Christensen: Manny Being Manny - Unfortunately

By Todd Christensen
April 11, 2011

When I came home the other night and turned on the television, I saw that Manny Ramirez had retired from baseball. In all candor, I wasn’t shocked at all.

It appeared that his swan song had already been crooned with the Chicago White Sox at the conclusion of the 2010 season when it became obvious that his bat speed had disintegrated, not to mention any semblance of plate discipline and love for the game. A shell of his former self, I was surprised when in the off-season he was afforded a two million dollar contract from the Tampa Bay Rays to be their designated hitter.

Still, many felt that he appeared fit throughout the spring and was swinging the bat reasonably well when the season began.

But when I sat down to take in the entire story regarding his departure from the game and it had to do with a second positive test for PEDs, I was genuinely disappointed. There’s no doubt that professional sports prolongs your adolescence and affords you a bit of a Peter Pan Syndrome ("I'll never grow up!"). Maybe Ramirez had watched that scene from The World According to Garp in which Robin Williams, playing the role of T.S. Garp, opts to buy the house that has just had an airplane crash into it. His feeling is that the odds against such a thing ever happening again were astronomical.

If that was his mindset in beginning another routine with steroids, he made another gross misjudgment, much like his play in the outfield.

Originally, some of his antics were cute. The stories about literally hundreds of thousands of dollars in un-cashed checks laying about his home or the glove compartment of his car were somehow endearing. Having to go to the bathroom in the middle of the game and exiting through the Fenway Park left field fence was cute. Even his gaffes on the base paths or in the outfield had a cartoon-feel to them, not unlike his oversized uniform or dreadlocks, which made him look more teddy bear than buffoon.

Of course, with a bat in his hand, he was an absolute grizzly to pitchers. During his 18 years in the big leagues, he averaged over 100 RBI per season. In 1999, he put up 165 RBI - the most in 60 years at the time and now the highest total over the last 72 major league seasons.

Maybe the most telling number is that he is one of only five players in history to have over 550 home runs and a career batting average of over .300. The other four are Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Alex Rodriguez. He led the Boston Red Sox to two World Series titles in 2004 and 2007, becoming the MVP of the latter. If objective criteria is the measuring stick, he’s a certain Hall of Famer.

But with this second positive test for a banned substance, he has besmirched his own accomplishments. It doesn’t give baseball any more of a black eye than it already has - or deserves - for looking the other way where steroids were concerned for the better part of three decades.

Having said that, it’s inexcusable that this violating the substance abuse policy should be reprised. Sure, he can go to Spain with his father and not undergo the 100 games he would have been suspended by retiring immediately. After all, he has earned nearly a quarter of a billion dollars over the course of his baseball career.

But all of that money and "Manny Being Manny" cannot eradicate the fact that he cheated baseball, cheated the fans, and in truth, cheated himself.

See all of Todd Christensen's blog entries HERE.