Did you notice that everybody -- us, the Globe, the Herald -- tackled the same topic today? I'm certain they went through the same process we did: An unsuccessful attempt to reach David Cone (who was smart enough to make himself scarce, meaning he can fulfill his media obligations in one fell swoop this afternoon in Minnesota), after which we turned back to what everybody is talking about in the Nation.

Manny Ramirez.

The beat writers talked about Ramirez in baseball terms. Tony Massarotti went deep into the numbers and asked where the Sox would be without him. Gordon Edes talked of the number of intentional walks Ramirez has received this week, and examined what happened after each one. The columnists looked at him more grandly. The Globe's Michael Holley thinks Ramirez has graduated to one-name territory, and our own Jim Donaldson cut to the chase and pondered what hat Manny will wear into the Hall of Fame.

I was fascinated -- and granted, it may just be because this is my profession -- that everyone wrote the same off-day story, but, really, nothing else approaches the level of interest generated so far by Ramirez. We and the Herald both printed graphics that project Ramirez's current statistics over 162 games, and they're worth a look. Our version included the Red Sox team record in each category, and notes that Ramirez is on pace to break five of them:

                   RAMIREZ     RED SOX
                  PROJECTION    RECORD
AT-BATS              622         684
RUNS                 114         150
HITS                 254         240
DOUBLES               35          67
TRIPLES                4          22
HOME RUNS             57          50
RUNS BATTED IN       201         175
WALKS                101         162
BATTING AVERAGE     .408        .406
ON-BASE PERCENTAGE  .497        .551
SLUGGING PERCENTAGE .754        .735

This goes beyond the numbers, though. In six weeks, the man's become a folk hero. He has that little smile and that nothing-bothers-me demeanor and that missile-projector of a bat, and no one since Carl Yastrzemski in 1967 has been so assassin-like in clutch situations. Jim Rice was just as awe-inspiring physically, and he could hit the ball as far as Ramirez hits it, and he was probably the last Red Sox hitter before Ramirez who made people stay in their seats until his last at-bat was complete. But the traditional knock on Rice was that he failed more often than he succeeded with the chips on the line. While I'm not here to debate that issue -- which I'm not ready to say is true -- no one can make that charge against Manny.

Nor can anyone say the Fenway faithful haven't fallen in love. Sean McAdam was on a local radio station yesterday and noted that you can hear the buzz from the crowd as soon as Ramirez pops out of the dugout and heads to the on-deck circle. He's right. There's a new hero in Boston, and his name is Manny Ramirez.

Not that anyone needed any proof, but today's papers provided plenty.

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Speaking of Sean McAdam, he has gotten to the bottom of the hitch in Dan Duquette's contract extension talks, after also being the first to get John Harrington on the record about the bump in the negotiation road. It makes you wonder if Duquette will get his extension, and whether or not he'll leave at the end of the year regardless of any change in ownership.

There's an interesting journalism lesson at work, too. Remember the movie A Few Good Men? At one point, the Tom Cruise character, when talking about what he can introduce in court, said: "It doesn't matter what I know. What matters is what I can prove." It's the same deal here, at least at this publication. There's stuff beyond what we've printed that we think we know, but nothing we can prove.

But if what we think we know is true, it would be no surprise if Dan Duquette isn't in Boston next year.