FREELOADING:

Ramirez leaves a team to join a nation (Bob Hohler, May 11, 2004, Boston Globe)

The naysayers may have a hard time bashing Manny Ramirez for this absence: The Red Sox superstar missed last night's game against the Indians to become a United States citizen.

If all went well, Ramirez, who emigrated from the Dominican Republic with his family when he was 13, raised his right hand in a federal building in South Florida and recited the pledge of allegiance in a formal citizenship ceremony.

He needed to pass a written exam and complete an official interview before he was cleared for the ceremony.

"He has our full support on this," manager Terry Francona said. "We're really excited for him."

Ramirez, 31, who before last night was the only Sox player to start every game, departed for Miami immediately after Sunday's game against the Royals. Missing a scheduled citizenship interview can delay the process for months, if not longer.

"He worked for it," said Ramirez's pal, David Ortiz. "He asked for it. It has to be very important to him."

The Sox had planned to give Ramirez last Saturday off during a stretch in which they were scheduled to play 20 games in 20 days in Boston, Texas, Cleveland, Toronto, and St. Petersburg, Fla. But he asked them to adjust his off day to accommodate his bid for citizenship.

"He did it right," Francona said. "We knew [about the appointment], and he did a good job."

General manager Theo Epstein agreed. "It's an excused absence," said Epstein, who expressed his full support for Ramirez's endeavor.

After Ramirez and his family moved from Santo Domingo to the Washington Heights section of Manhattan, his father drove a cab and his mother worked as a seamstress while Ramirez become one of the most dominant high school baseball players in New York history.

First they take all those great seamstress jobs, then all the starting leftfelder jobs...

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 11, 2004 8:53 AM