$160M BoSox Slugger's BBQ Grill Taken OFF eBay

Manny Ramirez wanted $1m; eBay pulled auction on word that BBQ was not his

Manny Ramirez, the eccentric, enigmatic and very talented outfielder and slugger for the Boston Red Sox wanted to sell his barbecue grill on eBay. Hey, cool, right? He was even going to throw in an autographed baseball. Wow, a slammin' stainless steal JENN-AIR grill AND the autograph of the superstar baller who sold it?

Such a deal.

eBay didn't think so. CBS' WBZ-TV Boston reported this afternoon that eBay pulled the auction. Turns out that this deal had a little pine tar on it.

When Ramirez (pictured here from his eBay listing) first posted the item on Tuesday, he explained to reporters in Ft. Myers, Florida, where the team is wrapping up spring training, why he was selling the barbecue.

"I'm a business man," the player who just inked a $160 million deal to stay with the "Sawks" said with a laugh in his voice, according to the Associated Press in a story carried widely.

"I need the money."

As Red Sox Nation might say, that's just Manny being Manny. Sure, except that like a hitter with a little cork in his bat, Ramirez wasn't playing by the letter of the rules in the book.

WBZ-TV reported that a short time after the grill (which garnered an obviously bogus bid of $99,999,999) was posted, Ramirez told Amalie Benjamin of the Boston Globe that the grill wasn't his. Benjamin reported that Ramirez told her it belongs to a neighbor and he was advertising the grill as his own to drive up the price. When eBay got word, they pulled the auction for violating its listing rules.

How weird is that? On the very same eBay where someone might be trying to sell you an autographed card by some jock who never actually signed it, here's a jock trying to sell you one of his items that he never actually owned?

It all seems to have been in good fun, but this story did leave us with one gnawing question about the ball Ramirez was going to include in the sale.

Was it going to come with a COA?