The NY Times (part owner of the Red Sox) are reporting that both Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz were on the list of players who tested positive in 2003.
Fuck.
Fuck.
False positive? False hope? I still love Ortiz, but if this is true…sigh…I don’t even know. Ugh.
No name surprises me, but some can still make me sad.
[NY Times]
Here’s a question for you out there, currently, Manny Ramirez is the 4th highest vote getter for outfielders for this season’s All Star game, despite him being out for 50 games for testing positive for steroids. In the AL, Alex Rodriguez is likely to be the leading vote getter at his position. Both players have been linked directly with steroids in the last few months — although supposedly A-Rod’s trangressions were all in the past — but are now in a position to be feted and honored by the sport and the fans. Is this right?
The NFL instituted the “Shawn Merriman Rule” which makes a player who tests positive for PEDs ineligible from the Pro Bowl, should MLB consider something similar?
I’m interested in your opinions out there. Mine is that if you test positive in a season you should be ineligible for any All Star games or post season awards for that season. This is not a directly anti-Manny backlash, but he’s just the first player where this situation has directly come up; there wasn’t a lot of worry about JC Romero getting anywhere near the All Star game before. What do YOU think?
Manny Ramirez has been SUSPENDED for 50 games for performance enhancing drugs according to the LA Times.
Ramirez is expected to attribute the test results to medication received from a doctor for a personal medical issue, according to a source familiar with matter but not authorized to speak publicly.
With the suspension taking effect with tonight’s game at Dodger Stadium, Ramirez will not be eligible to return to the team until July 3.
WOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW.
The official announcement is supposed to be come later today. Manny has denied ever being linked to any PEDs before and when told that Jose Canseco believed it 90% likely that Manny had previously tested positive replied, “I got no comment, nothing to say about that. What can I say? I don’t even know the guy.”
[LA Times]
“You’re late,” Manny Ramirez told Matt Kemp when he strolled into the clubhouse at 8:30 a.m.. “I was here at 6:30.”
“I was here three weeks ago,” replied Kemp.
[MLB]
The Worcester Tornadoes of the Can-Am Baseball league have officially offered Manny Ramirez a 2 year contract and are awaiting word from Scott Boras as to if Manny’ll accept it or not.
“I feel Manny would really enjoy playing in Worcester and hitting in our ballpark. Although I would be concerned about the cars traveling on I-290 during his at bats, it’s a risk worth taking,” said General Manager, Jorg Bassiacos.
Everything is in place for the Tornadoes to handle the circus that Manny attracts, manager Rich Gedman, a long-time major leaguer himself is well used to the media crush and should be helpful to Manny. Not only that, playing in Worcester would bring Manny back to the Massachusetts area so he can reunite with the fans he alienated when he forced his way off the Red Sox. The offer, 2 years for $24,000, is the highest offer possible with the salary-cap structure of the Can-Am league and would place Manny in the upper echelon of salaries with other veterans in the league.
I think this is the mystery team Boras always talks about!
The biggest surprise to me this off-season, as the days to pitchers and catchers dwindle down–14 by the way–is that Manny Ramirez remains unsigned, and most surprisingly, that the Mets have made no effort to sign him. Omar Minaya has had a man-crush on Manny for YEARS, trying to acquire him pretty much since the moment he became the Mets GM. Yet now, when the cost of acquiring Manny is a mere draft pick, Los Mets are nowhere to be seen.
Let’s look at the Mets team for next season, do they have a hole in the batting lineup for a slugger? Yes. Do they have a need for a left fielder who can stay on the field? Yes. Is Manny Ramirez latino? Yes!
How is this not a fit? In the last 8 years, he has played 140+ games 5 times, which is plenty for a Mets team who last year had to deal with approximately 18 different left fielders last season. The addition of Manny to the Mets lineup would make their team much more powerful and more likely to be able to endure all those starts that the team seems intent on giving to Tim Redding. Do you have any idea what the Mets current situation at LF is? Here is the depth chart as listed on the Mets official site: Daniel Murphy (a ROOKIE INFIELDER), Fernando Tatis (old, highly unlikely to duplicate his stats from last year), Nick Evans (at best a 4th OF), Marlon Anderson (really?), and Angel Pagan (meh). Quite the murderer’s row.
Let’s take a look at the lineup if Manny were on the Mets:
Continue reading ‘Why HAVEN’T The Mets Signed Manny?’
While doing an event with WEEI’s Dennis and Callahan to help fund raise for Curt Schilling’s ALS charities, Schill took some questions from the audience and had some interesting words to say about his time with Manny Ramirez as a teammate. Most interesting, Schilling revealed that during his years as a teammate he and Manny had 4 different physical run-ins with each other. Curt also claimed that his teammates stopped him from going after Manny the first time Schilling noticed him taking a play off, early on in Schilling’s tenure as a Red Sox. None of this is particularly “news” but it’s interesting nonetheless, I have a feeling that years from now when a bunch more books are written about these Red Sox teams that we’re going to learn a lot more about who Manny Ramirez was behind the scenes and how his teammates reacted to him. In the meantime, we have the chief blowhard Schilling out there letting us know.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
During warm-ups for game 2, here is Manny enjoying the sights. Particularly those of the teenaged Philadelphia ball-girls. Classy!
"That's just Manny being Manny, I'm a bad man."
[Fan IQ]
Whilst I was listening to the Big Show on WEEI yesterday, Curt Schilling called in to talk with Lou Merloni and Brian Daubach about Manny Ramirez as a teammate. It was a totally random call, Schilling, the ol’ blowhard was just driving around and decided to call in. His call is an interesting look at Manny from a teammate’s perspective.
Don’t get me wrong, Manny is gone, and I’ve moved on. Sure, he’s putting up the ridiculous numbers I expected from him this season, but he never would have done them with the Sox, as Schilling explained, everyone in the clubhouse wasn’t sure if Manny would even play for the rest of the season. To me, when I hear that the situation with Manny became, according to Lou Merloni, “as bad as Carl Everett” I’m thankful that we managed to get someone as solid as Jason Bay before it was too late. Also, it is fun to speculate on who said that to Lou as, according to this site, the only two remaining teammates of Carl Everett on the Sox are Tim Wakefield and Jason Varitek, so I wonder which one believes Manny and Jurassic Carl became one and the same. I’m guessing ‘Tek.
Finally, I apppreciate Schilling admitting that he’s been a drain on the payroll because he hasn’t thrown a pitch all season. Schilling is a whole lot of things but honest is one of them. Definitely listen to the clip though because it is an interesting take on the whole situation.
As soon as Manny joined the Dodgers, manager Joe Torre mentioned to him that he wanted Manny to cut his dreads to conform to Joe’s antiquated ideas of how players should look. Now, I’m not going to go into whether or not Torre should be concerning himself as the look of his players rather than their production on the field–he shouldn’t be, get over it Joe, these are adults and it isn’t 1950, people aren’t wearing derby hats in the stands, let the players look they way they want–so Manny, the consummate teammate and order follower finally listened to Torre and cut his dreads. He had them cut all of an inch at most. What an asshole! I mean, I love it, because why not tweak Joe Torre, but still, that is one of the most petulant things Manny has done, is he going to start flicking Joe’s ears on the bus next? Start kicking Joe’s seat on the team plane? This is just such a ridiculously childish thing for Manny to do, that I’m almost in shock. I get that Manny has no idea what is going on in the world, hell, he’s probably borderline autistic, but Scott Boras should know better and tell Manny that this is NOT the way to go about getting that insane contract that he wants to get.
While I don’t think he’s getting 100 million from anyone, it is possible he could get like 60 million or so from someone, but if he keeps doing little shit like this, essentially just to piss off his manager and employer than he might find his options even more limited.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
How come when Manny Ramirez pushes down a 60 year old man everyone gets all up in his grill but when Jamie Moyer does it it’s fine? In case you missed it yesterday, here is the video of Phillies geriatric pitcher Moyer running the bases after an attempted sacrifice bunt turned into a two base error and ended with him up at third. There was no wondering if Moyer was running hard down the line though; he took out umpire Randy Marsh with a clean forearm shiver as he rounded first. Since Moyer, at 45, is the oldest player in the MLB that’s gotta be pretty embarassing for Marsh. Then again, Marsh is 60 years old so maybe Moyer should be the one embarrassed. Regardless, I have a feeling that it would be wise for Moyer to go apologize before the next time Marsh is behind the plate for one of his games…
[Fan IQ]
I’m going to miss you Manny.
You were one of my favorite all time Red Sox, and much like the Nomar trade this one is hard to take. That said, intellectually I understand and appreciate the move Theo and the front office made. Jason Bay is one of the few players I would have wanted to come replace Manny next season, and instead we get a chance to test-drive him and see how he fits with this team. I’m sad to see someone whose number should have been retired as a Red Sox go off and play for Joe Torre of all people, but Manny wants his money and so he’s off on that adventure. I’m gonna miss him, his big at-bats, the watching of home runs, the sidearm flips in to second base to throw a runner out and all the goofy stuff in between. Manuelito, you will be missed but I can’t help feeling like this team is going to start playing better without you. I hope that’s true. I do know that I feel lucky that I got to see Manny Ramirez’ final home run as a Red Sox player in person on Monday. So long Manuelito, Red Sox Nation is going to miss you.
The Slanch Report has started an online petition asking the MLB Network to air the Dock Ellis no-hitter he threw on June 12, 1970 against the San Diego Padres. The moment was a seminal piece of baseball history and is certainly worthy of being rerun.
Please join us in this cause and sign the petition below so we can all share in this special and fantastic moment of baseball history. THANKS!
SIGN THE PETITION HERE! AND PLEASE TELL YOUR FRIENDS AND PASS THIS ALONG!
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