The Fall of the Greatest Right-Handed Hitter of My Generation

After a heated debate with my roommate and New York counterpart,let's cal him New York Mike, I've come to a conclusion. Despite the sorrow of seeing such a likable guy such as Ortiz dragged down by PEDs, Manny Ramirez testing positive twice in a span of 6 years is insulting. Ramirez, a sure-fire first ballot Hall-of-Famer, was suspended 50 games earlier this season for PEDs and now this. Yes, we already knew he was using before the New York Times broke the story, but does that mean he should be getting a free pass?

In the words of New York Mike, "Absolutely, unequivocally no!" He cheated the system before there was a penalty in place, and he cheated the system after it was in place. Who's to say that he wasn't on steroids his entire career? We all fell for his overused act of "Manny being Manny", me especially.

When the story broke of Ramirez's 50-game suspension, I took a path of dejection. I wrote about how I grew up loving Manny and his care-free attitude towards the game. When he was disgruntled off-season after off-season, I was there to defend him. When he was put on waivers in 2003, no one was happier he stayed. Even when he left his bat on his shoulder in New York and faked an injury to get out of Boston I wanted him here. There was no doubting the guy's production, and that's what was most important to me. But when his production is based on sticking a needle in your ass (or however its done) I can't support that. Like a loose girlfriend, fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice, well it looks like I'm the dumb ass.

Manny has made his career out of fooling people. It's believed that he would purposely be "fooled" on pitches hoping to see the same pitch in upcoming at-bats only to crush them. Coincidentally, he was fooling everyone else as well. Of my generation (circa 1987) name me a more feared right-handed hitter than Manny. A-Rod? Perhaps, but also a user. Pujols? Probably. But Manny is arguably the best amongst them all. Look at his career stats:

• .314 batting average
• .411 on-base percentage
• 1.005 OPS (slugging + on-base)
• 539 home runs
• 1,765 runs batted in
• 20 grand slams
• Had more RBI (165) than games played (147) in '99
• 28 postseason home runs
• 74 postseason runs batted in

Why is Manny not the one getting the bad press? David Ortiz is a great player, but a Hall-of-Famer? No. Manny pulled the wool over our eyes with his lackadaisical antics and off-point anecdotes. He lulled us into a realm where we were dreaming of 2-out doubles off the Green Monster and opposite field homers wrapping around Pesky's Pole.

But it was all a dream. An artificially enhanced dream of a man who is only a caricature of his form self. Once able to look beyond his quirky off-the-field antics because of his superior on-the-field production, I cannot anymore.

Manny Ramirez is dead to me. Once my favorite player, Ramirez is now exiled from my heart. He not only betrayed the integrity of the game, but betrayed the trust and support of his fans.
Congratulations Manny, you have officially torn up your path to Cooperstown. It's just too bad it took bull-headed New York Mike to make me realize it.