Vic Salazar: Petco to play scene of Manny’s crime

Manny Ramirez is scheduled to return to Major League Baseball on Friday at Petco park. (AP photo)

With apologies to Jan Brady, I have to let this loose: “Manny! Manny! Manny!”

It has reached the point where I am frustrated with all the attention being given to someone who isn’t deserving of the time of day.  Of course, I say this yet here I am adding to the attention pile.

In case you had not heard (how has it been living under a rock?), the circus is coming back to town on Friday.  It’s the Manny Ramirez Traveling Show direct from Mannywood.

The main attraction will return to Major League Baseball at Petco Park.  That’s right; the bearded lady will be on display in left field in a Dodger uniform complete with his blue bandana and dreadlocks for the first time since his suspension.

Related: Money being Money

Use of a female fertility drug is the reason Ramirez was suspended by Major League Baseball for 50 games.

In the body building world, the same drug is used to replenish testosterone after a cycle of steroids.  Ramirez tried to explain it by saying, “I saw a physician for a personal health issue. He gave me a medication, not a steroid, which he thought was okay to give me.  Unfortunately, the medication was banned under our drug policy.”

While he had no problem ingesting the drug, Ramirez’s excuse and lack of remorse are bitter pills to swallow.  It is also horrible to see so many baseball fans buying into the “Manny being Manny” mantra that allows them to turn away from the real issue at hand: Manny cheated the game.

His reward for cheating is huge.  His latest contract calls for him to receive $42 million over two years.   The steroid suspension did cost Ramirez $7.65 million of his 2009 contract.  But for the Dodgers and Major League baseball, the excessive publicity surrounding his return to baseball couldn’t be bought for that amount of money.

The reporting of his minor league rehab hasn’t been so much about the issues surrounding his suspension, but rather “the return of the savior slugger.” It’s a shame that baseball fans in the towns where Ramirez has played in the past week fawned over his presence.

It’s also a shame that ESPN is cutting into programming for live coverage of his at-bats and running crawls at the bottom of the screen after games to provide his latest game statistics.  It’s embarrassing that this Friday’s game here in San Diego has sold out.   It’s not because of the Friday Friarworks.  It’s because baseball fans have “sold out” to the hype.

There’s no doubt security will be tight in left field, with the Padres hoping to prevent a repeat of the syringe tossed at Barry Bonds in 2006. For Ramirez, feminine hygiene products and women’s underwear will likely be the props of hecklers.

The fact there are baseball fans excited about heckling or cheering Ramirez is bothersome.  The hoopla over his return proves that cheating in baseball has become acceptable.

Vic Salazar is a veteran San Diego journalist and an SDNN sports columnist.

Tags: cheater, Mannny Ramirez, Padres, Petco, SDNN, steroids

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 at 1:53 pm and is filed under Baseball, Padres, Sports . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.