The Cleveland Indians are on the verge of a World Series berth, but it's Boston slugger Manny Ramirez who is the focal point of nearly all of the media attention heading into Game 5 of the American League Championship Series.

Baseball fans probably would have more easily forgotten Ramirez’s home-run gazing and the celebration that followed his sixth-inning bomb in Game 4 -- with Boston trailing by four runs -- if he hadn’t weighed in on the magnitude of the Red Sox’s situation going into tonight game.

“Why panic,” Ramirez said Wednesday. “If we don’t do it, we’ll come back next year and try again. If it doesn’t happen, who cares? There’s always next year. It’s not the end of the world.”

Oops. Nearly everyone who steps onto the field tonight will care, as will a large percentage of New Englanders and long-suffering Cleveland fans waiting for the team’s first World Series title since 1948.

Beyond downplaying how important the game is to millions of baseball fans, the truth is, Ramirez is right. In the big picture, a Boston loss on Thursday night is not the end of the world. The leaves will fall, winter will come and go, spring flowers will bloom and the Red Sox will return to Florida to try again next year. That’s been the story for more than 100 years.

Of course, only someone has uninhibited and in his own little world as Ramirez would say what he did. Some things are better left unsaid, but Manny will be Manny and sometimes microphones and recorders bring Manny’s world to us.

Is what he said really that much of a story? It’s been plastered all over newspapers and dominated ALCS coverage on TV and radio, and much of the coverage has been hard on Boston's resident eccentric. You can be sure his statement will also get its share of attention from the FOX crew tonight, as well. And yes, I’m guilty of contributing to the buzz, too.

But I just don’t think this is much of a story. Ramirez isn’t failing the Red Sox. The guy’s batting .429 and leading Boston with four homers and 11 RBIs in the postseason. Maybe what he said would be a story if he wasn’t producing or didn’t appear to be trying. Believe it or not, this is a player who is known to show up during morning hours to lift weights and take extra hitting before night games. His words weren't meant to be taken quite so literally. He does care.

To Ramirez, baseball is little more than see the ball, hit the ball. It’s not a source of worry and I suspect he hardly ever takes games home with him. If some of his struggling teammates could play with Ramirez’s mental approach, perhaps the Red Sox wouldn’t be down three games to one.

There are few characters in the game in this era of multimillion-dollar contracts. Players rarely say what they think or go out on a limb about anything for fear of risking their next contract. Ramirez is one of a kind, and for that, media types should enjoy covering Manny being Manny.