Manny Ramirez

May 7th, 2009 filed in Baseball

Manny Ramirez has tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs and will be suspended 50 games starting today, according to the Los Angeles Times. Fifty games is the policy mandated suspension for a positive drug test in Major League Baseball. Ramirez joins Alex Rodriguez on the steroid list, the two highest paid players in the league.

From the article at the L.A. Times :

Ramirez is expected to attribute the test results to medication received from a doctor for a personal medical issue, according to a source familiar with matter but not authorized to speak publicly. With the suspension taking effect with tonight’s game at Dodger Stadium, Ramirez will not be eligible to return to the team until July 3. Ramirez would become the biggest star suspended under an oft-criticized major league testing program that started in 2003.

…In an appearance at USC last month, Jose Canseco said Ramirez’s name “is most likely, 90%” on a list of 104 players that failed a drug test in 2003. The players were promised anonymity for taking tests in 2003; Rodriguez is the only player that has been identified among that group. Ramirez laughed when Times columnist Kurt Streeter relayed Canseco’s allegation to him. “I got no comment, nothing to say about that,” Ramirez told Streeter. “What can I say? I don’t even know the guy.”

Manny Ramirez is BEATing his competition
Billy Beater
Manny Ramirez has been one of the best pure hitters in baseball for a very long time. This initial report states, “Ramirez is expected to attribute the test results to medication received from a doctor for a personal medical issue.” That seems like a very reasonable explanation to me. I think it is a bit too early to start labeling Manny as a cheater. If Ramirez has a viable medical explanation for the positive test, than he should be vindicated, and in my opinion the suspension should not stand.

Manny Ramirez is a CHEATer
Chester Cheater
I knew it, Jose Canseco knew it, and now the world knows it. Manny Ramirez is just the most recent name to get added to the big baseball cheater list. I am sure this “Doctor” of Manny’s is someone down in the Dominican, giving him some “prescriptions” to help him get “better.” Medical condition or not, there are certain substances that Baseball players just cannot take, and if he tests positive, then he is suspended for the mandatory 50 game time period. There is no gray area here. Manny Ramirez took performance enhancing substances, and he has 50 games to think about what he did, CHEATed.

What do you think, did Manny Cheat, or Beat?