Manny gets in shape, wants to play until he’s 48

In a chat hosted by the Globe last month, Peter Gammons called Manny a maniacal workout warrior.

I was skeptical of Peter’s claim for two reasons:

1. Gammons is getting old, and I suspected that his idea of a maniacal workout warrior may be different from mine. For some people Gammons’ age, just getting up to get the mail requires heavy stretching and a gameplan more convoluted than anything Norv Turner could put together.

2. I didn’t even know Manny could run.

Well, Gammons’ claims have repeatedly been confirmed since that chat, and Manny is officially working his ass off

Manny has been working out at the Athletes Performance Institute in Arizona since December. He works out 5 days a week, and his training includes “medicine ball work against a brick wall, the pulling of a sled full of weights, weight training, and mobility drills out on a football field shared by Arizona State University.”

After Manny finishes his workout, he trains his fake uncle Rico. “Manny trains me back at our place. He’s tough.”

He plans to show up on time to Spring Training this year, and said that he wants “to be like Julio Franco and play until I’m 48.”

Players say things like this all the time, and most of the time it’s just stupid. But I can totally imagine Manny still playing when he’s 48-years-old. Regardless of the way the media tends to portray him, I don’t think there’s anything he loves more than playing baseball. It really is just that important to him. I’d love to see him swinging away when he’s 48, provided he gets a haircut between now and then. 

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