By David Scott
Boston Sports Media Watch

In what has to be one of the more bizarre NESN segments in the 20-plus year history of the network, reporter Tina Cervasio interviewed mostly-silent Manny Ramirez and his personal coiffeur “Lmonstro” in an (unkempt) Arizona hotel room, aired during the Saturday night Red Sox pre-game.

Inexplicably, the video is no where to be found at the Network’s site, despite it being Ramirez’s first extended interaction with the media in at least a year. UPDATE: On Monday, NESN posted the one-and-a-half-minute piece with Lmonstro and Manny, for which you need to endure one of those annoying must-watch commercials. Better late than never, we suppose. Still no excuse for having to wait until after the weekend, especially when other weekend video was already posted.

Our description (and a mention here at Hardball Heaven) will not do the piece justice. First off, Lmonstro is Character straight off of Pedro’s Lil Buddy, Nelson’s casting couch.

Next is the horrified, almost shocked approach that Cervasio has to take as Manny stands silent with his arm around his travelling hairdresser. Only at the end does Manny and the Mad Barber break into a bit of a Fernando delivery and beam, “If you look good, you’ll play good,” complete with a double Manny Point.

Manny, in an orange “Rock ‘n Rave Show” t-shirt (perhaps a Gio Goi?) stood with his right arm around the shoulder of Lmonstro and briefly discussed his preferred hairstyles and styling methods. “I got tired of the red,” he said. It also seems LMonstro was also heavily involved with David Ortiz’s beard from last year. [And, (almost) interestingly, Lmonstro is not the braider of Manny’s hair, that’s done by a woman in New York, according to Ramriez.]

Oh, and by the way, Manny did not start on Saturday night, but his left wrist (hit on Friday night in the sixth inning) was not the reason for Manny’s no-go according to Nick Cafardo’s Boston.com blogging on Saturday, “Terry Francona said it was not due to Ramirez being hit in the left hand/wrist (Friday) night, but Ramirez’ unfamiliarity with pitcher Micah Owings and just a good time for a day off. David Ortiz will sit (Sunday) against Randy Johnson.”)

Once the video gets up, it will become must-see for the Manny Minions.

. . . From what we can tell, Manny uses a plastic Red Sox rain slicker as his coverall. It might have had little Wally the Green Monster faces on it, but we kind of think that was the Long Trail talking.

. . . No word on whether Cervasio is now a Lmonstro client, but we’re thinking RemDawg (who discussed the bit briefly late in the game) is a prime candidate for the coiffeur’s services. And Don-O can always get a buff and shine.

. . . MONDAY AFTERNOON, 6/11/07 ADDITION: How does Manny get away with this? He won’t make himself available when he starts off the season in a slow manner; he’ll barely make himself available when he shows up late to Spring Training - and yet, he decides to give the in-house Network, NESN, some behind-the-Manny curtain access and Tina darts on over with a camera-man and knocks on Manny’s (or Lmonsto’s) hotel door.

I have no problem giving Manny and the Barber some love, but there’s got to be a quid-pro-quo where Manny agrees to sit down for a real baseball interview (preferably with Jerry Remy).

NESN did what it had to do to get some original content, but we would hope the Lmonstro Infomercial gets offset with some true analysis of the Manny Rules that guide not only the player, but to a large extent, the Team (and most certainly the Manager).

. . . Shots has three opportunities to repulse you on your TV screen beginning tonight on the 11 p.m. “Out of Bounds” on CN8, then again on Wednesday for the 7 p.m. “OOB” and lastly on Thursday at 11 p.m. with the OOBers.