[googlopharm]

Ramirez Is Banned 50 Games After Positive Tests

By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT

Manny Ramirez, the Dodgers All-Star outfielder, was suspended by Major League Baseball on Thursday for testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug.

Ramirez’s suspension will begin tonight, M.L.B. said in a written statement, and will cost him about a third of his $25 million salary this year. He will be eligible to return July 3.

Scott Boras, Ramirez’s agent, told ESPN that his client did not test positive for a steroid but for a drug his doctor prescribed him for a medical condition.

The suspension shows that baseball’s drug testing program is working, however, it once again tarnishes one of the game’s premier sluggers. Ramirez joins the ranks of the Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire, who have been tied to the use of performance-enhancing drugs over the past decade.

In February, Rodriguez admitted that he used a performance-enhancing substance from 2001 to 2003 after it was revealed he tested positive for steroids in a preliminary phase of baseball’s drug-testing system in 2003. Positive tests then did not yet draw punishment. Now, the first positive drug test draws a 50-game ban.

Ramirez’s loss will jolt the Dodgers, who Wednesday night set a modern Major League record with their 13th straight home victory to start the season. Their 21-8 record is the best in baseball.

Ramirez joined the Dodgers via trade from the Boston Red Sox last August. He propelled the Dodgers to the playoffs last season, hitting .396 with 17 homers after the trade. He signed a two-year, $45 million contract before this season and was hitting .348 with 6 homers and 20 R.B.I. in 27 games this season.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/08/sp...=nytimessports

[Shiplyopidomi]

I would be surprised if the Dodgers are only 5 games or less when he returns on July 3rd.

[Chiquita]

Wow.

[googlopharm]

Manny is now topic number one on Twitter.

[mpzoFeJs]

This is very surprising to me. I guess it's another incident of Manny being Manny, eh?

[wrefrinny]

It's not my fault. The doctor did it.

[Dertrioz]

No physician except a quack would script for HCG expecting it to past an MLB drug test. The concept is absurd.

[wrefrinny]

I just had a customer come into the office and make a payment. His personal check has the LA Dodgers logo on it. I thought, "Hmmm. I'll bet he's having a bad day."

[erepsysoulperj]

Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

[wrefrinny]

Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

LOL. Not a Dodgers fan, cezero?

[erepsysoulperj]

Nah. I've always liked The Dodgers. I like them a lot better than the Angels.

But, I've seen enough of Manny over the years to despise him. The Indians, Red Sox, and Mets were good to purge him from their ranks.

[Knongargoapex]

I'm so glad the Sox unloaded him, and didn't win the bidding war for A-Roid.

[wrefrinny]

What's unfortunate for The Dodgers is that this places a big old "*" next to last year's big finish and this year's start.

[Knongargoapex]

What's unfortunate for The Dodgers is that this places a big old "*" next to last year's big finish and this year's start.

If I were a Dodger that has been clean my entire career, I'd be all over the news saying how this has diminished, my efforts, the team, the sport, and his reputation and I'd be happy if he never came back to this team. I'd be yelling BS all over this.

[Bbjhjxfy]

What's unfortunate for The Dodgers is that this places a big old "*" next to last year's big finish and this year's start.

Does it put an asterisk? This whole baseball era has an asterisk. Two of the greatest hitters of our era are Bonds and Rodidriguez with Ramirez pretty high on the list. Clemens may have been the greatest pitcher of the last 25 years. I am now jaded enough to believe that everyone good is juicing. My initial outrage has simply turned into resignation. I still like baseball but have lost my will on the steroids issue.

I'm fairly sure Babe Ruth didn't juice but my certainty ends there.

[unlomarma]

Nice Read

Top 10 drug suspensions: It's Manny, Raffy and ... everyone else
By 'Duk

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big...urn=mlb,161941

5. Mike Cameron(notes) (25) — October, 31, 2007 Cameron's name was big enough to raise a few eyebrows when he beat baseball to the punch in announcing his suspension for a banned stimulant. After blaming the positive test on a nutritional supplement, Cameron took his medicine and made his debut with the Brewers on April 29.

4. J.C. Romero(notes) (50) — January 6, 2009 The circumstances surrounding the suspension of the key Philadelphia reliever are too confusing and involved to detail in brief, but it remains the only suspension to impact a returning World Series champion. He is eligible to return to the Phillies during the first week of June.

3. Jason Grimsley(notes) (50) — June 12, 2006 As a mediocre reliever, Grimsley would not have ordinarily made this list. But his subsequent Sammy The Bull role in the Mitchell Report shoots him right up (pardon the expression) the list of influential suspendees. (Yes, even if the LA Times was monumentally wrong on some of the blacked-out names in Grimsley's affidavit to investigators.)

2. Rafael Palmeiro, (10) — August 1, 2005 Prior to this morning, Palmeiro was the unquestioned king of MLB drug suspensions, shocking the baseball world with a positive test just months after he unequivocally claimed in front of Congress that he had never, ever touched the stuff. He has 569 career homers and 3,020 hits, but zero chance of ever entering Cooperstown. How's that for an impact?

1. Manny Ramirez (50) — May 7, 2009 No matter if it's being blamed on a desire to perform better in the bedroom, there are few players whose suspensions would have caused bigger waves. As one of the sport's top players on a World Series contender, Ramirez's penalty will be tough to top in terms of impact.

[googlopharm]

Ramirez is said to have had elevated levels of testosterone during testing that was done during spring training.

[sisimelanyk]

Top 10 drug suspensions: It's Manny, Raffy and ... everyone else

How did Sesil not make this list?

Personally, I think on top of the 50 game suspension, Manny, and all players who are caught juicing, should have to spend a day with the family of Taylor Hooten, or someone like him:

http://www.taylorhooton.com/home

[googlopharm]

Moose thanks for that link. It puts things in perspective.

[sisimelanyk]

Moose thanks for that link. It puts things in perspective.

You know, Ti, whether they care to acknowledge it or not, the juicing era in professional sports is responsible for the death of a lot of kids. And they never acknowledge that fact. And the owners, and MLB/NFL/ etc. are just as complicit in the death of these kids as the players themselves are. Promote a generation of unnaturally large and disproportionately muscular athletes as the elite of the game, and guess what - a scrawny 16 year old is gonna say "I need some of that".