There are so many angles to this story it’s hard to know where to begin. It would be naive, and stupid, to believe that Manny Ramirez is the only guy in the bigs still using something. Only difference right now is that Manny was dumb enough to get caught. This is probably karma for Manny loafing his way in Boston and hatching the scheme to get traded away; the biggest sin in baseball is disrespecting the game and now he has to pay. Speaking of paying, does anyone luck out for this more than Frank McCourt? The cheap muther not only will still get to the playoffs with a division title, but he gets to dodge paying Manny almost $8 million. And all the ticket sales have already been made. Perfect scenario for Franky? I’d say so. OK, let’s take this a few steps further.
Joe Torre says this doesn’t diminish any of Manny’s accomplishments. I say it does. How are we supposed to know how long Manny’s been using? For all we know it could have been his entire career — the numbers have always been there, right? If not, his ’07 year with Boston might be a good jumping off point. By then he was 35 and not hitting the way he always had. As a result, did he start juicing last year as part of a tag-team effort with Boras to get the new contract and score one last big pay day? I think it’s entirely possible.
Now it appears as if pushing the traveling secretary in Boston last year could have been a roid-raging moment. What about showing up to spring training so late even though the Dodgers were willing to strike a similar deal weeks before Manny signed? Was it so he could avoid extra drug testing rather than extra workouts? Me thinks this is definitely the case. And how about the extra baggy uniform he just started wearing recently? This also became a trend in MLB the past few years. Something tells me one sharp player decided to do it so that all the new muscles added by roids would be obscured and it became a trend — for juicers. I think it definitely worked. When was the last time you heard someone say Manny had the body type of a roider? Never.
Lastly, about the possible mistake here and blaming things on a physician, there’s no doubt that Manny knew exactly what he was doing. If he really needed the hCG for fertility or health purposes, he would have received a medical exemption ahead of time. And needless to say, he would have fought the suspension kicking and screaming if he were innocent. And the argument that he’s passed around 15 drug tests in the past means nothing. Except to say that this is the first time his “physician” didn’t properly mask it. Nice going, Manny. Don’t worry, all of LA will still love you. Sadly.
