“Manny being Manny.” That was the bemused phrase people employed to explain the always weird, sometimes amusing, often maddening behavior of Manny Ramirez, the slugger who retired last week. It was a phrase that eventually became as tired as his antics. Ramirez, once viewed as one of the great right-handed hitters of all time, was a living sitcom parody. Oh, there goes Manny, loafing after a ball in left field. Look, there goes Manny running slowly to first base again. Shucks, there goes Manny wearing out his welcome in Boston. Yup, just Manny being Manny.
The act was never funny. Now, we’re pretty sure it was a fraud. On April 8, MLB announced that it had “notified Manny Ramirez of an issue under Major League Baseball’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. Ramirez informed MLB that he is retiring as an active player.” According to reports, Ramirez, 38, tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug. The drugs certainly didn’t help him hit — witness his hearty .059 average as a designated hitter for the Tampa Bay Rays.
In 2009, Ramirez received a 50-game suspension for testing positive for a female fertility drug frequently used by drug cheats to restore testosterone levels. The substance was banned by Major League Baseball; Ramirez said he used the drug for “personal health reasons.” That same year, the New York Times reported that Ramirez was among the 100 or so players who tested positive for performance enhancing drugs in 2003. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised by this latest slip.
So another career goes down the performance enhancing drugs drain. What a shame. No hitter was more compelling to watch than Ramirez. His bat was a machete, ripping through the strike zone as if it were cutting sugar cane. He’d raise a forearm after making contact, and offer his signature hop: there it goes, another Manny home run. Born in the Dominican Republic and reared in Washington Heights — New York City’s Dominican enclave — he was the shy kid who struggled with English. He started his career in Cleveland, serving as the young power source for an upstart club that won American League pennants in 1995 and 1997. Two years later, he hit .333, with 44 home runs and a stunning 165 RBI, the highest single-season RBI total since Jimmie Foxx drove in 175 runs in 1938.
