SAN DIEGO -- Maybe it's still way too premature to break down the American League manager of the year race, but it's certainly not too early to nominate Boston manager Grady Little for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Are you kidding? Here we are heading toward late June, and we're still awaiting the first signs of any kind of nonsense in Boston. Have you noticed how quiet the Red Sox have been this season? Of course you've noticed, you threw away your earplugs and bottle of Tylenol weeks ago. There are no outfielders looking to punch out the manager. There are no general managers sharp shooting the skipper on local radio. There's been no bickering between the GM and the ace pitcher.

Grady Little has thrived this year after managing for 16 years in the minors.(AP)

Fact is, as the Red Sox opened an interleague West Coast swing Tuesday night in San Diego, the Ramirez situation is currently Exhibit A from the What a Difference a Year Makes category.

The RBI Machine suffered a fractured finger on his left hand May 11 and has been slower than a frozen computer to come back. Last year it would have turned into World War III between somebody -- say, the GM and Ramirez, or the GM and the media, or the manager and Ramirez.

This year? Shoot, it's almost comical. The Red Sox originally thought Ramirez, who left for an injury-rehabilitation assignment at Triple-A Pawtucket last week, was going to rejoin the team in Atlanta over the weekend.

That fell through, and the plan was for the slugger to rejoin the team Tuesday night in San Diego.

That fell though, and the thinking was that perhaps Ramirez would rejoin the Red Sox this weekend in Los Angeles.

Now?

"He'll probably stay with (Pawtucket) through their whole road trip (which ends this weekend) so he doesn't have to come all the way across the country," Little said Tuesday afternoon, sitting back in the tiny visiting manager's office here. "We'll wait and make a decision on that.

"He doesn't feel totally comfortable yet with his finger, so we don't want to rush him."

The Boston doctors say Ramirez is fine. The trainer says he's fine. But as anybody who is familiar with Ramirez knows, the man is ultra-sensitive and performs best when left to go at his own pace.

With the Red Sox apparently unwilling to make him fly him across the country just to pinch hit (Ramirez doesn't always feel comfortable in the outfield on his best days, and the Red Sox do not have the benefit of a designated hitter in the NL parks this week), as long as they're comfortable that subtracting another at-bat or two this week won't cost them come stretch-run time in September, that's their business.

But the noticeable thing is the absolute tranquility surrounding this club. Nobody is sniping behind Ramirez's back in the clubhouse, let alone through the Boston media.

"Last year, we had a bad clubhouse, we had injuries, we had guys having poor years -- I was one of them -- and it snowballed," says pitcher Derek Lowe, who leads the AL in both ERA (1.85) and wins (11). "We couldn't stop it. Then there was the sale of the team, and we were losing. And ultimately, there was the change in managers to Joe Kerrigan, and it got even worse.

"I don't like talking about last year. It's a long way away."

The changes in the Red Sox began in earnest last winter, when then-GM Dan Duquette, who presided over a poisoned atmosphere for at least the past two years, began cleaning up the mess by dealing outfielder Carl Everett to Texas. Then the Red Sox's sale became final in February, and the new ownership group led by John Henry and Larry Lucchino blew in like a fresh gust of spring air. They fired Kerrigan, and then they blew out Duquette.

While the new ownership group and Mike Port, the interim GM, have brought some stability to the Red Sox, Little, hired as the manager March 11, gets most of the credit for the daily stuff -- which includes guiding the Red Sox to a major-league best record of 44-23 after Tuesday's 4-2 pasting of the Padres thanks to third baseman Shea Hillenbrand's latest big knock, a three-run homer in the eighth against San Diego starter Brian Lawrence.

And while this series might be just another stop on the schedule for many with the Red Sox, the significance of the location shouldn't be overlooked by those who admire the job done by Little so far this season.

It was in San Diego in 1996 that Little stepped into the majors for the first time after managing 1,957 games over 16 years at several minor-league stops. Bruce Bochy, then in his second season as Padres' manager, fought to get Little hired as the club's bullpen coach -- and won the battle over the skepticism of then-Padres president Lucchino.

Bochy had known the Little family for years, beginning in 1974 when he roomed with Grady's brother, Tommy, in a summer league in northern Virginia the year before Bochy signed professionally.

"I knew I wanted to get him over here as soon as I got a chance," Bochy says.

That Lucchino was Little's leading advocate in Boston this spring speaks to both Lucchino's open-mindedness and to the respect Little has commanded in the game since that first major-league job in '96, when he lived 30 minutes east of Qualcomm Stadium in a little town called Jamul and paid $500 rent to a man who had his house on the market for $700,000.

Asked Tuesday if those days seem like forever ago, Little, who moved on to become Boston's bench coach from 1997-1999 and Cleveland's bench coach in 2000 and 2001, said: "Yeah. Last year seems like forever ago, to tell you the truth. There's a lot of difference between managing and being the coach."

Having already served one tour of duty as Boston's bench coach -- he left the Padres for Boston after that '96 season mainly because each team can designate only a certain number of coaches for the pension plan, and as the new kid on the block in San Diego, he didn't qualify -- Little was familiar with the situation he was offered in March.

However, he also knew that, under new ownership, it would be different.

"There hasn't been any surprises," Little says. "The situation they were in in the last year or so had a lot to do with personnel. That personnel changed over the winter, and that's made a world of difference around here. I'm talking from the ownership group to the general manager, and there are a lot of players who weren't here last year."

Regardless, Little, 52, wasn't exactly going to turn down the job of a lifetime.

"Not when you wait 16 years managing in the minors, and then coach for a few years," Little says. "I don't see how anyone can say they would turn down a job like this -- especially this one."

Sometimes getting your foot in the door is the most difficult part. Sometimes, once you're in, others find out what you've always believed: That you actually belong.

"Grady does a great job," catcher Jason Varitek says. "If you have a hard time playing for Grady, you're going to have a hard time playing for a lot of people. Every day, it seems like he teaches you something."

Says ace Pedro Martinez: "He's great. Everywhere you look, he's a 10 out of 10."

Of course, much of the clubhouse cheer can be directly linked to the Red Sox's first-place standing -- they've been alone in first since April 27. Were the Red Sox scuffling along in, say, third place, there undoubtedly would be a few catty comments about Ramirez, who missed his 34th game on Tuesday.

However, in addition to the work (and good health) of Martinez and Nomar Garciaparra, the Red Sox have several other bright spots. They landed in San Diego ranked first in the AL in batting (.285) -- newcomer Johnny Damon was second in the league with a .331 average, and Hillenbrand has been outstanding -- and first in pitching (3.65 ERA).

What once was by land or by sea in the day of Paul Revere has become by day (Frank Castillo has the AL's best day ERA at 0.82) or by night (Lowe's 1.47 ERA tops the league in night games).

"We've got to keep our pitching healthy," Varitek says. "We've been able to stay afloat without one of our best hitters because of our pitching. You have to pitch well over a long period of time to be where you need to be."

Ultimately, Little knows that the tranquility in Boston will remain as long as the health of certain key players holds up. At the end of last season, Varitek, Garciaparra and Martinez were not on the field. That cannot happen again.

For now, though, still near the beginning of what could be a tremendous ride, managing one of the crown-jewel franchises of the game -- during peace-time, even -- is a pretty good place to be.

"Every single day, I feel like I'm the luckiest person in the world," Little says. "A lot of people say Lou Gehrig said that because of his health. I say it because of my family and because of what these people have given me the opportunity to do. They've given me an opportunity with a good ballclub."