Around the time that Manny Ramirez was addressing the Los Angeles media this afternoon, babbling in Spanish for a large chunk of the time and pissing off the American journalists who had ASAP-deadlines to meet, ESPN.com released a story about Yao Ming appologizing for a comment he made about his future teammate, Ron Artest.

The two things that Manny said in English that popped out were that he’s grateful for the dedication of the Boston fans and he’s gonna start stealing more bases. (He’s stolen 35 since 1993. Fat chance.) But that’s because there were few things he did say in English.

Meanwhile, Yao originally said, “We worry about the new attitude to the team. We are adding talent to the team and we need that, but building team chemistry is important,” regarding Artest. Then he had to talk to Artest on the phone — from China, no less — and straighten things out.

Which, of course, is the right thing to do. If you’re going to be teammates, you gotta be cool. You don’t want another Shaq-Kobe thing going on.

So he will get off free-and-clear because English is not his first language. And Manny will get off free-and-clear because 1) He’s Manny being Manny, 2) English is not is first language and 3) He’s not a celebrity in Hollywood, which means he can basically get away with anything he wants.

I’m starting to wish English wasn’t my first language now.

Ozzie Guillen, we didn’t forget about you. You’re on the list, too.