Can't blame positive test on Manny being Manny
You have to be an idiot to flunk a drug test.
You have to be an even bigger idiot to flunk one at a time when baseball players are under greater scrutiny than ever.
Which brings us to Manny Ramirez.
As if there was any doubt, he is now the village idiot of baseball. Maybe the Dodgers can make a T-shirt out of that, replacing all of their "Mannywood" paraphernalia.
Alex Rodriguez tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs at a time when players were promised that the tests would remain confidential.
Ramirez was suspended by the commissioner at a time when players are subjected to the toughest drug-testing policy in professional sports.
Baseball will cite its 50-game suspension of Ramirez as proof of the program's legitimacy and efficiency, even if any cheater with half a brain still can use undetectable substances such as human growth hormone.
Do they make dunce caps in Dodger blue?
I don't want to hear Ramirez's excuse, which — according to the Los Angeles Times — will be that he tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs because of medication received from a doctor for personal medical issues.
It's one more lie on baseball's Mt. Everest of deceit. And even if it isn't — as his handlers and apologists surely will insist — his story is a crock.
Players know — they have been told over and over and over again — to clear any substances they are taking with trainers and/or Major League Baseball personnel.
In suspending Phillies reliever J.C. Romero, MLB ruled that players are responsible for ensuring that whatever supplements they take contain no banned substances. The same standard applies to medication.
So much for the Dodgers' storybook start, which includes a 13-game winning streak at home to start the season, the first in major-league history.
So much for Los Angeles' honeymoon with Ramirez, unless Dodgers fans are willing to ignore Manny's latest trespass, which will keep him out of the team's lineup until July 3.
Oh, and so much for Ramirez rushing to opt out of the second year of his two-year, $45 million contract with the Dodgers.
His agent, Scott Boras, will want him back on the open market, but there is no chance — none — that another team will match Ramirez's $20 million salary for 2010.
Yo, L.A.: Y'all just got played.
Please, no gloating in Boston, either. If Ramirez is knowingly taking PEDs, heaven knows when he started. Heaven knows which other Red Sox have taken them.
My teenage children are not even baseball fans, but they can tell you that it is only a surprise when a player is clean, not dirty.
Not that any players actually can be trusted, which is the greatest shame of this era — the branding of the innocent as guilty.
Step right up, Manny, to the Hall of Shame. You've got plenty of company — A-Rod, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens; Rafael Palmeiro, Gary Sheffield and Mark McGwire.
Your basic A-list, courtesy of the Steroid Era.
With, surely, more to come.
Short-term, the Dodgers will remain favorites to win the NL West, even though the substitution of Juan Pierre for Manny is one of the bigger offensive downgrades imaginable.
Manny will return before the All-Star break, just in time to mount a salary drive and ensure that the Dodgers stave off any of their meek NL West competitors who might threaten to challenge in his absence.
The bigger question is long-term.
For Manny. For the Dodgers. And yes, for the sport.
Ramirez, after repairing his reputation in Los Angeles, has blown any chance of securing the long-term contract he craves, and any chance of leaving a positive legacy.
The Dodgers, who drew widespread praise for holding Ramirez to a two-year deal, now must deal with an unnecessary distraction when he returns and uncomfortable questions for the rest of his tenure.
Baseball will survive, just as it has survived every other one of these public-relations nightmares. Fans, voting with their pocketbooks, accept that many players are juicers. The game's image problem, however, remains. The drug story will simply not go away.
Finally, there is the question of the Hall of Fame.
Ramirez, judging from his sheer numbers, is deserving. So is A-Rod. So is Clemens. So is Bonds. None is eligible until five years after he retires. But none probably would be elected if the vote were held today.
My gut instinct is no, no, a thousand times no. But the question is growing more nagging: How do you wipe out an entire era?
Maybe you don't. Maybe you acknowledge the greats of this age in some other fashion. Maybe you establish a cheaters' wing and be done with it.
Ramirez?
He gets his own wing. The idiot's wing.
Manny being Manny.
by Ken Rosenthal
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/9...ny-being-Manny