End of the Manny carpet ride, now what?

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So the Manny carpet ride is over, and now Dodger fans are left with a question that will be the 800-pound gorilla in the room until it’s deal or no deal.

Will they re-sign Manny Ramirez?

If you read these blogs, you already know my position: How can they not?

You spend $125 million on Jason Schmidt, Juan Pierre and Andruw Jones and then say no to whatever amount by cheaping out on the greatest right-handed hitter many of us have ever seen?

Who did THAT math -- Henry Paulson or Ben Bernanke?

Where Manny is concerned, the Dodgers can’t afford to bail out.

From a baseball rather than business perspective, though, the more interesting question for me is: As much as he seems to love L.A. and connect with his new adoring, wig-wearing constituency, does Manny even WANT to play for a team that doesn’t have a cleanup hitter anywhere in sight?

Manny hit .410 for the Dodgers -- 410! -- and .520 in the post-season.

But as I looked up at the TV screen early in Game 5, Dodger hitters batting directly behind Manny were raking at a mighty .105 clip with no home runs and one RBI in the post-season.

That’s not cleanup, but it is positively janitorial.

Which raises other questions, such as: Are the Dodgers going to go out and get someone who CAN hit behind him?

Will they have money to do that if they pay Manny $60 million to $80 million and Raffy Furcal maybe $40 million or $50 million more?

And how can you expect Manny to be Manny if he has no protection in the lineup?

As the playoffs progressed, the void in the middle of the Dodger order behind Manny went from a nice-sized Winchell’s donut to the Black Hole in the universe.

Infinitely large.

-- Ted Green

Ted Green is a former sportswriter for the L.A. Times and National Sports Daily. He is currently Senior Sports Producer for KTLA Prime News.