It has been six months since I last posted, and I apologize for that, but real life and work that I get paid for took priority. Alas, that experience may be coming to an end so I am going to make a go of this for a while and see where it takes me.
What really prompted me to write again was the whole Manny Ramirez situation. As I am sure you all know by now, Manny was suspended for 50 games yesterday by Major League Baseball for testing positive for a banned substance. It is being reported that the drug he tested positive for was chorionic goriadotropin, or hCG for short. This drug is used by two types of people it appears. The first is steroid users who are coming down from a cycle and want to restart the body’s normal testosterone production. The other is women who are having fertility problems. Yes, Manny has long hair and is sometimes moody, but that is where the similarities to the fairer sex end.
When I first was alerted to this news by my source (my buddy Sam who does nothing but watch ESPN and read the internet all day), I was shocked. Not so much that a big star was caught cheating, but more the fact that it was someone who I always thought was clean. And I don’t mean in the “Manny is too stupid to know how to properly use steroids” way that the Boston media always brought up when discussing Man-Ram’s chances of being a user. Instead, I was shocked because I watched him hit every day for almost 10 years. It is easy to look at guys like McGwire, Bonds and Sosa and see why they jump out as users – they were pretty much home run or nothing in the years they are suspected of being on the juice. Manny, however, seemed as content with slapping an opposite-field liner for a double as he was trotting around the bases after a towering homer. He had the average of a contact hitter with the power numbers of a big bopper. Throughout his time in Boston, he was often referred to as a “hitting savant” and that moniker really seemed to fit the bill.
The best example of this is from the trade deadline in 2005. Manny was rumored to want out of Boston (again) and this time it seemed like a deal may actually be imminent. He sat out the game on deadline day while a proposed three-way deal between the Sox, Rays and Mets unfolded. As the deadline passed, it became clear that Ramirez was staying put. He even appeared out of the clubhouse onto the bench late in the game. As fate would have it, he was needed to pinch hit late in the game. In the bottom of the eighth, with the score tied, Manny came to the plate with two on. Instead of swinging for the fences, he realized the situation and bounded a single back up the middle to score the eventual winning run. At the end of the play, there he was at first base smiling and pointing at everyone like nothing had been wrong over the past few weeks.
I always appreciated Manny’s ability to come up with the big hit in any way necessary rather than just swinging for the fences. He really is the best case of a guy who has tested positive or admitted he did steroids that didn’t have to do it.
In all my time watching Manny with the Red Sox, I never would get up and leave my seat or the couch when he was at bat. You never knew what was going to happen. He could hit a 500-foot home run, put a dent on the Monster, go inside out to right to advance a runner or even think a pitch nowhere near his head was a beanball and start a brawl that ends with Pedro Martinez dumping Don Zimmer on his ridiculously large head. Anything was in play. I have heard people talk about doing the same when Pedro was on the mound. Unfortunately, I never got to see Pedro live, but I can see the similarities. I watch sports to see the best in the world do their thing. I can go get a hot dog or visit the men’s room when some scrub pitcher for the Royals is facing Julio Lugo.
I guess the point of the rambling is that for the first time in the “Steroid Era”, I feel a bit cheated. Prior to Manny, no one who had much direct effect on my existence of a fan had been caught up. I never liked Bonds, Sosa, McGwire, Palmeiro and the other guys in the first wave. I was indifferent to A-Rod until he proved to be a no-show in the playoffs for the Yankees (well except for bitch-slapping Arroyo’s glove in game six) and now I just laugh at him. Clemens is a touchy subject because I adored him as a kid. I choose to remember his 20-strikeout games in a Sox uniform rather than what he did as a Blue Jay, Yankee or Astro. Actually, I understand why he may have done steroids. He was past his prime, wanted to prove he was still good and knew there was no way he would get caught. And then, once you start and have success…why stop? I don’t approve, I just understand.
But with Manny, he personally created so many of my favorite baseball memories that I hope aren’t tainted. The top of that list isn’t even the 2004 World Series. It happened three years later in 2007. I was at Game Two of the ALDS against the Angels with my brother. It was the bottom of the ninth and the Halos had K-Rod on the mound. With two on, Ramirez stepped to the plate. It was really late, like 1:30 in the morning and I had travelled all day from Philly to go to the game. Still, I was for lack of a better term, juiced. The whole park was. If ever there was a time for Manny to just drop a hitter’s single over the middle of the infield, this was it. We didn’t need the three-run bomb, we needed just one run.
Still, with 38,000 screaming his name in unison, Manny was Manny one more time. He turned on a Rodriguez pitch and sent the hardest hit ball I have ever seen into the Boston night. Thank god no one was in position to catch it. The ball would have went through them on its way to New Hampshire. I am fairly certain that the ball was still rising as it crossed over the monster. I was as speechless as a man who was jumping into his younger brother’s arms while singing “Dirty Water” could be.
Today, two years later, I am not sure how to feel about that night anymore. I wouldn’t trade the memories made with my brother for anything. And of course I am still psyched about a second World Series championship. The problem is, I was convinced that not only was the home run a “no-doubter” but so was the man who hit it.
Today, I can’t guarantee that anymore. Manny Ramirez is the highest profile MLB player to be suspended for testing positive for a banned substance. Whether he was knowingly cheating or hoping to get a little extra pop in his bedroom step with something his doctor shouldn’t have prescribed is irrelevant. He took the substance. And until he comes out and says how long he has been doing so, I am going to look back on October 5, 2007 with uncertainty. And that is too bad.
What really prompted me to write again was the whole Manny Ramirez situation. As I am sure you all know by now, Manny was suspended for 50 games yesterday by Major League Baseball for testing positive for a banned substance. It is being reported that the drug he tested positive for was chorionic goriadotropin, or hCG for short. This drug is used by two types of people it appears. The first is steroid users who are coming down from a cycle and want to restart the body’s normal testosterone production. The other is women who are having fertility problems. Yes, Manny has long hair and is sometimes moody, but that is where the similarities to the fairer sex end.
When I first was alerted to this news by my source (my buddy Sam who does nothing but watch ESPN and read the internet all day), I was shocked. Not so much that a big star was caught cheating, but more the fact that it was someone who I always thought was clean. And I don’t mean in the “Manny is too stupid to know how to properly use steroids” way that the Boston media always brought up when discussing Man-Ram’s chances of being a user. Instead, I was shocked because I watched him hit every day for almost 10 years. It is easy to look at guys like McGwire, Bonds and Sosa and see why they jump out as users – they were pretty much home run or nothing in the years they are suspected of being on the juice. Manny, however, seemed as content with slapping an opposite-field liner for a double as he was trotting around the bases after a towering homer. He had the average of a contact hitter with the power numbers of a big bopper. Throughout his time in Boston, he was often referred to as a “hitting savant” and that moniker really seemed to fit the bill.
The best example of this is from the trade deadline in 2005. Manny was rumored to want out of Boston (again) and this time it seemed like a deal may actually be imminent. He sat out the game on deadline day while a proposed three-way deal between the Sox, Rays and Mets unfolded. As the deadline passed, it became clear that Ramirez was staying put. He even appeared out of the clubhouse onto the bench late in the game. As fate would have it, he was needed to pinch hit late in the game. In the bottom of the eighth, with the score tied, Manny came to the plate with two on. Instead of swinging for the fences, he realized the situation and bounded a single back up the middle to score the eventual winning run. At the end of the play, there he was at first base smiling and pointing at everyone like nothing had been wrong over the past few weeks.
I always appreciated Manny’s ability to come up with the big hit in any way necessary rather than just swinging for the fences. He really is the best case of a guy who has tested positive or admitted he did steroids that didn’t have to do it.
In all my time watching Manny with the Red Sox, I never would get up and leave my seat or the couch when he was at bat. You never knew what was going to happen. He could hit a 500-foot home run, put a dent on the Monster, go inside out to right to advance a runner or even think a pitch nowhere near his head was a beanball and start a brawl that ends with Pedro Martinez dumping Don Zimmer on his ridiculously large head. Anything was in play. I have heard people talk about doing the same when Pedro was on the mound. Unfortunately, I never got to see Pedro live, but I can see the similarities. I watch sports to see the best in the world do their thing. I can go get a hot dog or visit the men’s room when some scrub pitcher for the Royals is facing Julio Lugo.
I guess the point of the rambling is that for the first time in the “Steroid Era”, I feel a bit cheated. Prior to Manny, no one who had much direct effect on my existence of a fan had been caught up. I never liked Bonds, Sosa, McGwire, Palmeiro and the other guys in the first wave. I was indifferent to A-Rod until he proved to be a no-show in the playoffs for the Yankees (well except for bitch-slapping Arroyo’s glove in game six) and now I just laugh at him. Clemens is a touchy subject because I adored him as a kid. I choose to remember his 20-strikeout games in a Sox uniform rather than what he did as a Blue Jay, Yankee or Astro. Actually, I understand why he may have done steroids. He was past his prime, wanted to prove he was still good and knew there was no way he would get caught. And then, once you start and have success…why stop? I don’t approve, I just understand.
But with Manny, he personally created so many of my favorite baseball memories that I hope aren’t tainted. The top of that list isn’t even the 2004 World Series. It happened three years later in 2007. I was at Game Two of the ALDS against the Angels with my brother. It was the bottom of the ninth and the Halos had K-Rod on the mound. With two on, Ramirez stepped to the plate. It was really late, like 1:30 in the morning and I had travelled all day from Philly to go to the game. Still, I was for lack of a better term, juiced. The whole park was. If ever there was a time for Manny to just drop a hitter’s single over the middle of the infield, this was it. We didn’t need the three-run bomb, we needed just one run.
Still, with 38,000 screaming his name in unison, Manny was Manny one more time. He turned on a Rodriguez pitch and sent the hardest hit ball I have ever seen into the Boston night. Thank god no one was in position to catch it. The ball would have went through them on its way to New Hampshire. I am fairly certain that the ball was still rising as it crossed over the monster. I was as speechless as a man who was jumping into his younger brother’s arms while singing “Dirty Water” could be.
Today, two years later, I am not sure how to feel about that night anymore. I wouldn’t trade the memories made with my brother for anything. And of course I am still psyched about a second World Series championship. The problem is, I was convinced that not only was the home run a “no-doubter” but so was the man who hit it.
Today, I can’t guarantee that anymore. Manny Ramirez is the highest profile MLB player to be suspended for testing positive for a banned substance. Whether he was knowingly cheating or hoping to get a little extra pop in his bedroom step with something his doctor shouldn’t have prescribed is irrelevant. He took the substance. And until he comes out and says how long he has been doing so, I am going to look back on October 5, 2007 with uncertainty. And that is too bad.
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