What Does Manny Being Manny Mean Now?

Manny Being Manny. It means a lot of things, and one more thing as of two days ago. It means being crazy, a well-known dread-locked goofball, best remembered for being part of the self-proclaimed Red Sox Idiot Teams of the 2000s. It means being one of the best hitters in baseball history; during his 19 year career, he had 2,574 hits, 555 home runs, a .585 career slugging percentage, and a .996 OPS. The only other players in baseball history to at least match him in all of those stats: Babe Ruth and Barry Bonds. And speaking of Barry Bonds, let's move on to what the third and most recent part of what Manny Being Manny means: steroid use.

It is impossible to know just how long Manny has been a steroid user. The most likely scenario is that he was using PEDs throughout his career. The main evidence for this was his appearance on a list of players who had tested positive for PEDs in 2003. That and the fact that he has been officially caught using PEDs twice, with both of those failed tests came within the past two years, is good enough evidence for me. The first came in 2009, during his time with the Dodgers, for which he served a 50 game suspension. Now, just a few games into the season with his new team, the Tampa Bay Rays, he's been caught again, and instead of serving the 100 game suspension, the 38 year old veteran has decided it was best to just hang up the cleats for good after a 19 year career.

And down goes another baseball hero from the decade. Another would-be sure-fire Hall of Famer that might just end up losing his spot because of two failed tests late in his career, when he was already seemingly bound for Cooperstown.

What a great time for this to happen to Manny though. Because of the fact that the news broke during the Barry Bonds trial, he's flying under the radar in terms of steroid stories. But even though it's being somewhat overlooked now, Manny's steroid use is going to be hot news at least when his name is first on the ballot for the Hall. After failing not one but two tests and reportedly a test several years earlier, how can Manny not be one of the poster-boys for steroids?

Manny's primary legacy can no longer be that of the legendary hitter whose bat as well as free-spirit made even Yankee fans want to like him. If people are going to remember guys like Bonds, McGwire, and Sosa for their steroid use, it's important to remember guys like Manny for their steroid use as well. Of course, I am not in any way glad that Ramirez's reputation was tarnished, in fact out of all the power hitters from the Steroid Era, I think Ramirez was the one that everyone wanted to be roid-free because of his affability, and as a result was the one guy people assumed could not have been taking steroids. However, he can't be let off of the hook because of his care-free demeanor and continued success after the proclaimed Steroid Era, when it was clear he was still taking roids not only during but also after the Era.

Of course, there is no definitive way to tell whether Manny was using steroids in his prime or only whether he only used them recently to get his power and bat going again, but what would it say about us if we were only concerned with juicers that used steroids during their primes instead of toward the end of their careers? Steroids are bad, period; there are no exceptions to the rule where one guy's steroid use should be different than another guy's. We can forgive and possibly forget, but if we want to do that then we need to do so with all steroid users as a matter of fairness, there should be no picking and choosing. Either you forgive them all, or you punish them all. But with Manny Being Manny, I don't know if he'll care either way.