Manny Ramirez receiving a 50-game suspension from Major League Baseball for violating Major League Baseball's Performance Enhancing Drug policy is pausing me to rethink my religious views and the existence of god. Is Ramirez's suspension clear, undeniable proof that a higher power exists or perhaps it's a perfect example of the karma carousel of what goes around - comes around.
ESPN has reported that Ramirez tested positive for using a women's fertility drug. Two excerpts from the ESPN piece:
However, two sources told ESPN's T.J. Quinn and Mark Fainaru-Wada that the drug used by Ramirez is HCG -- human chorionic gonadotropin. HCG is a women's fertility drug typically used by steroid users to restart their body's natural testosterone production as they come off a steroid cycle. It is similar to Clomid, the drug Bonds, Giambi and others used as clients of BALCO.
A source with intimate knowledge of steroids told ESPN that a male athlete usually uses HCG after a cycle of steroids because steroids often shut down the testosterone-making ability of the testicles. HCG restores their capacity to make testosterone. The source said that some males may use HCG in lieu of steroids also. HCG by itself can provide a substantial boost in the body's own testosterone, and this may provide some performance-enhancement benefits.
Arguably, Manny is coming off the greatest year of what was destined to be a Hall of Fame career. After Manny was dealt from the Red Sox to the Dodgers, Manny single-handedly carried the Dodgers to the top of the NL West. Playing in 53 games with the Dodgers; Manny hit .396, swatted 17 home runs, drove in 53 ribbies and amassed an OPS of 1.232. All of this was done at the age of 36 when his skills should have been in a natural decline, but Manny defied the natural effects of aging and put up some astounding offensive numbers.
Boston Red Sox fans surely want to believe that Manny would never have used performance-enhancing drugs when he was a member of two World Series championship squads in 2004 and 2007. For those of you who want to believe Manny only started taking performance-enhancing drugs in the last few months, hold on to those dreams of Kris Kringle and the Great Pumpkin. Manny on the bean? Say it ain't so, Manny!
Manny's name was never mentioned in the Mitchell Report, but most of the information contained in the Mitchell Report came from Brian McNamee and Kirk Radomski. McNamee was a former employee of the New York Yankees and Radomski was a former clubhouse attendant for the New York Mets, which provided a New York slant to the Mitchell Report. If players throughout major league baseball were juicing and using human growth hormones, you can bet that a few Red Sox were on the juice.
Does Manny's documented use of performance-enhancing drugs tarnish Boston's World Series titles? No, you would have to be a permanent resident of the Costa Rican rain forest not to know that performance-enhancing drugs are rife throughout major league baseball. Red Sox fans should worry that Wally The Green Monster isn't dirty.
Has Manny jeopardized his place in Cooperstown? Probably, but he's also made an obscene amount of money that was given to him by the Red Sox and the Dodgers. Is exclusion from the Baseball Hall of Fame worth $40 million dollars? Manny will lose $8 million as part of his 50-game suspension, but how many folks at home would take the cash and run? Screw the Baseball Hall of Fame, Manny has made crazy cash playing the game and no one can take the Benjamins away from Manny. Does anyone believe Manny is going to cry over possibly being excluded from the Baseball Hall of Fame?
If memory serves me, Manny was lauded for his physical condition when he reported to the 2008 Red Sox spring training camp in Fort Myers. In the spring of 2008, Manny was 35 and he's in unbelievable shape? Again, this flies in the face of the natural laws of aging. Roger Clemens performed this same miraculous feat when he exited the Red Sox via free agency and joined the Toronto Blue Jays. Clemens arrived in Toronto with a body that we now know was the product of performance-enhancing drugs.
Manny being Manny. Manny is a creep. Spare me the child-like Manny and the ingenue Manny - Manny is a douchebag. Manny and his agent Scott Boras will try to con everyone with the typical evasive song and dance that Manny didn't know what he was taking. Gee, we haven't heard that one before, and there will be folks that believe Manny's proclamations of innocence, but this guy will not be one of them.
Manny has joined the junk heap of former baseball immortals. Manny, take a look around; sitting over there is Roger Clemens, looking in the mirror at himself is Alex Rodriguez, pleading the Fifth is Mark McGwire and needing an interpreter is Sammy Sosa.
Workout Buddies
