NBCsports.com: Mike Celizic: If fans don’t boo Manny, why should the media?

Why aren’t the fans booing?

“Either they put it behind them or they didn’t care to start with,” Cohen finally decided with an almost audible shrug.

We in the opinion business like to talk about how players don’t have a clue about just about everything — money, fame, contracts, respect, the real world. But on this subject, the guys in the electronic pulpits are the ones who are clueless, and have been for a long time.

I’ve been saying this for years: The fans don’t care.

We saw it when Manny first started getting in shape in the minor leagues. Fans packed ballparks and cheered his every scratch and expectoration. When he played his first major league game in San Diego, the fans seemed happy to have him back.

And now in New York, where the fans are supposed to be tough, there’s a smattering of boos and a smattering of cheers and a whole lot of camera flashes. Baseball as usual. The biggest reaction Manny got was when he got thrown out of the game for tossing equipment after getting called out on a ball that was half a foot off the plate.

Cohen took some solace in that, suggesting that home plate umpire John Hirschbeck was stretching the strike zone on Manny as punishment for doing drugs. It’s possible. But even if it’s true, it wouldn’t prove anything other than that Hirschbeck is petty.