercifully come to an end.

Sadly, the Boston Red Sox couldn’t figure out a way to trade him to Green Bay in exchange for Brett Favre, as Ramirez had brought up on Wednesday.

Minutes before yesterday’s trade deadline, the mercurial (read: completely insane) Ramirez was dealt to the Los Angeles Dodgers, just in time for the squad’s key series with NL West leaders Arizona.

He’s a Hall-of-Fame slugger but a total basket case. The plusses might outweigh the minuses, but it’s sure going to be entertaining to find out how he meshes with an already bizarre Dodgers’ clubhouse.

Did you think you’d ever see a world where Joe Torre managed Nomar Garciaparra, Derek Lowe and Manny Ramirez 3,000 miles away from the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry?

Boston gets Jason Bay in return, who will replace at least 90 percent of Ramirez’s production with a 5,000 percent drop in the craziness department.

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GRIFFEY IN CHI-TOWN: Yesterday, my nostalgia meter kicked into overdrive.

It doesn’t seem that long ago when Ken Griffey Jr. was the unquestioned ruler of all that was baseball. He was my generation’s Willie Mays, since people my age never enjoyed the privilege of watching the “Say Hey Kid” in person.

With his permanent smile and perpetual grace, Griffey made the game seem easier than Sunday morning. At the time, anything seemed possible — 900 homers, 15 gold gloves, you name it.

But while fellow baseball superstars elected to pursue various performance enhancers, Griffey stayed clean and aged naturally.

The effortless home-run swing is still intact, but he can’t get around the field the way he used to. The Cincinnati Reds — a going-nowhere team with a bloated payroll — decided to dump his salary on the Chicago White Sox.

Griffey should be able to help the middle of Chicago’s batting order, but I can’t be the only one who feels a bit saddened that the great Ken Griffey has entered the stage of his career where a contender can get him for a couple of middling prospects.

nprevenas@gvnews.com | 547-9747