MANNY RAMIREZ: BEST PLAYER

lol, "now"??? u mad.

Manny Ramirez retired from baseball Friday instead of facing a 100-game suspension for testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug, according to two people briefed on the matter.

Ramirez tested positive for the performance-enhancing drug during spring training and was recently informed of the positive result, according to the people.

In a news release, the commissioner’s office said it had recently notified Ramirez “of an issue under Major League Baseball’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.”

The statement added, “Rather than continue with the process under the Program, Ramirez has informed M.L.B. that he is retiring as an active player.”

The commissioner’s office said that if Ramirez wanted to return to baseball, he would have to face discipline for his positive test.

The positive test in spring training was the third time Ramirez tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug.

In 2009, he was suspended after his urine sample from spring training had elevated levels of testosterone. The New York Times reported later in 2009 that Ramirez was among the roughly 100 players who tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug in 2003, when testing was conducted on an anonymous survey basis.

Ramirez played 66 games for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2010 and 24 games for the Chicago White Sox, hitting .298 with 9 home runs and 42 runs batted in in 90 games.

He signed as a free agent with the Tampa Bay Rays in January and was 1 for 17 in five games this season.

The Rays said in a statement: “We are obviously surprised and disappointed by this news. We will have no further comment on this matter, and our fans and organization will carry on.”

Hated this dickhole for years, glad he's out of the game.

― The Louvin Spoonful (WmC), Friday, April 8, 2011 4:51 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

aye aye

Of all the players who've had their reputations ruined by PEDs, Ramirez and Palmeiro were the two most disappointing for me. They represented opposite ends of the spectrum, and I was a big fan of both. Palmeiro was the workmanlike superstar: went about his business quietly, did his .300/40/120 thing regularly without getting hardly any attention for it. Manny was a true flake, a throwback to all the wingnuts like Fidrych and Hrabosky and Pepitone I loved growing up. And he had the best hair since Oscar Gamble. Their downfall was sadder to me than Bonds', Clemens', McGwire's, or Sosa's.

joe pepitone owned

Seeing as Joe would put popcorn under his foreskin to freak out the trainer, I'm guessing PEDs would have been automatic.

so does manny get in or what

my fav pepitone factoid was that when he played in japan, his name entered the language as a synonym for laziness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik79BGmRrOU

manny can finally have that baby he's been trying for

so does manny get in or what

Way, way, way down the line--like 40 or 50 years, when all of this is footnote. (A big footnote, like 1919, or a small footnote, no one yet knows.) He was going to have a hard enough time as is; this pushes him much farther towards the back of the line. I'm not talking about my own feelings here, just assessing what I think will happen.

"going to have a hard enough time as it is" - you're referring to his earlier PED issue, or on the merits? he's one of the best righthanded hitters of all time. it'd be sad for him not to live to see himself elected, maybe i'm just optimistic but i can't see him being shut out for 40 years

http://www.weei.com/sports/boston/this-just-in/2192221/jenks-manny-went-idiot-dumbass

getting busted twice for PEDs in an era in which it was pretty hard to do is going to count for something.

xp!

getting called a dumbass by jenks is....cold

you're referring to his earlier PED issue, or on the merits?

The PED issue, obviously! Absent that, you wouldn't even ask the question--he'd be first-ballot around 95%, fielding be damned.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C6i7anVEcs

that linked weei.com url is great

wmc why are you in such a shitty mood today, i was only kidding

I'm in a good mood today! There wasn't any heat in my post -- I just didn't feel like wasting any energy to justify an opinion when I don't care whether it's shared. Princess summed it up perfectly one post later anyway.

http://soxanddawgs.com/redsox/video/manny-pets-julian-tavarez.html

manny can finally have that baby he's been trying for

― bnw, Friday, April 8, 2011 4:01 PM (2 hours ago)

this made me lol for real.

just read about this and am in shock, thought if you got caught once you would never do it again. especially if you are/were a superstar.

they just keep pulling me back in!

getting called a dumbass by jenks is....cold

― omar little, Friday, April 8, 2011 7:11 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

there is definitely some sort of house or mirrors borge's map level of meta going on in that comment.

jenks kind of is, um, thick.

An interesting defense of Ramirez:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/scocca/archive/2011/04/08/manny-ramirez-is-the-hero-of-the-steroid-era.aspx

Okay I kind of love Manny for being Manny and dude was an awesome awesome offensive force, but this idea that he was of the ten best PLAYERS of his era is kinda predicated on pretending that what a player does in the batter's box is the only thing that matters isn't it? Cuz if you factor in position, defense, baserunning, like basically every part of the game other than putting the bat on the ball I don't think this idea is defensible at all.

yeah, by WAR he's actually a bit short of that magic 70 WAR threshhold above which everyone is in the HoF (or will be once eligible) and that's due to poor defense. but looking just at hitting on a rate basis he's one of the best hitters of all time, bonds and pujols are the only recent players with a better career OPS.

MANNY RAMIREZ: BEST PLAYER << thread title always makes me smile - rip manny i muchly enjoyed yr baseball playing and overall spaced persona

lol one time i saw this local boston magazine show segment featuring mannys wifes interior decorator showing off their condo at the westin - just as hes saying 'design and contemporary art are v important to the remirezes' camera pans the bedroom where there are no less than 30 baseball bats scattered around the room

I loved Manny and am gonna miss him.

buck just called his first 2 months w/ the dodgers possibly the best 2 months of batting by any player of the last 10 years, which seems pretty obviously untrue, though I can't be bothered to look up the numbers

the Dodgers prob wouldn't have won their division in 2008 w/t Manny ... which is a great enough feather in his cap w/t needing to embellish it by calling it "the best 2 months of batting by any player."

He was good at times but nowhere near Pujols/A-Rod/Bonds territory, enough with the hyperbole RedSox nation sympathizers...

How do his career numbers compare to 2nd tier guys like Sosa or McGwire?

manny august 2008 to october 2008: .396/.489/.743 (221 OPS+)

barry bonds april 2001 to october 2004: .349/.559/.809 (256 OPS+)

this has been your barry bonds reminder of the day

xp this isn't the best thing to look at because park factors and such but
http://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/onbase_plus_slugging_career.shtml

manny is 9th all time by unadjusted OPS, mcgwire is 10th.

sosa is 106th

barry bonds april 2001 to october 2004: .349/.559/.809 (256 OPS+)

^^ these are numbers from the mind of a madman

can't say how boston feels, that seems to be a more complex stew.

― omar little, Friday, April 8, 2011 5:46 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i get what gya and cidepress are saying in general but even if you wanted to love him unconditionally manny didn't exactly make it easy--something bad went down in 2008 and we'll never know the whole story, unless you want to believe that it was an exceptionally executed instance of pr/spin/media manipulation. but even before that there was always some sort of swirl--did he like playing here? did he hate it? it seemed to change every couple months. is that 100% on the media? possibly, but possibly not.

of course the post-sox ped stuff complicates the issue further for a lot of fans. i can easily choose to just remember the good times w/manny--because there are so many of them--but there was other stuff there too.

There was an extra innings game at Jacobs Field where Eckersley gave up the game winning home run to Manny- it's semi-famous on video because Dennis turned around, followed the ball and just mouthed "wow". I was at that game and sat in in upper deck for 3 hours in the blazing sun (all the good tickets were gone in those days). When the game hit extra innings people started leaving because of the heat which meant we moved into the shade a level below. I saw it in the good seats.

Before that Manny had been talked about by the Tribe as the can't miss player of the century. Sports talk radio was gaga over that pick- I drove a delivery van in those day and heard it every day. Jacobs Field had just been built- Albert Belle came in, Jim Thome, Manny Ramirez, Sandy Alomar, Colon. One right after the other.

I moved a couple years ago (my current place) and the neighborhood bar that I latched onto had (and still has) a Red Sox fan as a bartender. First time I was there I asked her to put the Indians game on and they were playing the Red Sox (with M. Ramirez). We talked about how great a hitter Manny was for about a half an hour.

i guess i'm getting all billy crystal

in another words i didn't have sex with the bartender

brownie that's a great post. it really was an incredible cavalcade of players coming into cleveland.

oh wait, i came here to post this:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v134/tracerhand/1191648169_0157.jpg

Nothing against Manny, but the original intent of this thread was to ponder the odd/inane South Korean cartoons on various MLB topics du jour.

(Is the artist still making them? They were pretty lol)

dunno, pretty sure this thread is about MANNY RAMIREZ now. all this comics were pretty awesome looking though.

great article -

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/26/sports/baseball/26manny.html

Nothing against Manny, but the original intent of this thread was to ponder the odd/inane South Korean cartoons on various MLB topics du jour.

― it's time for the fish in the perculator (Steve Shasta), Sunday, April 17, 2011 4:51 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol you have been on some thread police shit lately, or maybe i am just noticing it more

lol maybe you can gargle on my nuts?

daaaaamn shasta going hard