By Kevin Chiu
Exiled ex-baseball star Manny Ramirez has finally sold his Boston penthouse 
for a major loss after trying to sell the place more than six years, which just might be close to a record for any other earth-bound homeowner.
The former baseball slugger finally quit the big leagues in disgrace after being busted for taking steroids a second time. His first suspension of 50 games was with the Los Angeles Dodgers. After being traded to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays he failed drug testing once again during spring training and instead of facing a 100-game suspension, Ramirez hung up his cleats and headed for the showers one last time.
However, Ramirez’s problems with real estate started years earlier when he first bought the penthouse at the Ritz Carlton in Boston when Manny was playing for the widely heralded Boston Red Sox for $5.8 million.
Ramirez first listed the place for sale apparently as a shrine to himself with a full mural of Fenway Park in Manny Jr.’s bedroom for $6.9 million in 2005. But then at the height of the real estate market crash, Ramirez raised the price after failing to attract a purchaser to $8.5-million. Any wonder why the penthouse didn’t sell?
The former slugger, who now makes his home in Florida unloaded the palace for $3-million under his rocket high asking price, which equates to a $300,000 loss from what Manny purchased the four bedroom, six bathroom penthouse for in the first place.
Ramirez might consider himself fortunate considering the way Red Sox fans felt about the slugger when he deserted his long time team for a multi-million dollar contract in LA. It took a series of price cuts to get the place back to a price that was close to where local real estate agents would show the penthouse to buyers.
Ramirez would have probably gotten more for the glitzy place had he managed to keep out of the headlines and priced the penthouse at a reasonable price. But the high flying home run hitter wouldn’t have it that way as he managed to turn off more possible buyers than what is usual. You see when any property is over-priced buyers have a way of saying it’s a waste of their time to even look at the place without usually even verbalizing it.