Usually, when we hear about a player being suspended under MLB’s performance-enhancing drug policy it’s some minor leaguer we’ve never heard of. The news pops up somewhere in the bottom of the headlines for a day and we forget about it. Today, the player suspended is Manny Ramirez. The significance of this is summed up for you in an easy-to-understand graph-form:
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Do Not Want: Manny Tests Positive for PEDs
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↵The fallout will be swift -- if you’re watching ESPN/MLB Network interview every person to have ever covered baseball, you’ll see what I mean. (Surprisingly, ESPN did not ask Manny his thoughts on Favre joining the NFC North.) The conclusion is that Manny’s legacy will forever be tarnished by this. That’s probably true. But there may also be a reasonable explanation: Manny says the positive test is a result of medication that was recently prescribed to him from a doctor. As usual, my naivety tends to give the player the benefit of the doubt. Although I guess it's his responsibility to know all 83 items on the MLB's banned substances list.↵
↵↵Regardless, this isn’t exactly what baseball (and more importantly the fans) needs right. Things were going so well this season -- it was all so … not steroid-y. The conversation had shifted to something other than players juicing. Instead of focusing on PEDs, the discussion centered on A-Rod tipping pitches. You know, old school cheating. Which was a good thing because it wasn’t steroids. ↵
↵↵But no more. Now we’re back to PEDs and positive tests and what Manny did or didn’t take and the varying levels of taint this’ll cause. And that’s what most fans will be outraged about: not the fact that a superstar tested positive, but that every media outlet in the country is now going to talk about a superstar testing positive. See, I’m doing it right now! ↵
↵↵On the bright side: At least it wasn’t a Yankees or Red Sox player. Everything is more obnoxious when it involves those teams. ↵
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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.
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