A quick note before we get into a review of what proved to be a weekend full of hot air: Check back here at Scott’s Shots tonight after 8 p.m. (Monday, August 1) for an update on the intriguing move that one of Boston’s brightest media stars is about to embark on.
Now, in honor of Manny Mania and the firestorm that surrounded No. 24, Shots brings you the 24 Manny things that made us scratch our head and/or take a Manny pause over the past 72 hours. Welcome back, Manny. Feels like you never left:

1. Booed on Friday night by more than a smattering of the fickle (faithful) Fenway fans, Ramirez entered Sunday’s game in the bottom of the eighth to a standing, rousing ovation. After a bouncer up the box and through the middle for what was the game-winning RBI, NESN’s Don Orsillo screamed: “Manny’s Back and he’s back big.” Jerry Remy followed with some comments about “. . . taking the world off your shoulders – when you do what he just did, you feel very good about. . .That’s one of the top Fenway moments here. Now for crying out loud Manny, don’t say you want to be traded after the game,” Remy said. Good advice.

2. Late Saturday afternoon, WEEI 850-AM’s clueless – and keyless – Greg Dickerson locked himself and co-host Lenny Megliola out of the station’s remote location at Fenway. Instead of live, continued banter about Manny, ‘EEI had to re-run recently played commercials and then, inexplicably filled time by re-running Friday’s Keith Foulke interview. Dickerson – who had gone to the clubhouse to poke around – joked about it afterward, but it didn’t seem all that funny to us. Just plain unprofessional and inexcusable.

3. Soon after the Great Radio Lock Out of 2005, Dickerson returned with Megliola and Jerry Trupiano in tow, at which time Troop condemned today’s media (‘EEI included, we presume) for rushing to get the story at the expense of getting the story correct. True enough, Troop.

4. Dickerson and Lenny took at least two phone calls from an over-eager, wannabe reporter named “Justin,” who claimed to have better sources on the Manny situation than Peter Gammons or anyone else for that matter. (Congrats, by the way, to The Commish in Cooperstown. Well deserved.) Justin claimed to have ‘broken’ the original Mets/Tampa/Boston trade on Friday’s Big Show and referred to a friend who was presumably involved in some level of the discussions. Hey, Justin, how’s your buddy feel about you trying to make a name for yourself at the expense of his “insider information?” And why does ‘EEI give the guy a platform at all?

5. In a weekend full of understatements, Don O said, in the top of the ninth: “It has been quite a week of drama.”

6. With Babbling Bob Lobel on UPN 38 Friday night, in what sensible Steve Buckley later called the “world’s longest post-game show,” multi-affiliated Sean McAdam refused to scoop himself on the next day’s ‘news’ that Manny and Curt Schilling were feuding. It was nice to see McAdam show some loyalty to his primary employer, the Providence Journal, but it was unsettling to watch him sit on the info with his Cheshire cat grin.

7. Let’s be clear on something: Manny said he’s here for 2005. Anything beyond that is open for debate, something we’re guessing Pete the Meathead will jump all over during the Big Show.

8. Another ‘EEIdiot on Saturday called in to let everyone know that he and nine other Red Sox season ticket holders were prepared to give up their tickets if Manny was traded. Geez – hope Theo was listening to that one. What on earth would the organization do with an extra 30-or-so tickets? Fortunately, Lenny pointed this out to the caller and put the moron in his rightful place.

9. It got so ridiculous on Friday night that ESPN had a battle of dueling reporters within its own stable of writers: Buster Olney was reporting one thing and Jayson Stark was reporting something different. Or vice versa – point is, the Worldwide Leader was covered no matter what happened.

10. Completely overmatched and under-informed, George Smith reported from Fenway for ESPN on Saturday night and offered nothing whatsoever. Fortunately, Steve Levy and ever-steady Rece Davis were holding down SportsCenter desk duties and were able to largely ignore the useless King.

11. Shots took a respite from the March of Manny to sneak in the almost inexplicably enthralling March of the Penguins. Not quite the double feature that Boston Sports Guy took in last week for the benefit of his ESPN.com audience, Scotts gave March a chance simply because of one man: Morgan Freeman. No one does voice over better than Freeman and March is no exception.

12. Once you get past the fact that the movie is NOT about Pittsburgh draft pick Sidney Crosby OR Mario Lemieux, it really takes a hold of you.

13. The Cheap Seats brothers would have a field day with this 80 minutes of riveting, breathtaking film. (If it’s being shown in IMAX, that would be the preferred method of viewing.) One brother could be the voice of the male penguin, the other could be the female and they could bring in Adam Sandler to be the baby penguin.

14. ‘Manny Mania’ led the NBC7 newscast on Sunday night with Wendi Nix live at Fenway, taking the toss from in-studio smiley face, Joe Amorosino. They followed up with a fan reaction package reported by yet another likable Syracuse grad, Linda Ergas. ABC5 and Mike Lynch waited until story No. 2 to run the Manny highlights and a portion of the Frede interview, followed their own man-on-the-street interviews with more fickle Fenwayers. CBS4 ran late with 2001’s “I Am Sam” with Sean Penn, thus pushing back Babbling Bob and Sports Final into post-Shots (and other sane peoples’) viewing time. But the Sox part-time partner, CBS4, also led with the Manny story, as reported by Ron Sanders. (Tony Mazz, by the way, pulled the ultimate daily double, managing to get on both NECN’s Sports Latenight and Lobel’s Sports Final.) . . . We did stay awake long enough to hear Lobel and Gordon Edes label Pedro Martinez as the Deep Throat who leaked the Manny-wants-a-trade rumor to Tom Verducci.

15. Nix had the misfortune of doing her 11:25 live shot from Fenway as a loud piece of machinery noise filled the background at the ballyard. The Nix package was mostly a shared Manny interview with FSN’s Dickerson in the dugout, post-game.

16. Under-utilized on TV, Michael Silverman, of the Herald joined Amateurino on-set to explain more Manny minutiae in-depth. Jolly Joe wouldn’t read the line “your ass” from an on-screen graphic highlighting some of Silverman’s story on the Schilling “friction.” Silverman predicted more incidents are possible with Ramirez as the season winds down. “I wouldn’t doubt it one iota,” said Silverman who also used the term “bi-polar” in assessing Manny’s make-up. Later, to his credit, Jovial Joe did push the Manny issue further (especially David Wells’ “selfish” comments) in his Time with Tito. Francona dodged the semi-press by pointing to Manny’s production. Just Tito being Tito.

17. We’ll suggest once again that you give a looksie to the new blog being perpetuated by Jeff Sullivan with his Sherrif Sully blog. The site is up and running and worth the visit: http://www.sheriffsully.com/.

18. Shots’ guess for the Herald’s mystery Source Authorized to Speak for Manny (SASM) is Little Nelson. Or, perhaps, Pedro himself.

19. Almost as staggering as all the words and wisdom wasted on Manny’s mayhem was the fact that Shaughnasty only got one day’s worth of material out of it.

20. WWZN 1510-AM’s Ryen Russillo sat in with NECN weekend guy, Mike Giardi and said he wasn’t surprised by Manny still being a Red Sox. Russillo kept missing his proper camera during the discussion, but he once again showed why he’s a valuable commodity in the local media market.

21. No, really. Go see the penguin movie. I’m telling you – it’s worth it. And no, Shots is going soft on you. I still need my Entourage guilty pleasure. (Bring a lady friend if it helps you justify the ticket buy – she’ll love it.)

22. Once again, you doubted I would get to my pre-determined, ridiculous number of inane items, but here we are just two away from paydirt.

23. Haven’t gotten into the Pedro cover story in Sunday’s NY Times’ magazine, but here’s the pull quote of merit: “The Mets recently signed the most coveted offensive player in the Dominican Republic. The prospect said he was drawn to the Mets because of Pedro.”

24. The puke/mustard golf shirt clad, Eric Frede of NESN grabbed Manny quickly after Sunday’s game (necessitating an abbreviated ad break) and Manny, amidst a backdrop of adoring fans said, “Forget about the trade, this is the place I want to be, man. They love me here. It’s Manny being Manny, man. This is the place to be. This is the best town in the world and I’m back. I’m happy to be here.” Staggering, really. Just a staggering finish to a wild weekend of rumor, vitriol and “sources.”

In other words, welcome to another manic, Manny, Monday. . .

Be sure to check back tonight for the Shots exclusive on a media mover.

David Scott writes from a seaside shanty on the shores of Hull, Mass. and can be reached at shots@bostonsportsmediaDOTcom