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Manny Ramirez fingered for using steroids again
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Manny and Big Papi share a performance-enhanced hug.
Once again, steroids in baseball is a huge story and once again, Manny Ramirez is involved.
The New York Times reported today that Ramirez and then-Boston Red Sox teammate David Ortiz were on the list of 104 major leaguers who tested positive for steroids in 2003.
That Ortiz was on the notorious list — which was supposed to stay secret — is a bit of a surprise. Ortiz has not just spoken out against steroid use in baseball, he might be the loudest and most strident critic of the scourge since Rafael Palmiero wagged his finger at Congress in March of 2005.
Paula Duffy, the National Sports Examiner, helpfully reminds us what Big Papi said in spring training when asked about steroid use in baseball:
I would suggest everybody get tested, not random, everybody," he said. "You go team by team. You test everybody three, four times a year and that's about it."
And if a player tests positive for steroids?
"Ban 'em for the whole year," the slugger said."
And Ortiz also said, according to Yahoo Sports:
"I think you clean up the game by the testing," Ortiz said back in February. "I know that if I test positive by using any kind of substance, I know that I'm going to disrespect my family, the game, the fans and everybody, and I don't want to be facing that situation.
The way Ortiz has hit this year for the Sox (aside from a recent upsurge in production) it's as if he's already been suspended for the year. But those defiant words look extremely reckless and foolish today. Surely, Ortiz did not think he'd ever be exposed. MLB promised the players union that if they did the 2003 "trial run" of random steroids testing, the results would forever stay a secret. So players rightly felt they were getting one last free pass.
Unfortunately for the players, the federal agents got their hands on the list for their ongoing criminal investigation on the distribution of performance-enhancing drugs to professional athletes. And when confidential information is in the hands of the government, it usually doesn't stay secret for long — at least not all of it. Something always leaks out.
So, as of today, we know that the following seven current and former major leaguers are on that list: Ortiz, Ramirez, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Sammy Sosa, Jason Grimsley and David Segui.
A-Rod, Grimsley and Segui have fessed up. Ramirez was suspended in May for 50 games after testing positive for a female fertility drug often used to "reset" proper natural testosterone production after using steroids. Sosa famously pretended to not be able to speak English at the congressional hearing on steroids. And Bonds ... well, c'mon.
That makes any claims of innocence a little harder to swallow if Manny and Papi give that route a shot. On that score, though, Manny offered a crafty statement when he was suspended in May:
“I do want to say one other thing,” Ramirez said. “I’ve taken and passed about 15 drug tests over the past five seasons.”
As New York Times writer Michael S. Schmidt noted in his story, "that five-year period extended back to 2004, which excludes the 2003 test." How convenient.
Will this revelation matter to Dodgers fans? Not one bit. This is the land of make-believe, where people see what they want to see. And in the dread-locked slugger, they see a key to a long-in-coming World Series run. Mannywood is not going to close down.
Follow Jim Lakely, the Dodgers Examiner, on Twitter.
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