Manny Ramirez

He's done both coasts. Time for the Second City? Manny Ramirez may be moving the grating but sometimes-entertaining "being Manny" operation to Chicago. The White Sox were awarded a waiver claim with exclusive rights to make a deal to acquire Ramirez, 38, by 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jayson Stark of ESPN reported, citing a source monitoring the waiver wire. The Associated Press later reported the same thing, also citing an unnamed source. The Los Angeles Dodgers placed Ramirez on trade waivers Wednesday.

The Oakland A's put lefthander Dallas Braden on the 15-day DL with elbow stiffness. Braden, who hasn't pitched since June 22, was scratched from his scheduled start in Baltimore on Tuesday. Dodgers. Manny Ramirez is back on the 15-day DL due to lingering problems with his right hamstring, retroactive to Tuesday. Rays. Centerfielder B.J. Upton returned Saturday after missing four games with a quadriceps injury. He had his first start at Minneapolis since a dugout confrontation with Evan Longoria.

Manny, we knew you too well Considering that the Los Angeles Lakers whipped the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of the NBA Finals - this after trailing three games to two for the series and being down throughout much of Game 7 except for the final last five minutes - no one was expecting a lovefest when the Manny Show returned to Fenway Park on Friday night. But at least it got off to hopeful start. Manny Ramirez, dreadlocks and all, was in Boston for the first time since he was sent to Dodgers at the 2008 trading deadline.

Manny Ramirez is known for saying some curious things. This is his latest pronouncement: The Dodgers star insists his days in LA are numbered. "I know I'm not going to be here next year," Ramirez said yesterday. Ramirez' contract expires after this season. Why is he so certain he won't get an extension? "I don't know," he said. "I just know I'm not going to be here. " At 37, Ramirez is heading into his 17th major league season. The former World Series MVP served a 50-game drug suspension last year and, for him, was hardly a force: .290, 19 home runs, 63 RBI. Ramirez threw out the possibility that he could retire after 2010.

This is that precious swatch of the endless season when baseball players lean forward and absorb the nuance of every pitch. Even if they aren't in the game, whether in the dugout or the bullpen or even in the clubhouse, there is nothing more important than what happens next. Unless you're Manny Ramirez, of course. What was Ramirez, who had been removed from Monday's game in the bottom of the ninth for a defensive replacement, thinking when Jimmy Rollins doubled into the gap to score the tying and winning runs and beat his Dodgers?

Manny Ramirez was so quiet. You knew that couldn't last. At the time of his 50-game suspension for violating baseball's drug policy, Ramirez was batting .348 with six home runs. He finished the season at .290 with 19 homers. Almost unMannylike at times, to coin a phrase. But the postseason is his season, and what started in the division series against St. Louis came thundering home with his two-run home run in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series against the Phillies last night at Dodger Stadium.

So this is love. Dodgers fans and Manny Ramirez, dysfunctionally connected since last summer, seemed to go through the entire gamut of their relationship during Game 1 of the NLCS. There were high points and cheers, dramatic reunions and crushing disappointments. In the end, after the Phillies won, 8-6, they left it where it started, somewhere between devotion and suspicion. In the NLCS opener, Ramirez stepped to the plate in the fifth inning, with the Dodgers losing 5-2 and a runner on base.

LOS ANGELES - A year ago, which also means a 50-game drug suspension ago, Manny Ramirez hit .533 against the Phillies in the 2008 National League Championship Series, with two homers and seven RBI in five games. Remember? Do you think the Phillies remember? "I don't know," Ramirez said. "I think you've got to go ask Charlie [Manuel, the Phillies' manager] or ask somebody. I'm just going to go and play the game, man. " But don't you think about it? "I don't live in the past," Ramirez said.

Schoeneweis back with Diamondbacks Scott Schoeneweis returned to the Arizona Diamondbacks yesterday after spending four weeks on the disabled list because of depression following his wife's death. Gabrielle Schoeneweis was found dead in the master bedroom of the couple's suburban home on May 20. The 35-year-old Schoeneweis, a graduate of Lenape High in Burlington County, spent three weeks on the bereavement list at that time before returning June 9. The lefthanded reliever then gave up 15 earned runs in nine innings and was placed on the disabled list Aug. 11. "He was able to get away from baseball for a couple of weeks and stabilize his life at home," Arizona manager A.J. Hinch said.