It will sure be interesting hosting Dodger Talk on KABC tonight. Manny Ramirez has tested positive for performance enhancing drugs and has been suspended for fifty games. Uh, there goes Mannywood. Big sale on those dreadlocks at the concession stands. And of course there are the thousand Manny billboards that are splayed over the southland.
This is a huge bombshell and a crushing blow to the Dodgers and their fans. Supposedly, he was suspended not for steroids but for some doctor prescribed amphetamine. I'd like to believe that's true. I'd like to believe he didn't cheat; he just showed incredibly poor judgment. And considering Manny's past history let's just say there has been precedent. Hey, will you people in Boston stop laughing so hard? It's breaking my concentration.
There is another case of a player, J.C. Romero of the Philadelphia Phillies who was recently suspended fifty games for taking a supplement he purchased over the counter. He too thought it was safe. All he, or Manny, or any player who knows how to use the phone has to do is call the commissioner's office for verification on any specific drug, supplement, or Tic Tac. If a doctor prescribes it that's not enough. If you buy it at Whole Foods that's not enough. If you call the players union and get their permission that's not enough either. CHECK FIRST YOU IDIOTS!!!!
And again, I'm taking Manny's statement at face value. Who knows if more bombshells are coming? At this point I wouldn't be shocked if word leaks that Mother Teresa was also a gun runner.
Manny will return in early July and in all likelihood the Dodgers will prevail. This is a good team without him and I suspect the players will rise to the occasion. And it doesn't hurt that they're playing in a God awful division. But the betrayal to the fans is devastating. Yes, they may forgive him. They forgave Kobe. (Let's see how New York fans welcome back A-Roid.) But it'll never be the same. I feel sorry for all the kids who lost a hero today. I feel sorry for the McCourts who shelled out a lot of 2009-economy dollars in good faith to bring him to Los Angeles. In fact, I feel sorry for everybody... but Ramirez.
On a personal note, I like Manny. He's a very engaging guy. A big kid. Fun to be around. I always thought he was a goofball, not taking them. And true, Manny's not the smartest ballplayer I've ever encountered but the person representing him -- who is smart -- is supposed to look out for him. That would be Scott Boras... the same Scott Boras who also represents Alex Rodriguez. Nice job, Scott.
This is a sad day for the Dodgers and the game itself. As a lifelong fan, it breaks my heart. Is my love for baseball the only remaining pure thing about it?
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What has concerned me for these past several years is the McCourts as corporate-minded owners. From Day 1 they raised the prices on everything from concessions to parking to tickets, f ired coaches and managers at whim, traded pricey free agents, took on surly-personalities like Kent--not exactly fan faves--and essentially gave LA a really bad taste about the entire post-O' Mally era. I believe that obtaining Manny was a franchise-saving move by owners desperate to plug the holes in their major league Titanic management disaster. The marketing of one marquee player over the team as a whole was a horrid abberation to all the conceptually good attributes of team play in sports. How not surprised I am that it backfired. One guy is not a team; one man should not be deified. He then has nowhere else to go but down.
He was just following a proven script, like so many, in so many different fields, have before.
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)
What you should feel sad about is how the media are not shining a light on the whole history of the game, content to merely focus on demonizing the players get caught today. It is your responsibility, as a writer, to paint the whole picture, and if you take the time to really do some research, you will find that it has always been this way. Educate the masses to get past the idea of ballplayers as heroes and show them as human who want to win, who want to be the best they can be, and are willing to put things in their body that perhaps they shouldn’t.
Use your platform to show that the idea of a “clean” record book is an illusion promulgated by other writers for their own purposes. Use your pulpit to expose that management and the powers that control baseball have known about this since the usage began and did nothing to curtail it until recently.
Do that, and you’ll really blow a lot of people’s minds.
Nobody likes to talk about the greenie-poppers of yesteryear, many of whom are already in the Hall of Fame. If you're going to shine the light on the steroids users and HGH users and talk about expunging stats and records from the history books, be prepared to go all the way with it. The list of illegal drug users and those who sought to gain competitive advantage by skirting the rules of the game (or the country) is long. And it goes back a lot further than the 1980's.
There will be 28 home games missed by my count and Dodger Stadium holds about 56 thousand in a sellout. That comes to about $4.88 per seat per game. So give every person a $5 coupon when they come in the gate good for either cash or merchandise at any concession.
It would do well to reduce fan annoyance. It would be an admission that the Dodgers have sold a 'product' that included seeing Manny Ramirez and they aren't being able to meet that.
The drug he tested positive for was not a performance enhancing substance.
Good thing that this is not a "real" sports blog or you would be flamed out of existence!