yeah, he smiled a bunch, he joked with reporters, he came off as dumb as a post sometimes because they'd try to ask him about stuff that wasn't hitting, his teammates loved him and stuck up for him, etc.
He wasn't a moody recluse like Sosa. He was sometimes quotable.
Again, not saying the stereotypes hold water, but over the course of their careers, Manny got painted in a pretty positive light as long as you weren't Dan Shaughnessy. The "cutting off Damon in the outfield" inside-the-park HR makes all-time blooper reels, as does half a dozen different Manny incidents. And the steroids stuff happened long after the Manny Story had largely been told, very late in his career, so it didn't really impact most people's emotions about him to the same extent. Whereas, Sosa was under suspicion from 1998 on. And of course, Sheffield
told his whole BALCO story mid-career.