Manny joined the growing list of named and shamed baseball cheats this week when he was suspended for 50 games for using Performance Enhancing Drugs.
So he doesn't need to have hip surgery forced upon him to get out of the spotlight like A-Hole did at the beginning of this season before he came back to produce another tainted homer in his first at-bat.
You hear what that means, scumbag Red Sox fans? It means your little World Series victories are tainted. The Curse is still on. You can kid yourselves about it but the reality is, without Manny, you weren't going to win even one World Series let alone two.
And you know what it means to the Dodgers, who struggled all off season with Manny's Arsehole Agent to sign him to a realistic contract? It means the Dodgers' amazing home winning streak ended and immediately ended turning into a two game losing streak. Not the end of the Dodgers season though. Still, it makes the NL West more interesting. And why is 50 games enough? Why not a lifetime ban? Why are any of the steroid cheats getting more chances? Why is A-Rod playing for that matter?
Joke. Enforcement is a joke. Otherwise we'd all be watching Triple A ballplayers now as the regulars, the stars would by and large all be suspended or banned.
But, as Bill Simmons points out, baseball just turned it's head because we liked what the roids were bringing. (Especially World Championships for the Sox...)
"You don't understand what it was like to follow baseball before you were born. There was a strike in 1994, and the World Series was canceled. Everyone hated baseball. Then Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa started hitting homers, and the balls started flying out of the park, and it was so much fun that everyone looked the other way. We didn't care that these guys were practically busting out of their skin or growing second foreheads. We really didn't. All the cheating made baseball more fun to watch. We were in denial. It was weird.
"Then, Barry Bonds hit 73 home runs in a season, and that was like the turning point. We realized that things had gone too far. We blamed him for cheating and looked the other way with dozens of other guys who might have been doing the same thing. Brady Anderson hit 50 homers in 1996; we didn't care. Bret Boone had 141 RBIs in a season; we didn't care. Big Papi went from 10 homers to 41 in four seasons; we didn't care. Roger Clemens was washed up, but suddenly he could throw 98 miles per hour and win Cy Youngs again; we didn't care. Eric Gagne saved 84 straight games and threw 120 miles an hour; we didn't care. Good players started blowing out tendons nobody had ever heard of; we didn't care. Pitchers blew out elbow tendons and shoulder ligaments routinely; we didn't care. This was the deal. They cheated; we pretended they didn't. It's really hard to explain unless you were there."
I think that sums it up nicely. Then again, we weren't "aware" of this stuff at the time it was happening. That's the insiders. THEY knew. THEY didn't care. We as fans were just left to deal with the aftermath but yes, I remember the Sosa and McGwire season, the excitement about their homer launching pads. No one at the time said but hey, they're on steroids and they're numbers are artificial, inflated. We still innocently believed this was some magical force over baseball. Not cheating. Not taking drugs to enhance their performances. We were idiots. How could something so good be free? Of course not.
We should really hate baseball for being so cynical to turn its head away like it did, just for the chance to make money, generate fan interest after greed had nearly ruined the sport. But we don't. We can't even bring ourselves to hate the cheaters who get caught. We just nod knowingly. Of course he was a cheat, look at his numbers.
Still, always thought Ortiz was the likelier roider than Manny.
*****
Interesting following The Hunt For the Ball That Launched The Shot Heard Round The World
“Miracle Ball” contends that a rebellious, baseball-crazy nun named Sister Helen Rita had violated Felician order rules to attend the game and was sitting in the left-field stands when Thomson's homer cleared the wall.
Pafko at the wall...
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