Manny Ramirez suspended: Just another tainted by the Steroids Era

AP Photo/Gus Ruelas

Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez move over. There’s a new dark cloud in Major League Baseball.

Manny Ramirez -- the eccentric outfielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers -- will be suspended 50 games starting today after a positive test for a performance-enhancing drug, the Los Angeles Times reported. July 3 is the earliest that Ramirez can return.

Is this shocking? Hardly.

This is the Steroids Era.

At this point, it isn’t about who has taken PEDs, but who hasn’t.

Outrage of Ramirez’s positive drug test may be muted, especially compared to the early days of when the rampant use of steroids started to rear its ugly head. And especially since Scott Boras, Ramirez’s agent, told ESPN’s Peter Gammons that Ramirez’s positive drug test was because of a prescribed drug.

It’s not like when Bonds’ whole BALCO allegations began at the turn of the century, when the boo birds followed Bonds to every MLB ballpark he went to except the one in San Francisco.

It’s not like when Rafael Palmero tested positive, and his integrity and credibility were shattered after he testified in front of Congress, and his Hall of Fame credentials thrown out the window.

It’s not like when Alex Rodriguez was revealed to have been on a list of 104 players who tested positive in 2003, with his pretty face, white-knight, All-American image now tainted.

It’s Manny Ramirez.  And based on his antics in the past, you’d probably half guess that he at least tried using a PED at least once in his career.

But, Ramirez is the biggest star in Major League Baseball to be suspended for the use of a PED.  And that’s where this story will hit hard.

A-Rod’s test came before baseball’s suspensions. Bonds has never tested positive for PEDs. Palmero was a star -- a former future Hall of Famer -- but he wasn’t the enigmatic character that is Ramirez.

So we have another casualty in the Steroids Era. And no matter how much Ramirez or Boras or the Dodgers or baseball will try to spin that, he’s not playing for 50 games.

Ramirez will now be put under the growing list of baseball players that are considered "haves" -- they have used illegal PEDs.

But at this point, that list will only grow. Now tell me who hasn’t. 

Links to our Examiners' coverage:

• Manny Ramirez suspended for 50 games – rest of the NL West parties by Rockies Examiner Travis Lay
• Manny Ramirez test positive for performance-enhancing drugs, suspended for 50 games by Fantasy Baseball Examiner John Juettner
• Manny Ramirez fails drug test and is suspended. Canseco was right again by Sports Examiner Paula Duffy
• Manny being Manny no longer funny with PED suspension by A's Examiner Scott Sabatini
• How will suspension of Manny Ramirez impact Hall of Fame voting in future? by Tampa Bay Sports Examiner Ted Fleming
• Manny Ramirez tests positive for PEDs; suspended for 50 games by Boston Baseball Examiner Steve Weissman
• Manny Ramirez busted by MLB for using drugs. The sound of yawning should be deafening. by Sports Examiner Ed Berliner
• Manny Ramirez suspended 50 games for PED, by Twins Examiner Brian Pietrzak