NO LONGER BEING MANNY: With an extended PED-related suspension being the other option, Manny Ramirez has announced his retirement from baseball. His career statistics are extraordinary; his personality even more so.
I hope that by the time he's eligible, the Hall of Fame voters will have worked out a fair process by which hitters of the PED era can be properly honored in context with induction; there is no doubt in my mind that Ramirez belongs there, however large the asterisk or disclaimer needs to be.
<span>Aww, what a cock (prick?) - he couldn't have announced before ALOTT5MA Premiere League waivers ran yesterday? </span>
ReplyDeleteAs long as the text on his plaque begins, "An unrepentant goofball and the greatest right-handed hitter of his era, Manny Ramirez had a not-so-secret passion for female fertility drugs..." he can go into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot.
ReplyDelete-Daniel
Maybe things will have changed by the time he's eligible, but as it currently stands, I can't imagine Manny Ramirez ever entering the Hall of Fame without a ticket. I understand it's a bit hypocritical considering Gaylord Perry got in without anyone grumbling, but the voters certainly haven't shown much sympathy toward PED users so far (or, in the case of Jeff Bagwell, people who were considered possible PED users despite a lack of any clear evidence). Even though he already has served his punishment by way of a 50-game suspension, I don't expect the voters to be very forgiving toward him. Consider that Rafael Palmeiro (who admittedly doesn't have Manny's credentials but who also served a PED-related suspension) only got 11 percent of the vote in his first year of eligibility.
ReplyDeleteThe apparent circumstances of his retirement - that he may have quit because he was staring at the possibility of a 100-game suspension - certainly won't help his candidacy.
Oh, this was a fun catch.
ReplyDeleteHe was slugging .059--I don't think he was using them right.
ReplyDeleteRetiring to duck a suspension hurts. With McGwire and Bonds, the voters can say "MLB never had the chance to punish them, so we have to for a bit." With Ramirez, they didn't have that excuse until today's announcement of a looming second suspension.
ReplyDeleteI still say "let them in, but teach the controversy." And Bagwell should have had no controversy at all.
don't worry -- in June he'll demand to be traded from the Red Sox, as per usual.
ReplyDeleteHe could make incredible plays. At the same time, there was nothing quite like the sheer terror one felt at a routine fly ball to Manny in a close game with runners on in the 9th.
ReplyDeleteThe Onion collects its Manny stories, including <span>'Play Every Day To The Best Of Your Ability' Clause Stalled Ramirez, Dodgers Talks</span>
ReplyDeleteI'm sure he'll have a very nice plaque in the Hall of Cheaters, out back in a completely separate area away from the Hall of Fame and highlighting, per the Hall's mission to cover the history of the game, those who squandered their gifts by choosing to try and take the easy way out.
ReplyDeleteAnd in the really snarky side of my brain, why the hell wasn't he using these things while he was with the Sox last year? Does he only use them on the Red Sox and Dodgers?
As you have at least one extra middle infielder, and one of mine broke his leg a few hours after the waiver deadline, I think something can be worked out.
ReplyDeleteAre you going to move Ty Cobb, Gaylord Perry and everyone who tookie greenies in there as well, and create a separate Hall of Racists for Tom Yawkey?
ReplyDeleteYou may be right....
ReplyDeleteAs I don't count amphetamines and coffe as PEDS, no. And unless they find racism as being somehow performance enhancing, that doesn't count either. That's just being a dick, which most players were.
ReplyDeleteBut that's important:
ReplyDelete"Voting shall be based upon the player's record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character and contribution to the team(s) on which the player played."
If you are playing with and against a bunch of other guys on PEDs, and you are still clearly one of the best hitters of your generation, that seems Hall of Fame-ish. And even if you ignore the character clause, don't spitballs and sharpened spikes count as performance-enhancing?
And now we find that Manny apparently didn't even bother telling the Devil Rays. He simply never showed up for the game and the commissioner's office notified the team. Classy.
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