Thread: Manny Ramirez Suspended for 50 Games

ya Manny got screwed I think... I dont know what he took but from what I hear its not sterioids, and it didnt help him get bigger,stronger, faster.... regardless this is all on Manny, a Pro Athlete should be very cautious over what type of supplements/medications hes putting in his body.

50 games though? thats a bit too much if you ask me.

Pass the crow, please.

You are right, In-com-plete, I did assume it was steroids. It's just been the flavor of the week for baseball players these past several years. It's easy to assume the trend won't end.

But still, rules are rules. Even if it was Hydroxycut or something stupid like that, do we know if there is or isn't anything in those PED;s that have effects like steroids? For example, Kava Kava is a natural herb remedy for stress and anxiety, but it produces results similar to benzodiazepines like Xanax or Ativan. If you get pulled over and have benzos in your system, you'll get arrested for DUI. There is no street test for Kava, yet you can still get pulled over for acting DUI. You just won't go to jail for it.

PED's in sports is cheating, even if it's legalized cheating. He's an idiot if he thought he could get away with it. If he honestly did not know that whatever he was taking would fine him 50 games, then the MLB will probably look at it further and reduce his suspension.

Ramirez even gets his own 30 minutes of a Sportscenter Special instead of College Football Live!

A friend of mine sent me this article about an hour ago.

At the end of it:

In St. Louis, a clubhouse attendant stuck his head into manager Tony La Russa's office and said "Manny Ramirez, 50 games, steroids."

La Russa's reaction: "You're kidding me."

See, that's what pisses me off. Everyone sees this shit and just assumes it's roids. But it's not their fault. It's not your fault gnomeflinger. We've all been brainwashed to think PEDs=Roids. And you can thank the media for that. They want everyone to think it's roids because it's a bigger story.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?...=.jsp&c_id=mlb

LOS ANGELES -- Major League Baseball suspended Dodgers outfielder Manny Ramirez for 50 games on Thursday for use of a performance-enhancing drug.

Major League Baseball made an official announcement shortly after noon ET.

Ramirez, in a statement released by the Major League Baseball Players Association, attributed the suspension to his use of a doctor-prescribed medication and waived his right to challenge the discipline.

"Recently I saw a physician for a personal health issue. He gave me a medication, not a steroid, which he thought was OK to give me. Unfortunately, the medication was banned under our drug policy. Under the policy that mistake is now my responsibility. I have been advised not to say anything more for now. I do want to say one other thing; I've taken and passed about 15 drug tests over the past five seasons.

"I want to apologize to Mr. McCourt, Mrs. McCourt, Mr. Torre, my teammates, the Dodger organization, and to the Dodger fans. LA is a special place to me and I know everybody is disappointed. So am I. I'm sorry about this whole situation."

According to ESPN, which cited two sources, the drug used by Ramirez was human chorionic gonadatropin (HCG), a women's fertility drug. The drug is typically taken by steroid users when they come off a steroid cycle in order to restart their body's natural production of testosterone, according to the report.

Ramirez, who turns 37 on May 30, will begin the suspension with Thursday night's Dodgers-Nationals game. He would be eligible to return around July 3, depending on rainouts.

Ramirez -- a 12-time All-Star who immediately became the face of the Dodgers franchise upon his acquisition last summer -- is the biggest name player to be issued a 50-game suspension under the MLB's more stringent drug policy that was adopted in 2006.

According to the drug policy, a player receives a 50-game suspension for a first positive drug test, a 100-game suspension for a second positive test and a lifetime ban for a third positive test.

All suspensions are without pay, so the suspension will cost Ramirez, who re-signed with the Dodgers as a free agent on a two-year contract that was to pay him $25 million this season, roughly $7.7 million.

Ramirez has been a key component in leading the Dodgers to the best record in baseball this year. In 27 games, he is batting .348 with six home runs and 20 RBIs. He is among league leaders in slugging and on-base percentage and has become the biggest drawing card the Dodgers have had since Fernando Valenzuela, even recently having a portion of the left-field box seats rechristened "Mannywood."

Wednesday night, Ramirez went 1-for-3 with a two-run double as the Dodgers set a modern-day record with their 13th consecutive home win to open a season.

Juan Pierre would be the immediate replacement for Ramirez in left field, while the Dodgers are expected to promote rookie Xavier Paul from Triple-A Albuqueruque to replace Ramirez on the active roster.

Ken Gurnick is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Originally Posted by Flatinum

Manny being Manny.

Manny being Barry.

Originally Posted by OrangeHoof

Manny being Barry.

Yeah, because Manny took steroids right?

I wouldn't admit knowingly using a women's fertility drug either. He's wrong and he knows it that's why he won't appeal. He doesn't give a crap because he's going to get paid millions of dollars anyway!

Originally Posted by In-com-plete

A friend of mine sent me this article about an hour ago.

At the end of it:



See, that's what pisses me off. Everyone sees this shit and just assumes it's roids. But it's not their fault. It's not your fault gnomeflinger. We've all been brainwashed to think PEDs=Roids. And you can thank the media for that. They want everyone to think it's roids because it's a bigger story.

Dude, you know I love you... But you're arguing semantics here. A banned performance enhancer is a banned performance enhancer, regardless of whether or not they are technically steroids.

This guy is getting paid more than $20 million per year and he can't keep tabs on what he is putting into his body? If there is any questions whatsoever as to whether something may contain a banned substance, then he shouldn't take it... I just don't buy the ignorance plea. It's total BS.

Even if I take him at his word and believe he honestly didn't mean to take a PED, he's still a dumbass for letting it happen.

Originally Posted by EMB6903

50 games though? thats a bit too much if you ask me.

Mandatory, according to the MLB Drug Policy. Second one is 100 I believe and third is your done for two years.

I don't believe there is any chance that its shortened either.

In-Com-Plete, I just read that article you posted, and if everything he is said is 100% true, then yeah, I think people should make a distinction between a violation like that and one of someone who is on the juice...

However, I still think he's dumb for letting it happen (regardless of the advice he got.) And I also have a hard time believing anyone in MLB and it wouldn't surprise me if this is some elaborate cover-up on his part.

Just a note...Manny has been playing since 1993...testing began like five years ago...so...

But, there's a pretty good argument that Ramirez is telling the truth:

Code:

Year  	Age  	Tm  	Lg  	G  	PA  	AB  	R  	H  	2B  	3B  	HR  	RBI  	SB  	CS  	BB  	SO  	BA  	OBP  	SLG  	OPS  	OPS+  	TB  	GDP  	HBP  	SH  	SF  	IBB  	Pos  	Awards
1993 	21 	CLE 	AL 	22 	55 	53 	5 	9 	1 	0 	2 	5 	0 	0 	2 	8 	.170 	.200 	.302 	.502 	33 	16 	3 	0 	0 	0 	0 	D/9 	
1994 	22 	CLE 	AL 	91 	336 	290 	51 	78 	22 	0 	17 	60 	4 	2 	42 	72 	.269 	.357 	.521 	.878 	124 	151 	6 	0 	0 	4 	4 	*9/D 	RoY-2
1995 	23 	CLE 	AL 	137 	571 	484 	85 	149 	26 	1 	31 	107 	6 	6 	75 	112 	.308 	.402 	.558 	.960 	147 	270 	13 	5 	2 	5 	6 	*9/D 	AS,MVP-12,SS
1996 	24 	CLE 	AL 	152 	647 	550 	94 	170 	45 	3 	33 	112 	8 	5 	85 	104 	.309 	.399 	.582 	.981 	146 	320 	18 	3 	0 	9 	8 	*9/D 	
1997 	25 	CLE 	AL 	150 	651 	561 	99 	184 	40 	0 	26 	88 	2 	3 	79 	115 	.328 	.415 	.538 	.953 	144 	302 	19 	7 	0 	4 	5 	*9/D 	
1998 	26 	CLE 	AL 	150 	663 	571 	108 	168 	35 	2 	45 	145 	5 	3 	76 	121 	.294 	.377 	.599 	.976 	146 	342 	18 	6 	0 	10 	6 	*9/D 	AS,MVP-6
1999 	27 	CLE 	AL 	147 	640 	522 	131 	174 	34 	3 	44 	165 	2 	4 	96 	131 	.333 	.442 	.663 	1.105 	173 	346 	12 	13 	0 	9 	9 	*9/D 	AS,MVP-3,SS
2000 	28 	CLE 	AL 	118 	532 	439 	92 	154 	34 	2 	38 	122 	1 	1 	86 	117 	.351 	.457 	.697 	1.154 	186 	306 	9 	3 	0 	4 	9 	9D 	AS,MVP-6,SS
2001 	29 	BOS 	AL 	142 	620 	529 	93 	162 	33 	2 	41 	125 	0 	1 	81 	147 	.306 	.405 	.609 	1.014 	161 	322 	9 	8 	0 	2 	25 	D7 	AS,MVP-9,SS
2002 	30 	BOS 	AL 	120 	518 	436 	84 	152 	31 	0 	33 	107 	0 	0 	73 	85 	.349 	.450 	.647 	1.097 	184 	282 	13 	8 	0 	1 	14 	7D/9 	AS,MVP-9,SS
2003 	31 	BOS 	AL 	154 	679 	569 	117 	185 	36 	1 	37 	104 	3 	1 	97 	94 	.325 	.427 	.587 	1.014 	160 	334 	22 	8 	0 	5 	28 	*7D 	AS,MVP-6,SS
2004 	32 	BOS 	AL 	152 	663 	568 	108 	175 	44 	0 	43 	130 	2 	4 	82 	124 	.308 	.397 	.613 	1.009 	152 	348 	17 	6 	0 	7 	15 	*7D 	AS,MVP-3,SS
2005 	33 	BOS 	AL 	152 	650 	554 	112 	162 	30 	1 	45 	144 	1 	0 	80 	119 	.292 	.388 	.594 	.982 	153 	329 	20 	10 	0 	6 	9 	*7/D 	AS,MVP-4,SS
2006 	34 	BOS 	AL 	130 	558 	449 	79 	144 	27 	1 	35 	102 	0 	1 	100 	102 	.321 	.439 	.619 	1.058 	165 	278 	13 	1 	0 	8 	16 	*7/D 	AS,MVP-18,SS
2007 	35 	BOS 	AL 	133 	569 	483 	84 	143 	33 	1 	20 	88 	0 	0 	71 	92 	.296 	.388 	.493 	.881 	126 	238 	21 	7 	0 	8 	13 	*7D 	AS
2008 	36 	TOT 		153 	654 	552 	102 	183 	36 	1 	37 	121 	3 	0 	87 	124 	.332 	.430 	.601 	1.031 	164 	332 	17 	11 	0 	4 	24 	*7D 	AS,MVP-4
2008 	36 	BOS 	AL 	100 	425 	365 	66 	109 	22 	1 	20 	68 	1 	0 	52 	86 	.299 	.398 	.529 	.926 	136 	193 	12 	8 	0 	0 	8 	7D 	
2008 	36 	LAD 	NL 	53 	229 	187 	36 	74 	14 	0 	17 	53 	2 	0 	35 	38 	.396 	.489 	.743 	1.232 	219 	139 	5 	3 	0 	4 	16 	7 	
2009 	37 	LAD 	NL 	27 	120 	92 	22 	32 	9 	0 	6 	20 	0 	0 	26 	17 	.348 	.492 	.641 	1.133 	194 	59 	2 	1 	0 	1 	8 	*7 	
17 Seasons 	2130 	9126 	7702 	1466 	2424 	516 	18 	533 	1745 	37 	31 	1238 	1684 	.315 	.412 	.594 	1.006 	156 	4575 	232 	97 	2 	87 	199

At age 23 he hit 31 home runs, and then averaged 36 home runs with not a lot of peaks and valleys, except for 2007...which is when the stricter policy came down...but I think there's a good argument and enough knowledge of his game to say he probably has not cheated.

This is just a dumb move by him trusting a doctor...

Why the hell else would he take a women's fertility drug if it wasn't to what was mentioned in the article? This article makes me even more inclined to believe that he cheated.

Originally Posted by BaileyTheBest

Why the hell else would he take a women's fertility drug if it wasn't to what was mentioned in the article? This article makes me even more inclined to believe that he cheated.

The only explanation I've seen is that the women's fertility drug is meant to regulate hormone levels. The only reason a man would take the medicine is to stimulate hormone production. Why would a man's hormones be out of whack? Well, simply because steroids produce so much testosterone that the body's natural testosterone production regresses in response. Therefore, to "cycle off" the steroids, a male athlete could take the fertility drug in order to stimulate their own natural production again.

The fertility drug is a de facto "guilty" for steroid use, just as much as other banned masking agents are.

Do you remember when Onterrio Smith of the Vikings was caught in an airport with a kit to fake pee tests? There's no reason to carry one onto an airplane if you aren't expecting a need to fake a pee test at some point. He tried the old "it's for a cousin" excuse but he still got suspended.

Same thing here for Manny. There's only one real reason why an otherwise healthy male needs this fertility drug and it is to mask the fact that you've done the juice. He probably juiced in the offseason (or during the spring while he was holding out) and figured the fertility drug would let him pass the test.

Like him or not, this column is brilliant, and scary...

Confronting my worst nightmare

By Bill Simmons

Dateline: May 7, 2014

My son and I have flown from California to spend the week in Boston. He is a little more than 6½ at this point. He has never set foot in Fenway Park. The time is right. He likes baseball. He likes the Red Sox. He's a little sports encyclopedia. I have brainwashed him. He is just old enough to understand the significance of his first Fenway game and, more importantly, old enough that he'll be able to remember the experience decades later.

We bring my father with us. Three generations of the Simmons family taking in a Yankees-Red Sox game for the first time. This should be a wonderful moment. A signature moment, even.

We find our $1,500 seats in the lower boxes near third base. We are sitting in Best Buy's Section 61, which is right between Bob's Discount Furniture's Section 60 and Costco's Section 62. Every section has a sponsor now. The Green Monster is now called "The Pepsi Green Monster" and has a big Pepsi can painted on it. Ted Williams' special seat in right field is now sponsored by Muscle Milk. Even home plate is sponsored by Dunkin' Donuts. Has the logo on it and everything. That's just the way sports work now.

We settle into our seats. I point toward the championship banners over the first-base side. They go in order: 1903, 1904, 1912, 1915, 1916, 1918, 2004, 2007. Ever since Boston won the World Series 10 years ago, I always imagined pointing to that 2004 banner and telling my little boy, "That's the team that changed everything."

So that's what I do. I point at the banner and tell him, "That's the team that changed everything."

"Isn't that the team that cheated?" he asks.

My father and I glance at each other. A few beats pass.

"Well, technically, no," I stammer. "I mean ..."

"I thought they had a whole bunch of steroids guys on that team," he says.

"Well, there have been some accusations, and yeah, some of the power numbers were a little suspicious, but ..."

"I'd do it again!" my dad yells happily.

"Dad!"

I shake my head at him. He shrugs. The thing is, he WOULD do it again. He wanted to see the Red Sox win the World Series in his lifetime. He worried about it constantly. So did I. So did every Red Sox fan. We worried about living a full life, then dying, without ever seeing them win. All of us knew people who fit in that category. None of us wanted to end up in there.

All of us would have made a deal with the devil at the time. And maybe we did. We just didn't know it.

"Nothing was ever really proved," I tell my son, trying to keep up the good fight.

He ignores me and starts rattling through our 2004 lineup with creepy precision. He points out Nomar Garciaparra's remarkable 1999 and 2000 seasons, his subsequent tendon injuries and how his career played out so blandly afterward for reasons that remain unclear. My dad points out the Sox traded Nomar midway through the 2004 season. Technically, that debate shouldn't even matter. Score one for Dad.

"But what about Trot Nixon and Bill Mueller?" my son says. "They missed a bunch of games every year with injuries, put on weight when they were skinny guys, peaked quickly and were never seen again. Same for Mark Bellhorn, right? That's suspicious."

"Well," I say, "their names never came up in anything, so that's not really fair ..."

"And Kevin Millar, he had a few big homer years, then his power numbers went way down once the testing started."

"That's true, but it doesn't prove anything ..."

"And Johnny Damon, he got bigger and started hitting for more power even though he was a singles hitter, right?"

"Well ..."

"And what about Big Papi?" he wonders. "Played for Minnesota, didn't hit for power, came to the Red Sox, turned into the best slugger in the league, and as soon as they cracked down on steroids, he stopped hitting homers again. And he was friends with all the other Dominican players who were linked to performance-enhancing drugs. What about him?"

Silence. Nobody says anything.

Finally, my dad steps in: "He had an inside-outside swing at Minnesota, when he came to Boston, we encouraged him to pull the ball, so ..."

"Come on, Gramps!" my son says. "That's dumb, and you know it."

We glance out to the field. Big Papi is one of Boston's coaches now. After he hit 54 homers in 2006, his career was over within four years. Now he's just a fat guy in his early 40s coaching first base. You would never guess this is the same guy who carried us in 2004, the guy who fueled the Greatest Comeback Ever, the guy who helped convince an entire fan base that, yes, we could believe.

"And what about Manny?" my son asks. "He tested positive for performance enhancers in 2009 with the Dodgers. How do you know he wasn't using that whole time?"

"Well, we don't," I say. "But that was kind of a fluke -- he had a doctor in Florida who prescribed him a banned substance, and ..."

"Come on, Dad, I read your Red Sox book. You said that at least you knew Manny couldn't have ever used steroids because he was too dumb to figure out how to stick to a cycle. Then he tested positive. You were, like, his biggest fan. You wrote a big piece after he got traded that was so long, it took me a week to read it."

"I told him not to write that column," my dad says. "Manny needed to go. He was a selfish jerk. Your father had blinders on ..."

"Come on, that's not fair," I say. "I loved the guy. He was on the team for more than eight years. He helped us end the curse. He made our lives as Red Sox fans more fun. He was like family. I wasn't gonna dump the guy from my life after everything he did just because his agent poisoned him against the team."

"But you defended him and said he was a good guy at heart," my son says. "And then he cheated, right? So how does that make him a good guy?"

I take a deep breath.

"It doesn't make him a good guy," I say. "You don't understand what it was like to follow baseball before you were born. There was a strike in 1994, and the World Series was canceled. Everyone hated baseball. Then Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa started hitting homers, and the balls started flying out of the park, and it was so much fun that everyone looked the other way. We didn't care that these guys were practically busting out of their skin or growing second foreheads. We really didn't. All the cheating made baseball more fun to watch. We were in denial. It was weird.

"Then, Barry Bonds hit 73 home runs in a season, and that was like the turning point. We realized that things had gone too far. We blamed him for cheating and looked the other way with dozens of other guys who might have been doing the same thing. Brady Anderson hit 50 homers in 1996; we didn't care. Bret Boone had 141 RBIs in a season; we didn't care. Big Papi went from 10 homers to 41 in four seasons; we didn't care. Roger Clemens was washed up, but suddenly he could throw 98 miles per hour and win Cy Youngs again; we didn't care. Eric Gagne saved 84 straight games and threw 120 miles an hour; we didn't care. Good players started blowing out tendons nobody had ever heard of; we didn't care. Pitchers blew out elbow tendons and shoulder ligaments routinely; we didn't care. This was the deal. They cheated; we pretended they didn't. It's really hard to explain unless you were there."

My son tries to soak everything in. That's lot to process for a 6-year-old.

Finally ...

"So when the Red Sox won in 2004, did you know some of the guys might have been cheating?" he asks.

"At the time?" I answer. "No. Either we were in total denial, or we just didn't care."

"I'd do it again!" my dad yells happily, getting another withering glare from me.

"You have to understand," I say. "EVERYONE cheated back then. You know how I drive 80 on the highway even though all the signs say to go 55? That's how everyone thought back then -- the signs said one thing, but everyone did the other. There were so many people cheating that, competitively, you almost had to cheat to keep up with everyone else."

"So why didn't the people in charge get everyone to stop cheating?" my son asks.

"I wish I knew. The players' union didn't care, the commissioner's office didn't care, nobody cared. Until it was too late."

"So you won the World Series twice because of Manny and Papi," my son says, "but they might have been cheating the whole time, and so were some of their teammates? Dad, your whole book was about how you could die in peace because they won in 2004. If they cheated to win, does that make what happened OK?"

The question hangs in the air. And hangs. And hangs.

"I don't know," I finally answer. "I still haven't figured that part out. Again, you don't understand what it was like. Everyone was cheating, so the playing field was kind of even, as weird as that sounds. You can't imagine how depressing it was to be a Red Sox fan at the time. Things always went wrong. We hadn't won in 86 years. We were the whipping boy of the Yankees. We always expected the worst to happen, mainly because the worst always did happen. That 2004 title made life easier for everyone. We could just follow the team without all the other negative crap. Does that make sense?"

"I guess," he says, nodding. "But Manny was your favorite hitter on that team. And he tested positive later. Is he still your favorite hitter?"

"Yes and no," I say. "No, because he cheated. Yes, because whether he was cheating or not, I can't forget watching him hit baseballs on a daily basis. I just can't. You should have seen him. Perfect swing, perfect balance, perfect everything. He was a hitting savant. That's the funny thing -- he didn't NEED to cheat. The guy was put on the earth to hit.

"But he did cheat," my son says.

"He did. Yes. He did."

"So he's not your favorite player from that team now?"

"He never was; Pedro Martinez was. Manny was my favorite hitter. I loved Pedro the most."

I am dreading the next question. I am dreading it. I do not want him to ask it. I know it's coming.

"Did Pedro cheat?"

Silence.

I take a deep breath. So does my father. You can't describe in a few tidy sentences, off the cuff, what it was like to watch Pedro Martinez pitch in 1999 and 2000. To paraphrase Joe Mantegna in "Searching for Bobby Fischer," Pedro was better at pitching than you or I will ever be at anything. He had swagger. He had four A-plus pitches. He had everything. He spurred me to buy tickets from scalpers when I was broke. I would do it again. I watched Pedro Martinez pitch at his apex at Fenway Park. I get to brag about this when I'm old. He's the one guy who didn't cheat. He definitely didn't cheat. I bet anything, the man did not cheat.

Do I say this to my son? No. He wouldn't believe me.

"I looked at Pedro's numbers," my son says. "He peaked for like three years right as the steroids era was going, then he battled injuries and never did as well. Fits the profile, right?"

"Nah, I don't see it," my father says. "He was skinnier than you are. Steroids make you bulk up. Pedro was like a buck-sixty soaking wet."

"I don't see it, either," I say. "I don't think he did."

"But you don't know?" my son asks me.

"Honestly? I don't know anything anymore."