You can’t tell from this photo, but the man with the microphone getting a shower from Deion Sanders is one Tim McCarver. After the self-absorbed McCarver ripped Deion on TV during on the 1992 NLCS, Deion bathed him in liquids during the locker room celebration, prompting McCarver’s memorable “You’re a real man, Deion” retort.

Might history repeat itself when Manny Ramirez gets wind of these comments McCarver uttered to the Philly Inquirer’s Mike Jenson?

“It’s extraordinary — the dichotomy between what he was in Boston and what he is in Los Angeles,” McCarver said. “I mean, talk about wearing out your welcome in a town, and it was a long welcome with the Red Sox [team stats]. But some of the things he did were simply despicable, “despicable — like not playing, refusing to play. Forgetting what knee to limp on. And now it’s washed, it’s gone.”

McCarver did heap praise on Ramirez (how could he not?), and to be fair, many bloggers (including us and Curt Schilling) and writers have hammered Manny for Being Manny over the years. Even though some (all?) of what McCarver said about Manny may be true, do you want an announcer who is calling the World Series to be trashing the best hitter left in the postseason, and not even partially blaming the Red Sox for putting up with Manny’s behavior because Ramirez became the greatest right-handed hitter of his era?

McCarver outspoken about L.A.’s dread man (Philly Inky)