Cubs’ not-so-secret weapon: Manny (sort of) being Manny

Manny Ramirez’s latest gig with the Cubs is proof that if you hang around the game long enough, you’ll see it all.

Asked to describe Ramirez’s role, manager Joe Maddon made it sound like a liaison to the club’s “Hispanic culture.” “I just be myself,” Ramirez said a riff on the “Manny Being Manny” phrase he inspired as though no more explanation was necessary.

There’s no questioning Ramirez’s resume when it comes to teaching hitting: Over the course of 19 big league seasons, he was a 12-time All-Star, a World Series MVP and two-time champion with the Red Sox, a nine-time winner of the Silver Slugger award and one of only 27 players to hit at least 500 career home runs.

The phrase “Manny being Manny” entered the game’s lexicon to capture some of the hijinks Ramirez delighted in during his playing days he once spiked a teammate’s drink with Viagra, frequently disappeared behind a door in the left-field wall at Fenway during pitching changes and took to scribbling what sounded like prophecies (“There will be hell to pay”; “Justice will be served”; “Live and let die.”) on the back of his cleats.

Ramirez ran afoul of baseball’s performance-enhancing ban twice and regularly turned contract talks into drawn-out negotiations.

Typical of the controversy he often courted, Ramirez was asked about his future after a productive season with the Dodgers ended in the 2008 playoffs.

He frequently bickered over contracts with Theo Epstein, who is Chicago’s president of baseball operations and held a similar job with the Red Sox when Ramirez was there.