Retraction Time!

What, you’re surprised CHB might have caused a scandal with a premature report impugning Manny Ramirez? No? Neither am I.

From the Los Angeles Times, a paper that, you know, talked to Bud Selig’s office on the record:

The baseball commissioner’s office has not launched a formal investigation into the circumstances surrounding the Manny Ramirez trade and does not plan to take action against any party in the deal, his spokesman said today.

The Boston Globe reported in today’s editions that Commissioner Bud Selig had ordered an investigation into “the circumstances of Manny’s final hours with the Red Sox.”

Pat Courtney, the spokesman for Selig, said the commissioner had asked for clarification on several issues involving the trade and did not order a formal inquiry into the matter.

“There were some follow-up calls,” Courtney said. “It’s closed. It’s not ongoing.”

Any time CHB runs to print with something like this, and if his reporting turns out to be overblown, it undermines the credibility of the other stellar reporting going on at the Globe. Sometimes I just want to holler for somebody, anybody to STOP THE CURLY-HAIRED BOYFRIEND.

Update: THE PLOT THICKENS. That LA Times article has now been revised, as it turns out the MLB spokesperson may have spoken out of turn.

The Dodgers are in no jeopardy of losing Manny Ramirez, but the baseball commissioner’s office is reviewing issues surrounding the trade that brought him to Los Angeles.

Commissioner Bud Selig has asked Rob Manfred, baseball’s executive vice president for labor relations, to determine the facts behind Ramirez’s departure from Boston, a baseball source said today, speaking on condition of anonymity because the matter had not been resolved.

Baseball spokesman Pat Courtney told The Times earlier today that Selig had asked for clarification on several issues but said no action was planned against any party in the deal.

“There were some follow-up calls,” Courtney said. “It’s closed. It’s not ongoing.”

Courtney later said his comments were premature and deferred further questions on the matter to Rich Levin, another baseball spokesman. Levin said this afternoon he had no comment.

Two things: (1) do all of these anonymous sources have secret meetings somewhere, where they show up wearing paper bags over their heads? (2) sweet lord in heaven, if CHB’s muckracking on this issue actually turns out to have some substance? God help us all… there will never be an end to the avalanche of anti-Manny articles to come.