ESPN - Manny Ramirez
walked away from baseball on Friday, abruptly ending the mercurial
career of one of the most talented -- and tainted -- hitters to ever
play the game.
The slumping Tampa Bay Rays
slugger tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug during spring
training, sources told ESPN.com, and informed Major League Baseball that
he would retire rather than face a 100-game suspension.
"I'm
at ease," Ramirez told ESPNdeportes.com via phone from his home in
Miami. "God knows what's best [for me]. I'm now an officially retired
baseball player. I'll be going away on a trip to Spain with my old man."
Ramirez served a 50-game suspension for violating the drug policy in 2009 while he was with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and second-time offenders get double that penalty.
"We were obviously surprised when we found out about it today and
hurt by what transpired," said Rays vice president Andrew Friedman, who
signed Ramirez to a $2 million, one-year contract in the offseason. "We
were cautiously optimistic that he would be able to be a force for us."
Had
Ramirez accepted his suspension, he would have become the first player
to be suspended twice for a performance-enhancing drug violation since
the program went into effect in 2005. The only previous player to be
punished twice for any type of drug-related violation was infielder Neifi Perez, who served two suspensions in 2007 for positive amphetamine tests.
In
2009, sources told ESPN.com, after Ramirez was informed of his first
violation of the PED act, he initiated an appeal but then dropped it and
accepted his suspension. After he was informed of this violation, he
notified the commissioner's office that rather than appeal or serve
another suspension, he was simply announcing his retirement.
By
retiring, he avoided having MLB formally announce that he'd violated
the Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. Instead, MLB issued a
release stating only that it had informed Ramirez of "an issue" under
that program, and he had chosen to retire.
"Major League Baseball
recently notified Manny Ramirez of an issue under Major League
Baseball's Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program," the statement
said. "Ramirez has informed MLB that he is retiring as an active player.
If Ramirez seeks reinstatement in the future, the process under the
Drug Program will be completed."
Manny Manny Manny. This comes after you claimed to be working harder than you ever have this off-season on your training program. You claimed that you "Naturally" lost weight and got in the best shape you had been in for years. Your a joke Manny. One of the worst defensive outfielders I have ever seen play the game, and an average hitter without PED's.
That's why we should salute players like Ken Griffey Jr., Chipper Jones, and Derek Jeter who played through the steroid era without using PED's, and played against all of the cheaters that were using PED's. These players put up Hall of Fame number in a doped up league and knew they were naturally as good as these other player while they were on the drugs. We would have to place at least 40-50% of players as PED users during the 90's and early 2000's. The fact that I just heard Manny's name on ESPN in the same sentence as the Hall of Fame makes me want to throw up.
-Dow
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