Daily Dish
Wit & Wisdom
Metro Sports

Long after the Yankees packed their luxury cars with memories, after the cleaners stripped the Stadium of all claims to a championship, the city remains alive in the playoffs. Manny Ramirez eliminated the Bronx, advanced with Washington Heights. He still spends his winters a few blocks from where he grew up, 170th and Amsterdam, a neighborhood that celebrates its 25-year-old son without apology, that would rather see him in a parade than Bernie, Tino or Cone.

It was Ramirez who dazed an already confused Andy Pettitte in Game 5, driving a fastball into center and sending the Yankees on a futile chase. If Ramirez never delivered a bigger hit, he had delivered a longer one. He was playing for George Washington High six years back, a gleam in every scout's eye, trying to hit a baseball from one end of Central Park to the other.

"We were playing Park West," said Steve Mandl, the George Washington coach then and now. "Score tied in the sixth, Manny hits the longest shot I've seen in my life. It about landed when he touched third base. Way over 400 feet. They still talk about it in Central Park."

They still talk about Ramirez in Washington Heights, a corner of the city too busy with the ALCS to fret over the option year in Doc Gooden's contract. The son of an immigrant cab driver and seamstress, Ramirez grew into a full-blown Dominican-American hero the way Felipe Lopez would years later.

So uptown tonight, Ramirez' people will watch Cleveland and Baltimore with a passion lost on fellow New Yorkers. As a teenager, Ramirez used to run past the tenements with a tire tied to his waist. That he still returns to those tenements, his fame and fortune secured, means plenty to the neighborhood.

It means on Oct. 15 they don't have to wait till next year.

"Manny is everything to our community," said Jose Mateo, a longtime friend of Ramirez and owner of Peligro Sports, the Amsterdam Ave. shop Ramirez still frequents between seasons.

"People think of Washington Heights, they think of drug deals and murder. Manny shows there are good things here, too. When he comes back, he's still the same quiet person he was when he left. All the kids are crazy for Manny. They want to be him."

If his batting average entering tonight's Game 6 doesn't show it, Ramirez -- who hit .328 for the year -- has polished his rising star in these playoffs. He didn't do much to the Yankees, except when the very season was at stake. Against the Orioles, Ramirez positioned himself a few hours away from a second World Series. He homered, doubled and singled in Game 4, then drew a walk to start the ninth, scoring on Sandy Alomar's single, giving the Indians a 3-1 series lead.

Of course, Ramirez nearly wrecked his team in Game 3 by getting picked off first in the ninth. He was hitless in Game 5, taking a Scott Kamieniecki fastball on the arm for good measure. Ramirez engaged the pitcher in a cursing match, revealing a rare trace of emotion, a trace his advisers would prefer to see more often.

Ramirez is something of a mystery man, equal parts naive and aloof. He was once hit with three tickets in a single traffic stop, only to make an illegal U-turn in front of the cop for No. 4. He was once thrown out trying to steal first base from second.

When approached for autographs or interviews, Ramirez doesn't bare his teeth like Albert Belle. Mostly, he just walks away, ignoring the solicitor, ignoring the damage done his image.

"He just doesn't get it," Mandl said. "He's not mean, just someone who wants to play baseball and do nothing else. We've tried and failed to explain to him that signing autographs and granting interviews are part of the deal.

"That's why I don't have any pictures of him. If you told Manny the game started at 3 p.m., he'd be there at 1 p.m. He's a workaholic in baseball. But If you told him the team picture was at 3 p.m., he'd never show."

The first-round pick of the Indians, Ramirez left George Washington without a diploma. Mandl believes his former player suffered from attention deficit disorder, a disorder that didn't follow him to the plate. Ramirez hit .614 as a senior in '91.

The neighborhood didn't forget. Whenever the Indians are in, the Bronx might as well be Santo Domingo. Hundreds of Ramirez' neighbors come with flags, signs and musical instruments.

"Manny has made everyone here a Cleveland fan," Mateo said. "He still comes to my store and plays pinball, acting like a regular guy. We all respect him for that. Which is why at night, when these playoff games are on, you don't see anyone on the street."

Which is why in the heart of October, the Yankees already home for winter, the city has a fighting chance.

Manny Ramirez is at bat, swinging for Washington Heights.

Seasons don't have to end in the Bronx. Parades don't have to start downtown. --=====================_876943656==_--