Of course everyone now has heard the news about Manny Ramirez. In case you have been in a cave or something, Manny Ramirez has been banned for fifty games for failing a drug test. He claims that his doctor prescribed something that contained a banned substance. Whether you want to believe that or not, it's up to you. Here in the FanDome, a person's word is believed until proof is offered otherwise.
One emotion that overrides all others is disappointment. There is not disappointment that another great player has been busted for a banned substance. The Fan has said it before and will say it again: Who the heck cares what players are ingesting into their systems. The Fan doesn't give a flying crap. What is disappointing is that we the fans will be deprived of watching Manny Ramirez for the next two months. That's what is so hard to take.
Of course the bulk of the big time writers are stepping all over themselves to get on their sanctimonious soapbox. Check out this Jeff Passan piece of crap. Yeah, Jeff, that's what we want, to never see the best players in baseball again for what most fans consider a gray area. Well, at least in Manny's case, most people already disrespect him already, so this will just add to the ammunition.
One of the things that has made Manny so different from all other players is that there is no BS about him. He doesn't go by any other drummer but the one he hears in his own head. So there is no reason really to disbelieve him. That's also why J. C. Romero is believable. And the question to be asked is if any rules that are so set in stone infallible? It is the same kind of thinking that forces judges to throw away a good professor for ten years for a certain number of pot plants in his basement while a rapist gets five years.
What if Romero and Ramirez are telling the truth? What if GNC sold Romero something that caused him to fail the test? What if Manny's doctor blew it by not being thorough enough to investigate the list of banned substances? Do they deserve the full fifty days? Do they deserve the time when A-Rod admits to using but gets nothing because it was before 2004...supposedly?
The whole thing smells. The Fan doesn't want Manny to be any more branded than he already is. The guy has been a blast to watch and to follow. The Fan has rooted against him for most of his career, but has smiled all along the way. Now, either because of a doctor error, or because of rigid and unworkable rules, it won't be until July that we can again find out what Manny will do next.
The Fan hopes Congress, all the sanctimonious writers and the commissioner are happy.
4 comments:
"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."
It's a done deal. Manny being Barry.
William, thoroughly enjoy reading your comments. You're another baseball-loving distant friend.
Feel compelled to join the conversation here. Won't throw a stone at Manny as I know how tempting steroids can be. In my younger years I worked-out religiously and almost, many times, put a needle in my rearend. Had I had a financial incentive, as do these guys, undoubtedly I would have. The problem is when your competitors are taking advantage, one is compelled to do the same. THAT is the crime-- one gaining competitive advantage makes another do the same. P.E.D.s (in baseball is just another example in a long list) of Commissioner Assterisk turning a blind eye from the good of baseball for the unholy dollar. None of this would have happened had baseball had a leader with integrity.
Appreciate the feedback, babooki. Anyone who loves baseball is in the same fraternity really.
Nice to know someone like you is reading the posts.
Josh, I respectfully disagree. Maybe I'm naive, or maybe the real problem is that I don't care if the players used.
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