Manny Ramirez To Get Forgotten $10,000 Check From Reebok

Boston Red Sox slugger Manny Ramirez is getting $10,000 from the state’s abandoned property fund, the treasurer’s office said today.

“Our goal is to return abandoned property to every rightful owner, whether it is Manny Ramirez or anyone else,” Treasurer Tim Cahill said in a statement.

The abandoned funds were reported to the treasury in November 2007. Ramirez was one of several well-known people listed on the treasurer’s semi-annual unclaimed money list released in February.

The treasurer’s office said Ramirez was due money from a check from Reebok International Ltd. that he never cashed — and he will receive an extra $49.56 in interest. The money, which the treasurer’s office said it was putting in the mail today, pales in comparison with Ramirez’s salary, which is $20 million a year.

Treasurer’s spokeswoman Francy Ronayne said she didn’t know why Reebok paid Ramirez $10,000 or why Ramirez never cashed the check.

Money from sources such as uncashed checks and abandoned bank accounts, stock accounts, or safe deposit boxes is swept up by the treasury after it is left untouched for a certain period of time. The money is deposited in the state’s general fund, but it can be claimed by its rightful owners at any time.

More than $1 billion is being held by the state on behalf of more than 6 million owners, said Ronayne. Movie stars Ben and Casey Affleck and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice still haven’t picked up the small amounts owed them, she said.

Red Sox spokesman John Blake said the team had no comment. Ramirez did not speak to reporters in the Red Sox clubhouse before tonight’s game.

- Martin Finucane, Boston Globe