Manny Suspended

Manny Ramirez has been suspended for 50 games for failing a test for PEDs. Somewhere, Alex Rodriguez is doing a happy dance, as this will take the spotlight off of him for a while.

This is, honestly, fairly shocking. As much as everyone has said that you can’t really know who is clean and who isn’t, Manny’s one of those guys that there was no real reason to suspect. He’s always been big, he’s always had power, he’s always been a great hitter, and he’s not exactly known for his amazing work ethic. Manny Being Manny never included an intense dedication to making the most of his abilities.

He was just a guy who was born to hit, and he’s been hitting at pretty similar levels for his entire career. Yea, he went bananas on the National League after Boston traded him last year, but did anyone think that was evidence of steroid use?

This is, obviously, a pretty big blow to the Dodgers. They’ve played so well to start the year, and their division rivals are so lousy, that they should be able to survive without Manny for a few months. But still… wow.

Update: Manny is claiming that he took a medication that contained a non-steroidal banned substance. Will be interesting to see how much detail comes out, as guys who have made similar claims in the past have mostly cleared their names by being transparent.