Ramirez might trump them all.
"He is up - on the road - at 10 in the morning, going to the weight room and working out," Schilling said. "He'll come over to the ballpark and hit early, work early. Go have lunch and come back. He does things that no one else does. But that's what all the great players I have ever played with do.
"Cal was the same way. Cal had a work ethic that was not out there for everyone to see."
Schilling also compares Ramirez to another of his former Orioles teammates, Eddie Murray.
Like Ramirez, Murray had tremendous natural ability and a laconic public image. But, in the background, he worked tirelessly at his craft. And like Murray, Ramirez does not seek the media spotlight. He's not nasty, just shy.
"Manny wants to come to the ballpark, put his uniform on, play baseball and go home," Schilling said. "He doesn't like the other stuff."
Ramirez also has a disadvantage - at least when compared to the greats of the past - in that he compiled his gaudy power numbers in the heart of the so-called Steroid Era. And in a guilt-by-association world, reaching 500 homers no longer has the cachet it once did. It can't, not when Murray in 1996 was the 15th to accomplish the feat since Babe Ruth in 1929. And Ramirez is the ninth since Murray.
"It's not the same," Orioles pitcher Steve Trachsel said about the 500-homer milestone. "It's still awesome, don't get me wrong, but it's not the same. I just don't think 500 is automatic Hall of Fame like it used to be."
So, yes, it is difficult to compare the milestone now to it in Ruth's prime or Mickey Mantle's or even Murray's.
But what helps set Ramirez apart in this age is his consistency. From 1995 to 2006, he never hit more than 45 homers in a season and never fewer than 26. In that period, he drove in 100 or more runs 11 times. On five occasions, he had 125 or more RBIs.
Year after year he produces, and that's what should be remembered when Ramirez's name and career are mentioned.
All the wackiness and lapses in concentration and "Manny being Manny" moments are secondary.
dan.connolly@baltsun.com
