If you haven’t heard by now, let me be the one to break the news.

One of the quirkiest guys to ever take a Major League Baseball field, Manny Ramirez — a left fielder known for cutting off throws from center, disappearing into Fenway Park’s Green Monster and being one of the clutchest right-handed hitters of all-time — retired last week.

In true Manny-being-Manny fashion, he made the decision after the league informed him of “an issue” he had under the league’s drug program. It doesn’t take an IQ much higher than Manny’s to figure out what that meant.

With a second positive drug test on his rap sheet (the first coming after tests found a female fertility drug in Ramirez’s blood in 2009), a 100-game suspension wasn’t too far behind. Instead of serving it and returning to the Rays afterward, he decided to retire and take a trip to Spain. How quaint.

I’ll remember Manny like I remember the kid who hit puberty before everyone else. You always wanted him on your team because he could hit the ball farther than anyone else. But when somebody called him out for something, his pre-teenage angst would get the better of him and he’d quit.

And just like it did on the playground, the game will go on and will be more fun without him.