From Manny Ramirez’s statement released on May 7th:

“Recently 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. Under the policy that mistake is now my responsibility. I have been advised not to say anything more for now. I do want to say one other thing; I’ve taken and passed about 15 drug tests over the past five seasons.

“I want to apologize to Mr. McCourt, Mrs. McCourt, Mr. Torre, my teammates, the Dodger organization, and to the Dodger fans. LA is a special place to me and I know everybody is disappointed. So am I. I’m sorry about this whole situation.“

Just sayin’.

As Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Manny Ramirez nears the end of his 50-game suspension, Drug Enforcement Administration investigators are looking at a Miami doctor and his son as the source of his banned performance-enhancing drug, sources familiar with the investigation told ESPN.

For those just tuning in, Plaschke submitted a diatribe 10 days ago, in which he lambasted Dodger fans for getting on with their lives without Manny Ramirez, calling them no better than San Francisco Giants followers. Them’s fightin’ words.

Today came an article by Randy Cohen in the NY Times, “Is Manny Ramirez Really All That Bad?”, in which the reverse of Plaschke’s “tar and feathering isn’t good enough for Manny” argument is opined:

If we admire athletes who work hard to improve their play, then why do we damn those who do just that with the use of banned substances?

Fellow commenter “Hollywood Joe” and I got into a conversation about that piece in this thread on Dodger Thoughts. My take is that Cohen skirts around what to me is the core issue — taking PEDs is against the rules of baseball. And moreover, it’s rude. :) I wrote,

Baseball is an all-too human activity masquerading (at least for some folks in the fourth estate) as a religion. The imperfect human story is always more entertaining than the flawless saint’s. If every game pitched were perfect or every hit a home run, then it ceases to be interesting. This is why I don’t play sports video games on rookie mode once I’m used to the controls.

This is also why gaining an advantage via an activity that is against the rules sullies the game, at least to me. It becomes a less entertaining game, even if the subject itself is more interesting. Cheat codes are maybe fun once or twice, to continue the metaphor, but making a habit of them while playing with friends is unsporting.

Now, this doesn’t mean that I enjoy baseball less because of the rampant PED usage. The sport is more than just the game, and the reasons to watch it are more complicated than just faceless automatons throwing, catching, and hitting mechanically.

It’s the human side that adds depth to watching sports. Otherwise, you might as well just flip a coin and be done with it. The stories are what keep me entertained over the course of a long season. Not a soap opera, but the drama of a marathon grind.

Will Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, and the other “kids” continue their maturation into the ballplayers we think they can be?

Will the pitching staff keep it together with Hiroki Kuroda out, or will they fold under the pressure?

Does Jonathan Broxton have what it takes to be a closer?

Will Manny Ramirez be himself when he returns in July?

Can the team go all the way this year and erase 21 years of futility?

I continued in my comments,

To use an ESPN favorite, Derek Jeter’s “classiness” is much less of a big deal without A-Rod’s soap opera on the team as a counterpoint. :)

Doesn’t mean I condone A-Rod’s behavior — I don’t get why, with his innate talents, he felt the need to get even more of an advantage. And that question makes him way more fascinating of a character than the manufactured facade he worked so hard to maintain.

And none of this requires burning him, Manny, Clemens, Sosa, McGwire, or Bonds at the stake. People like Plaschke who are seemingly more interested in making sure they get back on “Around the Horn” are worse for baseball than Manny or A-Rod.

As a postscript, I feel as if I should reiterate what I said in my 5/9 post: I like Bill Plaschke. When he’s on, he can be a great sportswriter who shines a light on that human drama like few others in his field.

Let’s hope the Lakers keep him busy for a while.

Fast forward to this morning, when I was anticipating a pleasurable write up of last night’s blogger get-together at Dodger Stadium, and here’s a news story out of left field: Manny Ramirez suspended 50 games.

I ran through the stages of grief pretty quick, not unlike Homer Simpson:

Dr. Hibbert: You can expect to go through five stages. The first is denial.
Homer: No way! Because I’m not dying!
Dr. Hibbert: The second is anger.
Homer: Why you little–!
Dr. Hibbert: After that comes fear.
Homer: What’s after fear?! What’s after fear?!
Dr. Hibbert: Bargaining.
Homer: Doc, you gotta get me out of this! I’ll make it worth your while!
Dr. Hibbert: Finally, acceptance.
Homer: Well, we all gotta go sometime.
Dr. Hibbert: Mr. Simpson, your progress astounds me!

So my first half hour went something like this:

1. Must be a joke/rumor/conspiracy.
2. That’s it, I’m done with baseball!
3. Christ, the Giants and Red Sox fans are going to be insufferable.
4. Okay, I’ll stop watching the team for 50 games…
5. That means we get a rested Manny sometime in July. Heh heh.

If the first reports are true (and as the MLB rules quoted indicate this is the case), then it wasn’t steroids, wasn’t HGH, wasn’t a stimulant, and wasn’t something along the lines of marijuana. What does that leave? A whole slew of prescription drugs that are in that gray area of being permissible, but only if you get an official exemption from MLB.

Considering Manny’s apparent lackadaisical attitude about everything except studying pitchers and hitting the ball, it isn’t out of the realm of possibility that he simply spaced on doing the paperwork.* But in any case, we’ll have to wait for all of the details to come out to make an informed judgment.

Anyhow, I still want to write up last night’s blogger night, which was a blast, as was witnessing the historical 13-0 moment. (I’ve been lucky enough to be at a number of those at Dodger Stadium over the last few years.) Having a chance to chat in person with the ever-expanding and intelligent cadre of Dodger bloggers, not to mention other august personages like Ken Levine and Tony Jackson, was a privilege.

And now, I am going to go get on my roof and summerize the swamp cooler. It’s going to be frickin’ hot today.

–

* Not to fall back into stage one of grief, but I do think the timing of this is mighty suspicious, with Manny reportedly informed last night just after the record-setting win. To counter-balance that and move back into stage five, I imagine this makes him opting into that second year with the Dodgers much more likely — who else is going to take him?

Said Mraz: “You’re a little stunned. Like, ‘Whoa, wait a minute.’ Here’s the game of baseball — it’s got steroids hanging over it, all these issues. … Needless to say the Nats kind of need help with what they’re doing. I could see if he was out trying to do something small or private, but he just came into my community and gave us a shot in the arm.“

(Emphasis mine.)