Manny Ramirez

Money-back offer With the New York Mets fading from contention, the team has cut ticket prices up to 50 percent for some seats for 13 of 26 remaining home games. Metropolitan Box seats originally priced at $180 can be had for $90 for six games starting tomorrow night, according to an Internet promotion for TheaterMania members. The discount also applies to tickets originally costing $150, $138, and $90. Manny being Manny Manny Ramirez has struck out 20 times in his last 17 games and hadn't quite been himself, but he's shown this week he's still there when it counts.

Four games into life without Manny Ramirez, the Los Angeles Dodgers are eyeballing their future and their past, trying to play the game without staring too hard at either one. "We have to have that mentality that he isn't here, and we certainly miss him, but you can't live there," manager Joe Torre said last week in Los Angeles before the six-game trip that begins tonight with the first of three games against the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park....

Los Angeles Dodgers manager Joe Torre said yesterday that Manny Ramirez feels he disappointed his team. The star outfielder was suspended for 50 games by Major League Baseball yesterday for using a banned drug. "He feels very badly. Right now he's trying to gather his thoughts," Torre said at Dodger Stadium, before the Dodgers played the Washington Nationals. Torre said he called Ramirez and that Ramirez called him back. "The worst thing I think a person can be is a disappointment to somebody else, and Manny feels like a disappointment," Torre said.

The Los Angeles Dodgers will show up at Citizens Bank Park on Tuesday night with a gaping hole in the middle of their lineup and an ugly blemish on what was beginning to look like a storybook season. Leftfielder Manny Ramirez yesterday was suspended for 50 games for violating baseball's ban on performance-enhancing drugs. He joined a growing lineup of all-stars linked to drugs, adding a further stamp to what will forever be known as the Steroids Era. "It's a dark day for baseball and certainly for this organization," Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti said.

The winter of discontent in Mannywood is over. Manny Ramirez and the Los Angeles Dodgers officially agreed yesterday on a $45 million, 2-year contract that keeps him with the NL West champions. He can void the second season of the deal and again become a free agent. The stalemate was broken during a 6 a.m. meeting that brought the sides face-to-face at owner Frank McCourt's Malibu home. The gathering came after weeks of protracted negotiations that led to starts, stops, offers and subsequent rejections.

LOS ANGELES - One night later, Manny Ramirez had nothing bad to say about Shane Victorino. There were no sparks trailing from the words the Los Angeles Dodgers' slugger summoned when asked about how Game 4 turned from a celebration to something closer to a wake. "I think tonight, everybody battled, played their hearts out, out there," Ramirez said after going 2-for-2 with three walks, but ending his offensive evening on third base when Brad Lidge retired James Loney for the final out in the eighth.

LOS ANGELES - Something had to be done. That was basically the message Manny Ramirez carried to people after last night's 7-2 scrum-infested Dodgers victory here. That, and this: It's done. "What happened in Philly, we think that wasn't right," the Dodgers' leftfielder said. "You know we're here and we want to send a message that we want to play the game right. " Manny seemed to want to do more than just send a message after both benches emptied last night. Led by coach Bob Schaefer, several Dodgers had to pull him away from several Phillies.

The Dodgers are sick. Dr. Manny has the prescription: Cowboy up. "Maybe we need to do some Crown Royal shots," Ramirez said. "Maybe do them [today]. Have a meeting. " Kevin Millar, Pedro Martinez and Johnny Damon led the Red Sox rodeo in 2004 that came from a 3-0 hole in the ALCS and beat Joe Torre's Yankees. Legend has it the Sox slugged some pregame whiskey shooters to stay loose and end the curse. Liquor might help, but decent pitching would have done the trick last night.