Manny being Manny...or Octomom...or Bob Dole...
Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Manny Ramirez was hit with a 50-game suspension by Major League Baseball because of a positive test for a banned substance. A statement by Ramirez, released through the players’ union, says in part: “Recently I saw a physician for a personal health issue. He gave me a medication, not a steroid, which he thought was OK to give me.”
The secrecy is what kills this argument for me. If you truly aren’t trying to get away with using a performance-enhancing substance, why not state specifically, right up front, what your health issue is and what medication was prescribed? I know he’s got a right to privacy, but is this privacy worth being suspected of being a cheater?
So we look to others to fill in the blanks. ESPN reports that the substance in question is human chorionic gonadotropin, a women’s fertility drug. So is Manny trying to make himself into the second coming of Octomom? On the other hand, Yahoo! Sports quotes a source close to Ramirez as saying that the drug was not “an agent customarily used for performance enhancing” — except in the bedroom. The source said that the drug was prescribed to treat Manny’s erectile dysfunction.
I suppose that’s possible, but why not just use Viagra or Cialis? Unfortunately for Manny, he’s now under a huge dark cloud of suspicion. HCG is, quoting the ESPN report, “typically used by steroid users to restart their body’s natural testosterone production as they come off a steroid cycle.”
on May 7th, 2009 at 6:12 pm
The Dodgers are lucky they play in such a garbage division. They’ll still likely be in first place when Manny comes back tanned, rested and ready after 50 games off and $7.7 million lighter in the wallet.
on May 8th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
One of these centuries an athletic cheater will have the integrity to say:
1. Yes I cheated.
2. I did it to get a multi-million dollar contract (it’s always about money).
3. I hoped the designer drugs I was using would stay one step ahead of modern science and drug testing. They didn’t.
And for all the idiots who will give Manny the benefit of the doubt, please read Mr. Guckin’s last sentence again. HCG has been banned by the IOC since 1987. I’m not sure what I hate more, the cheating, or the lying and idiotic excuses when the cheaters get caught. Both are disgusting.