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Manny Being Merlot

Two of the biggest trades in baseball last week have created a little dilemma for Charity Wines. That’s the Massachusetts company that launched a line of wines in honor of athletes to raise money for their favorite charities. A portion of the sale of each bottle of wine goes to the charity.

The concept actually started with three Boston Red Sox players -- Manny Ramirez, Curt Schilling and Tim Wakefield. But with Ramirez moving to the Los Angeles Dodgers last week, the labels on his “Manny Being Merlot” aren’t going to change. They don’t say Red Sox, but they do reflect the team’s colors.

“The bottles are already printed and in retail, so the labels cannot be changed,” Brett Rudy, co-founder and director of marketing for Charity Hop Sports Consulting, said in an email.

Charity Hop is a Boston company that assists sports and charity organizations with fundraising.

“We have a similar challenge with Ken Griffey Jr's wine now that he was traded from Cincinnati to Chicago,” Rudy wrote. “Players get traded all the time and it doesnt hurt the baseball card industry, so perhaps it won't hurt the wine biz either.”

Proceeds from Ramirez’s wine benefits Miami-based CHARLEE Homes for Children, which provides support services for abused, abandoned and neglected children. Proceeds from Ken Griffey Jr.’s “Junior Cabernet Sauvignon” go to Griffey’s foundation, which supports a variety of children’s causes.

Rudy said the company’s licensing agreement with the MLB Players Association does not cover producing wines for Ramirez and Griffey in their new cities.

You can still place online orders at charitywines.com.

POSTED IN: MLB (44), Promotions (45)

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If anyone wants to buy an unopened bottle in mint condition of this incredibly hard wine to find now that production of Manny Being Merlot has stopped , please email me at stephen.shickey@gmail.com

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About the Author

SARAH TALALAY
After a decade as a news reporter in New Jersey, Southern California, Chicago and South Broward, Talalay decided to trade in covering meetings about city government and schools for meetings about sports deals and stadium finance...
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