Bob Frantz: Manny getting the special treatment from fans, media

Manny Ramirez’s defiance of Major League Baseball’s drug policy is being passed off as “Manny being Manny,” while reporters won’t ask the real questions. (Jeff Gross/Getty Images)

Let me see if I have this straight: If you smile a lot, high-five fans with the ball still in play after a catch, urinate behind outfield walls, cut off throws from center field while playing left field, and generally act as if you have the intellect of a fourth grader, then it’s okay if you cheat the game of baseball?

Put another way, if you’re just “Manny being Manny,” steroid abuse is no big deal, right?

That’s the message being sent by adoring fans who continue to cheer Dodgers outfielder Manny Ramirez in parks everywhere from Albuquerque to San Diego to, soon enough, Los Angeles. “People love me wherever I go,” Ramirez said before a minor league game for the Isotopes last week, and apparently it’s true.

Even in enemy territory at Petco Park, any attempt by fans to let Manny know what they thought of him following his 50-game steroid suspension was drowned out by the cheers of traveling Dodger fans and willingly naive Padres fans who just wanted to watch him.
Is no one even remotely bothered by the fact that this man has hit an incredible 534 home runs and drove in 1,746 runs in his career, and that each and every one of them is now tainted?

We have no idea how many of Ramirez’s accomplishments have been aided by PED’s, because we don’t know which ones he used or how long he has used them. What we do know is that he failed a drug test, lolly-gagged his way through a 50-game suspension, and has now apparently been forgiven by an adoring public.

“Aw shucks,” we say, “steroids are just Manny being Manny!”

While I’m not usually one to point fingers at an irresponsible media, (with the exception of the incessant fawning over the president) I would like to know when a beat reporter attending one of Manny’s little press conferences is going to stop taking no for answer.
At his press gathering before his return on Friday, Manny addressed the steroid question with, “I don’t want to get into my medical records right now.”

When will someone stand up and say, “Sorry Manny, I’m afraid we’re going to have to get into your medical records now. Now why were you taking a female fertility drug? Why did you blame your doctor? Which other drugs have you taken? How long have you been on them?”

Nope.

Manny also apologized to the Dodgers and their fans, prompting one gutsy reporter to ask, “For what?” Manny’s reply: “Not being here for them.”

That was it. No follow up. Done.

Without a press willing to push for answers and accountability from cheaters like Ramirez, exposing them for what they are, fans will become more ready and willing to offer forgiveness as well, and the integrity of baseball’s statistics, and indeed its history, will be forever compromised. But that’s okay, it’s just Manny being Manny.

Sports personality Bob Frantz is a regular contributor to The Examiner. E-mail him at bfrantz@sfexaminer.com.