The Chronicles of Manny: The Next Chapter

 I was still riding the high from last night’s record-setting game when I flipped on my computer at work this morning and was greeted by possibly the last headline I was expecting to see: “Manny Ramirez Gets 50 Game Suspension.”  Huh?  I literally had to read it twice.  Just last night I was sitting in a luxury box at the Ravine, talking Dodger baseball with some great fans of the team as the Dodgers won their 13^th straight game at home.  Life was great.  How could this news possibly be true?

When conversations last season warmed to whether or not the Dodgers should sign Manny Ramirez, I was adamantly in the “no” camp.  Sure, I’ll take him when he’s free and we’re in the hunt for a division title, but no way would I want a cancer like Ramirez on the Dodgers in 2009, poisoning Kemp, Loney, Ethier, Martin and Bills.  But eventually he warmed me over.  I became a fan.  Besides the style, personality and good-natured fun he brought to what had been described as a boring and stoic clubhouse, Manny brought fantastic clutch hitting, truly teaching the younger players how the game was meant to be played.  I was on board with bringing Manny back – ideally two years, three years max.

As a result, I have a heard time labeling him a cheat, a fraud or a juicer.  I loved Dylan Hernandez’s interviews with Manny in the off-season where he talked about his desire to return to the Dodgers – a place he truly felt comfortable with the fans, players and coaches.  The guy was working hard and saying all the right things.  I wanted Mannywood back in left field then.  Just like I want to believe him now.  I’m torn.

But what did he take? Here’s a little information (courtesy of Yahoo! Sports):

The illegal substance for which Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Manny Ramirez tested positive and was banned 50 games was prescribed to address erectile dysfunction, not “an agent customarily used for performance enhancing” a source close Ramirez said Thursday.

However, two sources said the substance Ramirez tested positive for was a gonadotropin. Major League Baseball’s list of banned substances includes the gonadotropins LH and HCG, which are most commonly used by women as fertility drugs. They also can be used to trigger testosterone production. Testosterone is depleted by steroid use, and low testosterone can cause erectile dysfunction.

Now what?  Ramirez didn’t even appeal his suspension, instead choosing to man up and take responsibility for his actions, following the lead of Andy Pettite.  That’s probably a good thing for Manny’s chances at redemption in LA and within Major League Baseball (to say nothing of the Hall of Fame).  The more you deny, the worse it gets.  Just ask Roger Clemens.

Clemens. Pettite. Sosa. McGwire. Palmeiro, Tejada. Rodriguez. Ramirez.  Now there’s a club nobody wants to be a part of.  God help the MLB if that list with the 103 names of the other players that failed the league’s drug tests in 2003 ever gets released.  You think it’s bad now when the two top players in the league go down in just over a month?  Watch out.

For the Dodgers, once the shock washes away, Ned Colletti and the Dodgers will have to come to grips and try to determine which Manny Ramirez they think they’ll see on July 3. Will we have a former juicer who can’t produce at his previous levels?  Or will we have a defiant Manny, eager to prove that it truly was a stupid mistake?  Time will tell.

Dodgers CEO Jamie McCourt and the rest of the organization are saying all the right things for a team that has $50 million invested in a player that has extremely limited trade value at this point: “We share the disappointment felt by our fans, our players, and every member of our organization. We support the policies of Major League Baseball, and we will welcome Manny back upon his return.”

Now that the Dodgers are in for bringing back Mannywood, the question that needs to be asked is, what about the fans?