Dickey: Will Manny get the Bonds treatment?

Dodgers outfielder Manny Ramirez became the most recent star to be associated with performance-enhancing drugs when he was suspended 50 games Thursday. (AP)

SAN FRANCISCO — Manny Ramirez fails a drug test and is suspended for 50 days. Alex Rodriguez admits to steroid use before he came to the N.Y. Yankees and there is speculation in a new book that he was taking them as early as high school.

So, are those of my colleagues who made Barry Bonds the poster boy for steroids ready to admit that Bonds wasn’t alone?
I’m not holding my breath.

Bonds was an easy target because he had offended so many in the media and they were just waiting for a reason to jump on him.

But their actions were no more shameful than those of baseball’s hypocritical commissioner, Bud Selig, who turned a blind eye to steroid use when the 1998 home run race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, both suspected juicers, revived baseball. Selig got religion later and declared that watching Bonds break Hank Aaron’s career home run record was the worst moment of his life. Really? Worse than when his intransigent position in dealing with the players association brought on the cancellation of the 1994 World Series?

Indirectly, I think Selig caused the involuntary retirement of Bonds last season. There were certainly American League teams which could have used him as a DH, but none were willing to incur Selig’s wrath by signing him.

Meanwhile, the Ramirez and Rodriguez cases bring an interesting dilemma to writers who have declared they won’t vote for Bonds because he “cheated” by using performance-enhancing drugs. Are Ramirez and Rodriguez now in that class? And what of the other names which will eventually surface? Rest assured, there will be more. Anybody who’s been around baseball in recent years knows that steroid use has been widespread. And to anybody who believes baseball’s new drug policy has stopped it, I’d ask: What’s your position on the Tooth Fairy?

In fact, baseball has had a culture of cheating throughout the game’s history. Some of the game’s best hitters, such as Sosa and George Brett, have been caught using corked bats. The New York Giants reportedly had a spy in the center-field bleachers at the Polo Grounds during the 1951 National League playoffs, stealing signs and passing them on to Giants hitters.

Though it’s been illegal to doctor the baseball since Ray Chapman was killed by an errant pitch in 1920, there have been many pitchers who have done it, most notably Gaylord Perry, who admitted to it in a post-career book.

I saw Perry in his early career with the Giants, when he was very close to being released by the Giants before another pitcher, Bob Shaw, taught him the spitter. Using the spitter — or the threat of it — Perry went on to a Hall of Fame career.

I’d like somebody to explain the difference between that and taking steroids to get a boost.

In fact, steroids are not a magic bullet. Several marginal players have been caught. One of them was Marvin Benard, a Giants outfielder who was mediocre until he took steroids and became ... well, mediocre.

So now, Ramirez has been caught with the usual excuse — he didn’t know what he was taking. Frankly, I don’t care. I’ll vote for Ramirez and Rodriguez when they’re eligible for the Hall of Fame, and I’ll vote for Bonds, too. They’re all deserving and, unlike Selig and many of my colleagues, I’m not a hypocrite.

Glenn Dickey has been covering Bay Area sports since 1963 and also writes on www.GlennDickey.com. E-mail him at glenndickey@hotmail.com.