Random thoughts, suggestions, pleas, and denials that popped into my head while preparing for my first visit to the granddaddy of short track racing today…

• Keep Manny. Trade Sveum.

• I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Dale Sveum must swing a pretty mean fungo bat to still be on the Boston Red Sox coaching staff.

•As for Manny, why do Red Sox fans let him get to them year after year? You know he’s going to abandon the team, either physically for mentally, at some inopportune time during the season. You know that he’s going to make noise about wanting to be traded. It’s not like we haven’t seen this before. Frankly, I’d be worried if he went through a season without this childish behavior.

If, as rumored, Theo Epstein is willing to give up Ramirez for a mediocre slugger (Aubrey Huff) and a center fielder who makes Mark Bellhorn look like a contact hitter (Mike Cameron), then I guess Manny’s not the only member of the Red Sox acting like a petulant 12-year-old right now.

For those of you calling for Terry Francona and/or the front office to lay down the law with Manny this time, careful what you wish for. If they come down too hard on him, they’re going to lose him for good. And then it will get really ugly.

Yeah, I know, Dick Williams wouldn’t put up with his crap. Bill Belichick wouldn’t put up with his crap. So what? This isn’t 1967 and it isn’t football.

The only way to make this so-called controversy go away and still have any shot at making the playoffs is to call Manny into the manager’s office, admonish him and let him pout a couple of days. Then he’ll be back mashing the ball again as if nothing happened. That’s straight out of the Manny Maintenance Manual. It’s worked pretty well so far.

• As sad as it was to see Ted Johnson hang them up this week, Patriot fans need to step back and take a deep breath if they think this is another sign of the team’s demise. It only impacts their depth until the inevitable return of Roman Phifer. Johnson was a situational linebacker, a good run-stopper, but hardly irreplaceable like Tedy Bruschi.

Johnson was, like Bruschi, a class guy, however. It’s funny that early on in their careers, Johnson looked like the guy who would be a perennial leader on the defense and Bruschi looked like the guy who would always be a specialist, just getting on the field for passing situations. And Johnson probably could have made a few Pro Bowls during his career if not for some injuries early on. Instead, those injuries paved the way for Bruschi to become one of the best middle linebackers in football.

• I don’t know who’s the better coach, Larry Brown or Phil Jackson, but I do know that I’ll be eternally grateful to Brown for not waiting an interminable length of time to decide where he wanted to coach, like the Zen Master.

• Congratulations to ESPN’s Peter Gammons upon receiving the J.G. Taylor Spink Award at today’s Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony. The Boston Globe sports section of the 1980s is the single biggest reason I’m in this business, and Gammons’ weekly baseball notes in the Sunday Globe were a must-read every week. Talk to any sportswriter from New England between the ages of 25 and 45, and 95 percent of them will point to him as one of the biggest, if not the biggest influence, on their careers. This recognition from the Hall of Fame is long overdue.

• All Richard Seymour is doing right now is making a point. He’ll be in uniform opening night against the Raiders, guaranteed. Extending his holdout into the season would be very unwise, financially and professionally, and he’s smart enough to know that.

• I’ve only been to Hadlock Field three times this year, but that’s more than enough for me to know that I’ll be extremely upset if Hanley Ramirez isn’t still in the Boston Red Sox organization 24 hours from now. And I’ll burn my kid’s stuffed Wally in effigy if anyone named Pedroia, Papelbon, Lester or Ramirez is involved in a trade for A.J. Burnett this weekend.

• Only 33 days until the high school football season kicks off, and I still haven’t completely figured out who’s playing in what class this year. • I’m glad hockey’s back. The owners crushing the players, the rule changes, even Sidney Crosby going to Pittsburgh all get thumbs up from me. But something is missing. You can’t convince me that hockey will make a strong comeback until there’s some sort of contraction. Thirty teams is too many under this or any other structure. • In honor of my colleague Kalle Oakes, who used to grace these pages every Sunday with his legendary Rev It Up column, I’m going to make a prediction for today’s Banknorth 250. And the winner is…

Scott Robbins.

Don’t ask me why. The last time I set foot in the Oxford Plains Speedway pits, the Scorpions were scurrying off the stage between verses of “Still Loving You” so they wouldn’t get zapped by lightning.

• Finally, my thoughts go out to Robert Lamontagne and his family. We’re all praying for you, Bucky.

Randy Whitehouse is a staff writer. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected]