Until about 11:30 AM, the Los Angeles Dodgers' record-breaking dominance was baseball's top story. They were dominating the National League, a perfect 13-0 at home, breaking the modern day record for wins at home to start a season. The city of Los Angeles had more faith in the Dodgers than the Lakers. At the very least, this city was rallying behind Manny Ramirez. After 11:30 AM, however, the fall of the Dodgers' biggest star--arguably baseball's biggest star--became the top story in sports.
"This just in, breaking news here. According to the Los Angeles Times, Manny Ramirez has tested positive for performance-enhancing and will be suspended for 50 games."
My little brother and several hundred thousand people felt their heartbreak. Steroids was getting stale. Sports talk radio was bored with it. Journalists were turning their back on Selene Roberts, the same woman who was heralded for breaking A-Rod's cheating. And no one liked A-Rod in the first place. Everyone loves Manny. A-Rod kisses his reflection for Details, Manny high-fives fans after making a running catch. The news coming out of ESPN was devastating.
By noon, ESPN's Peter Gammons had wrestled a statement out of Scott Boras, Manny's much maligned agent (also A-Rod's), saying that Ramirez didn't test positive for steroids. My first thought: I hope it was weed. It wasn't. Boras said that the 12-time all-star had been prescribed a medication by a doctor in Florida for a health issue, that he didn't know it was on the banned drug list. That he had asked the doctor if it was and was told it wasn't.
If Boras is telling the truth, Major League Baseball just shot itself in the leg. A mishap on par with Plaxico's.
Like all banned drug lists, baseball's is alive, morphing, growing, shrinking, changing, and moving with the miracles (and repackaging) of medicine's modern marvels. And if Manny was suspended for 50 games on a technicality? Los Angeles is excited about baseball. It's America's second largest market, a city that hasn't been excited about baseball in over a decade. Manny is as popular as Kobe in LA and as popular as LeBron every where else. The team is winning and the team is winning behind Manny Ramirez. 50 games is nearly a third of the season...and on a technicality?
The Dodgers have the best record in baseball. It's coolest promotion (Mannywood: two left field seats within high-fiving distance and two t-shirts for $99, his number).To damage that for some cough syrup would be absurd. Manny's already owned up to his mistake, taken responsibility for ingesting something that he wasn't sure about. It's another reason to still love Manny. So while the media may discuss how this affects the career .315 hitter's legacy (detailed wonderfully here after his trade to the Dodgers last year), it may be more appropriate to ask how it affects baseball's legacy. Right now, it's sounding like stupidity.
He must've read an advanced copy of "Get Rich Cheating."
http://GetRichCheating.com
"A very funny book with a very timely message"
— Terry Jones (Monty Python)
"Just by reading this book you'll earn an asterisk next to your name. You'll be laughing all the way to the bank, assuming other cheaters haven't forced it into bankruptcy yet."
— Rachel Maddow (MSNBC)
This just in.
Everyone does NOT love Manny.
Go Sox!
White Sox that is.
Thank God we traded Manny!
Not to rub it in but Jason Bay hit another 3 run homer tonight! (for you civilians Jason replaced Manny in Boston)
People like to make excuses for him like, "Manny being Manny"
How about a little reality, this is just another example of Manny being stupid and braindead- take away his baseball bat and what's left.....NOT MUCH!!!
Bad, bad news.
To believe Manny is innocent, we have to believe he somehow had this medical problem without steroid use, and that his doctor somehow didn't know this substance was on the banned list. If nothing else, Manny lost more than $7 million from this... I know Manny waltzes through the world without a worry, but his doctor gets paid to notice these things. So either he had an incompetent doctor, or Manny is not so innocent.
Either way, calling it a technicality is a gross misrepresentation of the facts.
Or people who think that one should wear clothes that fit.
And nice try that "Manny's already owned up to his mistake. What he did say, THROUGH THE UNION, was: "Recently, I saw a physician for a personal health issue. He gave me a medication, not a steroid, which he thought was OK to give me."
So first he blames the doctor, and then he takes responsibility for not knowing what he was taking (yeah, right). Nowhere does he even remotely claim that this was unfair in any way or out of bounds for MLB to ban him. And knowing Manny's habit of overreacting to almost everything under the sun, your piece seems to be nothing more than an apologetic red herring that is out to forgive the cheater for no other reason than the Dodgers are playing well and they're in a big market. Manny is a loveable wing-nut. But he took a woman's fertility drug that was on the banned substances list and which, in males, is taken to jump start the metabolisms of regular steroid users. Show me a cough syrup that does that.