Can We Finally Agree Manny Ramirez is a Jerk?

It should be no surprise that when I awoke this morning to the already ubiquitous headlines that Manny had tested positive for – wait for it – a female fertility drug that is used to help the body recover after a period of steroid use, I cracked a distinct smile. One, as I’ve already stated, I don’t like Manny. But two, I will admit, as an Angels fan, to harboring a certain resentment towards the Dodgers for continuing to trump the Angels’ media coverage during a time when they are run by a two-faced owner in Frank McCourt, and have been far less successful on the field in recent years than that other LA-area ballclub.

When the Dodgers first acquired Ramirez and soared into the playoffs on his dreadlocked shoulders, I began to resent them, and their fans, even more for making an icon of a man who had gotten himself traded in the first place by doing something worse than steroids: intentionally dogging it on the field. And though I know that ultimately you can’t blame the fans of Chavez Ravine for cheering a player who was doing for their team what Ramirez was – regardless of his past behavior – there was still something really bitter about having Ramirez, of all people, casting his media shadow over the Angels during a season in which they, in fact, were the best team in town (any town, for that matter) by plain wins and losses.

But if I hate Ramirez so much, why have I dedicated so much time to writing about him? Well, quite frankly the guy is interesting; we all love to hate. But more to the point, the longer and longer his antics are allowed to continue, ‘Manny Being Manny’ serves as a belligerent euphemism which allows fans to overlook the worst behavior from a ballplayer since Pete Rose bet on games involving his own team. And, quite frankly, I am flabbergasted that so many baseball fans don’t recognize this.

Last night during the Rockets/Lakers game, Houston coaches took exception to Von Wafer’s lack of effort on the defensive end on the ball, and when they called him out on it on the bench Wafer said something (presumably) insubordinate, and was sent to the locker room early in a game in which they were already short Ron Artest. I haven’t scoured the Texas newspapers, but I’m assuming Wafer is going to be vilified by the local media. I fail to see much of a difference between Von Wafer’s insubordination and Ramirez intentionally dogging it to hurt the Red Sox last year. Both players are under contract for millions of dollars, and they are not fulfilling their obligations to those contracts by just not listening to their coaches nor, you know, actually trying.

So for the last time, can we all just agree that Manny is a jerk?

In my mind, this last offense on Manny’s part puts beyond any reasonable doubt that Ramirez is completely selfishly motivated and will do anything to accomplish whatever he wants to, at the expense of anyone, particularly teammates. Granted, there have been a couple times when what he wanted was a World Series title, but no one’s really sure when that is his goal or when it is securing his next contract.

There are, of course, those who are going to try and explain this away, as I have already seen several comments on the LA Times’ website to the effect of ‘all Manny is guilty of right now is making a bad decision in trusting a bad doctor.’ And, to be fair, this has been the common defense of a litany of other players who have been caught up in similar circumstances where an independent doctor gave them something to take, for which they claim to have a legitimate medical condition, and that the doctor did not know contained something on the MLB banned substances list. Phillies’ situational left-hander J.C. Romero is currently serving a 50 game ban for a very similar incident involving a supplement he supposedly bought at GNC. This excuse, however, is ridiculous.

I had two conversations about Manny today; one with a medical student friend of mine, another with a Massachusetts native and lifelong Red Sox fan. My doctor friend admitted that it is certainly plausible that an independent doctor could have been ignorant to the fine print on the MLB banned substances list. But Ramirez’ argument still didn’t pass muster with him, questioning why an MLB player, who is presumably provided the best possible medical care available, would even go to an independent doctor in the first place.

My extension of this query was that even if there were a way to justify seeing a doctor not recommended by the team, wouldn’t a player, particularly one of Manny’s stature, have that much more reason to ensure that what he was putting in his body wasn’t banned? I believe Manny is eccentric and egoistic, but I don’t think he is stupid. To suggest Manny is just a victim of a bad doctor or his own carelessness is just not thinking critically. And that’s not even mentioning that the fact checkers at ESPN and the LA Times have already noticed that Manny’s “physician was a cousin who can't be found, working out of a storefront that no longer exists.”

But, as always, the more important question is not whether Manny is culpable, because only those in complete denial will decry his guilt, but rather how, as fans, do we react to this and where do we place Ramirez in a historical context given this new revelation? First, Dodgers fans have the unenviable task of having to fully support Ramirez upon his return. Unfortunately for them, while their team should still have enough offensive weapons to hold on for 50 games and win their (very weak) division, LA’s lack of rotation depth means that Ramirez has to be an integral part of the team for them to accomplish anything in the playoffs.

For the front office, the offseason becomes a bit more tricky. The part about this entire episode which irks me the most is the fact that, in negotiating his two year 45 million dollar contract, when it became apparent that Ramirez was not going to receive the six year deal he sought, he became insistent upon controlling his contract, namely the fact that he can opt out of it after only one year and making $25 million (before his suspension forfeited $8 million) of that total this season. So, since Ramirez didn’t procure the contract he originally wanted, given his past actions in Boston it’s not hard to assume that he was highly motivated to perform well in 2009 so he could opt out of his Dodgers contract and get the deal he wanted in a better economy.

So, even if you forgive him for it, was Manny’s usage motivated by a desire to help his team to a title, or was it for his own personal gain? Obviously this is very much speculation, but whether it was pure greed or just doing something incredibly stupid in trying to gain that competitive edge, Ramirez, yet again, let his team down.

As for the Hall of Fame? Really, who knows. It’s certainly going to be very interesting over the coming years to see how baseball writers vote regarding players implicated in the steroids era, and it’s going to be very difficult to be consistent considering there’s really no way to know who did what. Still here’s guessing that lines will be drawn very starkly between players who were named, and those who weren’t. This isn’t fair, as there are undoubtedly many players in MLB clubhouses who have used banned substances and never been caught, but Hall of Fame voting for ‘roids era players will still likely be guesswork.

As for me, I don’t really have a strong opinion yet as to how players like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens (who were potentially Hall of Famers before they touched ‘roids) should be treated by Hall Voters, but I do have a strong opinion on Manny Ramirez and all the times he let his team down, created drama to benefit his wallet, or flat out quit playing hard. So, regardless of historical context and all the larger issues, yeah, I would smile a bit if Ramirez never got a plaque in Cooperstown.