Manny Ramirez fails drug test -- banned for 50 games!

[Bunny]

Here I am, on the way to Mahler's 2nd, so I turn on the news hoping for a decent weather report. Yes, we've been having days and days of rain but the sun seems to be peeking out.  Then, I hear that Manny Rodriguez tested positive for HCG (a fertility drug given to women which is used to mask the effects of steroid use) and has a 50 game suspension without pay which will keep him from playing until at least July 3rd (later if there are games that are rained out).  He's not going to the All-Star Game this year, for sure.

I'm totally bummed out by all of the revelations about steroids and other performance enhancing drugs in baseball and I'm beginning to wonder if any of the "great" players of that generation are honest!  Clemens, Rodriguez (A-Roid), Bonds, McGuire, the Flintstone chomping Sammy Sosa (as if!), Andy Pettitte (the shame!), José Canseco, et al.  The list seems to grow daily.  We all have seen how formerly beefy players showed up for spring training with new, trimmer, silhouettes, but at what point will this end? 

I've been a baseball fan my whole life, and now I'm angry that it had to come to this.  How could steroid use have escalated through the years without being enabled by the owners and the Baseball Commission?  They should all pay!  The money that the Dodgers will not have to pay Manny Rodriguez should be paid into a fund for disabled children, or some other charity.  The team owners shouldn't be able to minimize their losses when one of the players doesn't have to be paid.  They should be punished as well because for years and years the owners enabled the use of the drugs. 

[Lethevich]

If it is a systemic problem (which it also is in athletics), it is a good idea to punish the organisations involved as well as the individuals, as it would swiftly become unacceptable to either encourage it, or for an athlete to "go it alone", as their country/league would never support them again. Your suggestion about the wages going to charity is a good one.

[DavidRoss]

Although a lifelong baseball fan (my grandfather played professionally), I got so fed up after the last round of steroid scandals that I simply stopped caring.  MLB should have booted the druggies out of the game and struck whatever records they were credited with from the books.  That they have not done so sends a very loud and clear message to all the kids who aspire to professional sports--or anything else in life:  "Cheating pays off and even if you get caught no one really cares.  Go ahead and use all the performance-enhancing or other drugs that you think you can get away with."  

[Lethevich]

I wonder what a league would look like where drug use was encouraged - I've seen it satirically suggested to have one like this alongside the normal league. I guess the home run count would get boring after a while 0:)

[ChamberNut]

Although a lifelong baseball fan (my grandfather played professionally), I got so fed up after the last round of steroid scandals that I simply stopped caring.  MLB should have booted the druggies out of the game and struck whatever records they were credited with from the books.  That they have not done so sends a very loud and clear message to all the kids who aspire to professional sports--or anything else in life:  "Cheating pays off and even if you get caught no one really cares.  Go ahead and use all the performance-enhancing or other drugs that you think you can get away with."  

Here, here David!  If only they had been as strict and intolerent of drug use as they were with gambling with Pete Rose.  They should have followed the same standard IMO.

[DavidRoss]

Here, here David!  If only they had been as strict and intolerent of drug use as they were with gambling with Pete Rose.  They should have followed the same standard IMO.

Yep.  I bit my tongue not to bring up Pete Rose, Ray, but I agree that the league's treatment of him is a travesty in light of the hypocrisy of its drug policies. 

[Bunny]

Although a lifelong baseball fan (my grandfather played professionally), I got so fed up after the last round of steroid scandals that I simply stopped caring.  MLB should have booted the druggies out of the game and struck whatever records they were credited with from the books.  That they have not done so sends a very loud and clear message to all the kids who aspire to professional sports--or anything else in life:  "Cheating pays off and even if you get caught no one really cares.  Go ahead and use all the performance-enhancing or other drugs that you think you can get away with."  

The reason people get caught cheating is because they think they can get away with it.  If you are caught using illegal performance enhancing drugs, your career should be over, and the team -- not just the player -- should be fined.  And the Baseball commission should be fined as well.  Btw, Pete Rose belongs in the HOF more than Clemens.  Gambling is bad, but cheating is just as bad.  The great American game needs a bath.

[Bogey]

I believe Rose's treatment was and is dead on....maybe too kind in some regards.  The discussion of reinstatement should not even be considered unless new credible evidence were to come to light. Giamatti got it right.  This as not Landis with the Black Sox....pretty clear here.

As for the drugs, it's a quick fix.  Not many bet on the game because of the lifetime ban.  So, you use steroids or anything else on the banned list, you are gone for good.  No three strikes here.  50 games is silly, but so is the leadership of the league, or lack of.  Baseball is one of the few sports where statistics are a grail within the game.  Too bad the leadership is hedging this point.

My bigger problem, however, is the mentality that seems to be creeping into society that if I tell the truth after I get caught, all will be forgiven.  Pro sports perpetuates this like no other venue.  Ah, that's a good message to send our youth.

[Bogey]

Although a lifelong baseball fan (my grandfather played professionally), I got so fed up after the last round of steroid scandals that I simply stopped caring.  MLB should have booted the druggies out of the game and struck whatever records they were credited with from the books.  That they have not done so sends a very loud and clear message to all the kids who aspire to professional sports--or anything else in life:  "Cheating pays off and even if you get caught no one really cares.  Go ahead and use all the performance-enhancing or other drugs that you think you can get away with."  

Can I get a name on your grandfather, Dave so I can look him up in Macmillan Guide?