Diamond Notes: Bill Plaschke on his feelings on Manny Ramirez today

“I’m even madder now. Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? Yeah Dodger fans, He’s being as if he’s returning from Iraq or something.

“The club has done nothing during the suspension but coddle him and treat him as if he had suffered some life-threatening disease or something and he was trying to make a valiant comeback.

“Basically the Dodgers and their fans - a lot of their fans, not all of them, but a lot of them - have pretty much accepted steroids in saying, ‘It’s no big deal. Glad to have you back, Manny. Sorry you were gone.’ It’s all that sort of thing. So it’s really kind of disconcerting.

“He’s lost $7 million. I undestand that. Otherwise, it’s been the best summer of Manny Ramirez’s life.

“First time in baseball history that a team will devote a section of its stands for people who want to cheer a drug cheat.”

Biz of Baseball: Most Baseball Fans Prepare to Give Manny Ramirez a Nice Big Kiss Upon Return

“Thick wavy hair, a little too long”.. From Shadow Morton to shadow Manny!

In a further sign of interest in the game, Fox’s Prime Ticket will add an extra right-field camera for the event. The RSN will also have a special road edition of the “Dodgers Live” pregame and postgame show to cover Manny’s return. No word on whether Manny will do to the Western Metal Building what he did to the inside of Green Monster scoreboard, but if so, cameras will be at the ready from every angle.

It all is the circus that is Manny being Manny, and you can bet your dreadlock wig that the Dodgers will be the beneficiary of the return at the cash registers, regardless of whether he comes back in mid-season form.

For MLB, it means moving past a potentially embarrassing moment, or rather, a moment that was embarrassing, but had a player with incredible barstool likeability at its center. Baseball surely must be signing in relief knowing that Ramirez won’t be in the All-Star Game, unless Charlie Manuel selects him, a long shot to say the least.

L.A. Times: When it comes to Manny, what would Nietzsche do?

What, you didn’t know Socrates was a baseball junkie?

You thought Plato and Nietzsche were so above it all they didn’t have a favorite National League team?

Yeah, stupid me, I had no idea either.

But this week I paid a visit to my local house of all things psychic: Tattered Glove Palm Reading of Chavez Ravine.

With Manny Ramirez back Friday, L.A. is now confronted with a bulked-up existential question: How should we view those who have cheated the system by using banned substances? What should we think of those who appear willing to do anything to win? How do we forgive?

Searching for answers, I convened an emergency meeting with the spirits of some of the prime shapers of Western thought.

It actually wasn’t hard to get this group together; it’s a little-known fact they have been meeting regularly to philosophize on baseball since the White Sox World Series scandal of 1919.

First up? Socrates (Manny-applicable quote: “An honest man is always a child.").

What, I asked, do we make of this Ramirez mess?

“Well, let me say it is good, my friend, that you’re asking questions. That’s what I’m all about: pondering. The most important question is this: What, exactly, is cheating?”

Just my luck. I go looking for absolutes, all I get is doubt.

Jason Stark: It’s so wrong to celebrate Manny’s return

So instead, the reaction to Manny, from Albuquerque to Ensenada, has been—what else?—downright hero worship. You’d think the guy had spent the past 57 days curing cancer, dousing tensions in Iran and smoothing out plot glitches for the final season of “Lost.”

But why? That’s the question we’ve been struggling with since Manny-mania busted out in Albuquerque last week.

Why is America so ready to forgive this guy, of all guys? Because he has fun hair? Because he has a lovable smile? Because he has a long, not necessarily proud, history as baseball’s foremost goofball?

Why would that be enough to outweigh his disgraceful exit from Boston, his indisputable guilt in this case and the dubious alibi his spin doctors typed up to explain his way out of this mess?

Why? We posed that question to four men who have thought about it a lot themselves: esteemed Columbia School of Journalism professor Sandy Padwe, cerebral journalist/author Robert Lipsyte and two of the most thoughtful players we have ever covered, Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt and a man who has turned into an official New York Times op-ed columnist, Doug Glanville.

L.A. Times: Baseball’s pharmacy hall of fame

Paul Lo Duca

Position: Catcher

How it went down: On Dec. 13, 2007, Lo Duca was cited in the Mitchell Report as a user of steroids and human growth hormone. He was also accused of referring former Dodgers teammates Eric Gagne and Kevin Brown to his drug supplier. Upon his arrival with the Washington Nationals on Feb. 17, 2008, Lo Duca issued a statement in which he apologized for “mistakes in judgment,” but he did not say what those mistakes entailed.

How he fared on the field: Lo Duca started the 2008 season in Washington as the team’s least productive batter, hitting .200 in 50 at-bats. He then fractured his right hand and went on the disabled list from early May to mid-June. The Nationals released him July 31, 2008, after he batted .230 with no home runs and 12 runs batted in in 139 at-bats. The Florida Marlins picked Lo Duca up in a minor league deal on Aug. 8 and he was called up eight days later, hitting .294 with three RBIs in 34 at-bats. He became a free agent after the season and remains unsigned.

Andy Pettitte

Position: P

How it went down: On Dec. 13, 2007, Pettitte was cited in the Mitchell Report, which attributed a claim from trainer Brian McNamee that he injected Pettitte with human growth hormone while with the New York Yankees in 2002 to treat an elbow injury. Two days later, Pettitte acknowledged using HGH only to heal his elbow.

How he fared on the field: Pettitte had a 14-14 record and a 4.54 earned-run average with the Yankees in 2008, including going 2-7 with a 6.23 ERA in the last two months while suffering a sore left shoulder. This season, he is 8-3 with a 4.25 ERA in 97 1/3 innings.

L.A. Times: Dodger fans should ‘Think Boo’

Or you can just think back to all those buzzer-beaters by Greg Harvey and get around this nonsense.

I’ve never asked Dodger fans for a favor before, but I have one request now:  When that first home game comes on July 16, for one night, one at-bat or at least one swing, boo Manny. I’m not asking you to burn your coveted Man-wig, hide the name on the back of your No. 99 T-shirt under duct tape or torture yourself by watching Angels games. All I ask is that if you attend Manny’s first home game, you boo. Once, at least.

...Dodgers fans should boo Manny for one at-bat to make sure he knows his actions were unacceptable. The obvious reasons are often floated about when it comes to performance-enhancing drugs: it might spurn younger kids to use steroids, it’s selfish, and it is disrespectful to the game.

Those arguments and their counters are uttered almost daily. The main reason Dodger fans should boo, however, is to let Manny know they will not be had with a few home runs and a smile. They need to say to Manny, “We’re the ones who pay to watch you, and we demand better.” What does it say about fans if out of the gate they embrace a blatant cheater?  Doesn’t it tell him, “Hey, you have free rein to do whatever you want, as long as you put runs on the board”?

...I’m not asking Dodger fans to hate him for the rest of his career. All I’m asking is that, for the good of the game and team, for one night Dodger fans should “Think Boo.”

L.A. Times: Manny Ramirez and the gray areas of Dodger blue

Similarly, the Dodgers made the business decision to pay Ramirez more than his cleaner-cut teammates. And Manny, having made the business decision to avoid scrutinizing his medicine intake, delivered more results. Life is full of accommodations.

We expect athletes, particularly those wearing the Dodgers uniform, to act as role models. But Manny didn’t get into baseball to make parents like him. A few youths may imitate his mistake, just as they’ll copy gangsters, corporate thieves and slimy politicians. The majority, though, will emulate his batting psychology and charity work; the medical matter won’t endanger their fragile souls.

Ramirez’s sin wasn’t a rare aberration among athletes, here or elsewhere. Yes, we should monitor drugs and scan the horizon for the next shortcut to prowess. But let’s conserve our dwindling reserves of outrage for deadlier infractions.

Bruce Jenkins Blog: Hypocrites

Show me an announcer that’s not a hypocrite and I’ll show you a Ganglians recording session without a theremin-equipped sandbox.

Part of the fun of Manny Ramirez’ return to the Dodgers, scheduled for Friday night, will be the exposure of Charley Steiner as a hypocrite. Michael Kay was the first to go down, and Charley’s next.

...It seems this didn’t go over too well in other cities. Kay, who anchors the Yankees’ telecasts, ripped Krukow and Kuiper in a public forum for getting so excited over a steroid guy. Steiner, part of the Dodgers’ radio team, made some equally rude comments (off the air), establishing himself as a real high-and-mighty beacon of integrity.

Except it doesn’t work that way. Alex Rodriguez opened the season in disgrace after the steroid-related embarrassment of spring training, but that didn’t stop Kay from going nuts when A-Rod slugged his first home run. Presto—instant hypocrite! Now we get to hear Steiner when Manny rocks Dodger Stadium for the first time. What, he’s going to treat it like a funeral while the place is going crazy?

I’ve known Kay since his days as a Yankee beat writer in New York, and he’s a good guy. So is Steiner, who livened up many an ESPN “SportsCenter” before he joined the Dodgers. Ripping the Giants’ broadcasting team, to say the least, was not their finest hour.

Acorn: Dorman: So Manny reasons to cheer baseball’s non-cheaters

Association of Community Organizations for Refills Now!

There are players who didn’t cheat Major League Baseball during its lie to our faces performance-enhancing drug era, and on this Fourth of July weekend we should take a minute to honor those brave ballplayers instead of hailing the return of a fake like Manny Ramirez.

...Second base: David Eckstein

The 2006 World Series MVP with St. Louis looks like your younger brother and has probably never shaved.

The guy’s career-high RBI total is 63 as a member of the 2002 Anaheim Angels, and he’s never hit more than eight roundtrippers in a season. Others have put up better numbers than Eckstein, but he’s the prototypical overachiever, and every team needs a guy like that.

On the bench: Chase Utley and Ryne Sandberg.

Center field: Willie McGee

Have you ever seen Willie McGee play? Is there any doubt that his 6-foot-1, 175-pound thin-as-a-rail frame was all natural?

This speedster was a National League MVP with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1985, a fourtime All-Star and two-time batting champ. Oh, and he hit a grand total of 30 home runs in the 1990s.

If McGee, who retired after the ‘99 season, was dirty, then everything we know about performance-enhancers must be a lie.

On the bench: Ken Griffey Jr. (only because McGee was less obvious).

Murray Chass On Baseball: SOSA SCOOP AND QUESTIONS IT RAISES

Good thing Murray didn’t get his blogless hands on The Fake List.

If soliciting and obtaining sealed information from a lawyer constitutes breaking the law, the Times would be hard pressed to argue that Sosa’s negative result rises to the level Schotz refered to.

Schmidt did not have an altruistic or noble reason for getting Sosa’s name or any name. He just wanted to get a good story and beat the others covering the steroids scandal. Sports Illustrated had Rodriguez; the New York Daily News had other stories since Schmidt last broke a steroids story. He wanted to get back in the game.

“The whole steroid issue seems to have people looking for information,” Schotz said. “There seems to be a much lower standard. The feeling is any time you can get a scoop you do it.” But Schotz raised a relevant question: “Is any particular name going to surprise anyone any more? Nobody is above suspicion. Is it worth pursuing to unusual means to get one more name?”

Schmidt and the Times evidently thought it was. The Times realized four or five years too late that it had made a major mistake when it ignored the Balco story and ceded coverage to other newspapers, primarily the Chronicle. So getting a name, a big name, if possible, was important, and Schmidt got his Sosa scoop. Now it’s just a question of what he did to get it.

Sports Radio Interviews Darren Daulton: “I Can Assure You There’s Probably No One In Any Sport That Has Taken More Drugs Than I Have.”

I understand that, I’m just trying to pin it down,where you using steroids as a player?

“If I told you all the drugs that I’ve taken, Mike, you would open that up as a can of worms (laughing).  I don’t feel that you or anyone else needs to know anything that I’ve ever done to respect me.  No disrespect, that’s just the way I am.  I feel if I told you all the drugs I’ve ever taken that would reflect on someone else.  I CAN ASSURE YOU THERE’S PROBABLY NO ONE IN ANAY SPORT THAT HAS TAKEN MORE DRUGS THAN I HAVE AND I THINK PEOPLE STILL RESPECT ME.  IT’S NOT WHAT GOES IN, IT’S WHAT COMES OUT .” (editor’s note, he wasn’t yelling, just wanted those comments to stick out)

Sox’s Ozzie Guillen hopes Sammy Sosa comes clean

Wow! Didn’t take OxiClean long, did it?

“If that’s the truth, come out and say it, because that is going to help you,” Guillen said before his Sox’s 6-0 victory over the Cubs on Sunday. “You are not talking about a crime scene. You are not doing something that people should be ashamed of. Some people are very heartbroken ... everyone who is a fan. But you should go out there and admit it if you are guilty. People will forgive you. But when you admit it, [say it] like you mean it.”

The New York Times reported recently that Sosa was one of the 103 MLB players who tested positive for performance-enhancing substances in 2003. The results were supposed to remain anonymous.

“And if it is not the real thing, just say that it is a bunch of bull and move on,” Guillen said. “But I would say that to anyone who got caught with [steroids]. Hey, man, admit it and hopefully people will forgive what you did and you can move on. But the longer you keep [quiet], there are going to be doubts and more doubts and more doubts. Then you are going to be screwed.”

Bill Plaschke: SoCal really lets Manny have it . . . with love

We arrived in hilly Riverside County on a scorching Saturday afternoon, the fertility drug fatale and I, same game, different missions.

Manny Ramirez was here to play for the Class-A Inland Empire 66ers on his first phony rehab assignment in Southern California.

I was here to find a Dodgers fan brave enough to boo him.

Surely it would happen, right?

Surely, somebody will hold him accountable for a 50-game suspension for violating baseball’s drug policy?

Surely somebody would let him know that, because he has yet to offer any true remorse or explanation since his May 7 suspension, somebody was going to publicly wonder why?

He had appeared in two games at triple-A Albuquerque, where he was showered with love, but folks down there rarely see a celebrity that didn’t come out of a UFO, so they can be excused.

Dodgers fans are tougher, right?

Ramirez was going to be, um, needled, right?

S.I.: Pearlman: A-Rod, Manny Ramirez great with steroids, but what about now?

“Could it be that without drugs players like A-Rod, Manny aren’t that good?”

Again, I know. I know. Blasphemy! But the question must be addressed: Why is it that, when PED-implicated ballplayers return from lengthy absences, we never ask whether their non-drugged selves will live up to past greatness? If, as was suggested by Selena Roberts in her recent biography, A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez, Rodriguez used performance-enhancing drugs during his Yankee tenure, shouldn’t his presumed newfound, post-steroid cleanliness coincide with a dropoff? After all, performance enhancers enhance performance. They make you stronger, faster, quicker. They help you work out more, bounce back in a shorter time span.

In Los Angeles, the Dodgers anxiously await the July 3 return of Manny Ramirez, who was suspended 50 games for failing a drug test. After initially protesting his guilt, Ramirez slunk off into the abyss—a guilty man hoping that, with time, all things pass. Now, all things have passed. Yet instead of wondering whether Manny will return as Jim Rice or Jim Bolger, the Dodgers assume they will be getting the same masher who averaged 36 homers and 118 RBIs over his first 14 full seasons. Manager Joe Torre, whose continued naiveté/indifference over steroids staggers the mind, has repeatedly expressed his excitement over Ramirez’s reappearance in the Dodgers outfield, where he clearly expects nothing less than an All-Star-quality slugger.

But why? At 37, Ramirez has reached the chronological threshold, where the majority of legends find themselves either mimicking Buddy Biancalana or filming “Hi! I’m Danny Tartabull! You might remember me from ...” commercials for Biff Jones Toyota. At 37, Dale Murphy was batting .143 with no home runs in 26 games with the Rockies. Duke Snider was batting .210 with four homers and 17 RBIs for the San Francisco Giants. Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio and Roger Maris were retired.

And at age 37 Del Rice hit no home runs!

Brewers Jeffress gets 100-game suspension

Right-hander Jeremy Jeffress, rated by many as the top pitching prospect in the Brewers’ farm system, has drawn a 100-game suspension for testing positive for a second time for a “substance of abuse.”

The penalty leaves Jeffress, 21, one positive test away from a lifetime ban under the Minor League Drug Treatment and Prevention program.

Substances are not revealed under the minor league drug program but Jeffress admitted in the past to testing positive for marijuana near the end of the 2007 season, while pitching for Class A West Virginia. He received a 50-game suspension at the time, which carried over to the 2008 season.

Ponson positive for stimulant at WBC

Kansas City Royals pitcher Sidney Ponson tested positive for a stimulant during the World Baseball Classic and has been banned from international competition for two years.

Major League Baseball will not suspend Ponson. Under the drug rules, he will be treated as a first-time offender and is subject to a medical review and fine....

The International Baseball Federation said Ponson tested positive for Phentermine, a stimulant and appetite suppressant.

T.J Simers: They’re crying foul over apologist for Manny Ramirez

“Your idolatry of Manny is ludicrous,” is the way Shirin Patel put it in an e-mail, rewriting an earlier headline in The Times, but hey, if Manny needs me to be his mule so he can keep going like he did a year ago, I’m here for him.

“Let me understand your warped logic,” writes Dan Howard. “It’s OK to be a cheating drug user if you are charismatic, talented and interesting like Manny.”

It also helps to hit home runs.

“Now I get it,” e-mails Jack Tracy. “Persecute Gary Matthews, but kiss Manny’s [behind].”

It’s such a satisfying feeling when people finally get it.

I like someone, I’m far more forgiving. I don’t, and I’m going to treat them like Kobe.

I know what Dodgers games were like before Manny arrived, and I wouldn’t wish that on any paying customer or someone obligated by employment to attend.

The Dodgers are not only relevant again, but a show worth watching. Of course, Times beat reporter Dylan Hernandez thinks “Sponge Bob” is a show worth watching, sitting in the Isotopes press box before the game, hanging on Bob’s every word.

Chicago writers to discuss steroids, Hall of Fame

Ben Bentley lives!

“We’re going to spend the next decade or so voting for guys who have been implicated or rumored” in steroid scandals, said Paul Sullivan, the Cubs beat writer for the Chicago Tribune and president of Chicago BBWAA chapter.
“We’re debating it in press boxes anyway, so it’s a good idea we all get together and discuss it,” Sullivan said Tuesday. “We’re just going to see what people have to say about it.”

Neither the national BBWAA nor the Hall of Fame had heard about the Chicago chapter’s plan to meet, and any decisions the chapter makes would not be binding. But representatives from the BBWAA and the Hall said they would look at any recommendations.
“We’ve been pleased with (the BBWAA’s) capabilities to interpret the criteria presented and to elect accordingly,” said Brad Horn, Hall spokesman. “They’ve had that privilege for a long time, and they’ve done a very good job.”

...It’s that kind of uncertainty that prompted Sun-Times columnist Rick Telander to ask the Chicago chapter if it could discuss the issue during this weekend’s Cubs-White Sox series at U.S. Cellular Field.

“The guidelines used to be so simple: stats, longevity and star power. It’s all been trumped by performance-enhancing drug use and drug use suspicion,” Telander said Tuesday. “Part of me says it’s not fair we have to make these determinations, but we do.”

Sports Justice: Manny will get a hero’s welcome back, and the world just gets sicker

Won’t someone think of the Skids?

It’s a sick world, isn’t it? I mean, when you get down to it, it’s absolutely sick. Manny Ramirez is about to return to the Dodgers, and he’ll be getting a hero’s welcome back from the fans at Dodger Stadium.

His minor league assignment is creating the kind of buzz the Beatles once generated on their American tours. Now if I ask you if you care about steroids, you will tell me you sure do.

You will tell me you want the cheats banned for life and that these people — owners, players, union leaders — have ruined the game forever. You’ll say this, but you’re lying. You care more about baseball than you did before steroids. Don’t believe me? Check out the attendance totals and revenues and every other measuring stick of interest. This is baseball’s golden age.

... Remember how all those blowhards said it was about the kids? It was never, ever about the kids. If it had been about the kids, there would have been legislation generated punishing distributors, making it tougher for boys and girls to get their hands on the drugs.

Not one piece of legislation came out of those hearings. Not one Congressman raised a hand to do something for the kids.

Fletcher: Dave Stewart Rips Jose Canseco at Reunion for 1989 A’s

Only an Ashton, Gardner and Dyke reunion could be more disastrous…

A day after *Carney Lansford said he was still upset at Canseco for writing a tell-all book (* “I don’t believe there’s a guy on the ‘89 team who’d show up. Not after his book and all the lives he ruined. It’s selfishness, basically. I hate to say that, really. I played with him and thought he was a nice guy, but I don’t know how you can do that to people."), Dave Stewart said the A’s distaste for Canseco started long before that.

“This book had nothing to do with it, he was a bad teammate,” Stewart said.

Stewart said Canseco “concentrated more on himself than the team. I don’t think Canseco ever said ‘we.’ “

Stewart, who was one of the leaders of the A’s playoff teams of the late 1980s and early ‘90s, said the team was nearly unanimous in disliking Canseco.

“Truth be told, I’m glad Canseco is not here,” Stewart said. “I think anybody, if they were being honest, would say that.”

...When Stewart was asked if he thought McGwire should be in the Hall of Fame, he said: “I don’t know. I don’t really know the circumstances behind McGwire. I can tell you what I think. Do I think McGwire used [steroids]? No. Do I know that for a fact? No. He’s not denied it and he’s not affirmed it. Probably what the voters are waiting to see or hear is for him to say I didn’t do it. I don’t know whether he belongs or not. Shoot, I think I belong in the Hall of Fame, and I’m not.”

38 Pitches: Schilling: Donald Fehr, Thank You

Wow!… My Rhetoric Society Quarterly came early.

It’s Donald Fehr’s fault A-Rod stuck a needle in his ass? It’s Donald Fehr’s fault Manny took a female hormone to regulate his testosterone levels? It’s Donald Fehr’s fault that ‘allegedly’ the greatest players of our generation cheated their asses off because being great was just not enough?

It’s Donald Fehr’s fault that we players stood in front of Congress and either lied our asses off or didn’t ’speak our minds’ about the catastrophic and illegal conditions we players willingly chose to work within?

...It’s Donald Fehr’s fault that the sports media, like eveyrone else, took the 1997, ‘98 seasons at face value, and believed in the huge biceps, skulls and stats as honest and hard working gains?

That ’saving the game’ during that period of time was anything but stupid men, with insane God-given talent, choosing the wrong path at almost every turn?

So Phil would have us believe that in addition to running the union, he was supposed to visit each player individually and parent them to make the right choices for the good of the game? Isn’t that what parents are for? Isn’t that what society is supposed to do????

...We, the players (well former player here) are the ones completely and totally responsible for the lack of ethics, integrity, and morals so prevelant in sports today. Drugs, spouse abuse, animal abuse, DUI, DWI, vehicular manslaughter, murder, rape, extortion, gambling, last I checked Mr. Fehr had never been accused of any of those crimes, but there are police blotters around the country with athletes names on them.

L.A. Times: Bill Plaschke: It’s a pretty shaky suspension bridge for Manny Ramirez

While the Dodgers were playing the 42nd game of Manny Ramirez’s 50-game suspension Tuesday, Manny Ramirez was doing something very strange.

He was playing for the Dodgers.

Well, not exactly, but close enough, as he was playing on a Dodgers-sponsored team, with Dodgers-funded teammates and coaches, in a stadium where a portion of the ticket revenue is sent to Major League Baseball.

Manny Ramirez playing for the triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes is as weird as the word Isotope.

Why is Ramirez allowed to play there? Why is Ramirez allowed to play anywhere? Since when are players allowed to turn a rehab assignment into a detox assignment?

And why can’t baseball punish a guy without also apologizing to him?

Sorry about those 50 games, slugger. You can use our minor league club to get back in shape before the suspension ends, come back at full strength, is that OK?

Under the current rules, I don’t blame the Dodgers for sending them there, and it’s hard to blame Albuquerque for trying to make a few bucks off the circus, but there is something fundamentally wrong about all of this. I blame the entire major league baseball system—from the commissioner’s office to the union to the individual clubs—because nobody saw this coming.

Sandberg: Sosa doesn’t belong in Hall

It’s against the law and against society! (It’s friggin hot under this Councillor Sandberg mask!)

Appearing on the “Waddle & Silvy” show on ESPN 1000, Sandberg said “I don’t think so,” when asked if Sosa belongs in the Hall of Fame.

“They use the word ‘integrity’ in describing a Hall of Famer in the logo of the Hall of Fame, and I think there are gonna be quite a few players that are not going to get in,” Sandberg said. “It’s been evident with the sportswriters who vote them in, with what they’ve done with Mark McGwire getting in the 20 percent range.

“We have some other players coming up like [Rafael] Palmeiro coming up soon, and it’ll be up to the sportswriters to speak loud and clear about that. I don’t see any of those guys getting in.”

...Sandberg said that punishment should include being banned from Cooperstown.

“It’s something that’s against the law and against society,” Sandberg said. “It was cheating in the sport.

“I think it has to be spoken very loud and clear on the stance, and baseball needs to stand as they have. I’m very, very satisfied with the testing program they have in place now. For a guy who’s tested positive today under what happens now like Manny Ramirez, it almost takes an idiot to participate in that. For the society, for the up-and-coming players and youth out there, I don’t think those guys should be recognized at all.”

AP: Fans overlook suspension to see star

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.—J.J. Gutierrez, a 15-year-old baseball fan, didn’t mince words when asked about Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Manny Ramirez.

“He’s a cheater,” Gutierrez said. “But I still want to see him play.”

Gutierrez and his father, Julian, were among a steady stream of fans who lined up four- and five-deep at the Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes’ box office Monday to buy tickets for this week’s series against Nashville.

Fans began buying tickets Friday amid speculation Ramirez might be coming to Albuquerque. The club sold almost 7,000 tickets that day, compared to typical pre-game reserved sales in the hundreds for a midweek series in June.

“And then it got busy,” Traub said. “Friday was nuts. Friday was a vacation compared to what followed.”

Since Torre told reporters on Saturday evening that Ramirez had agreed to begin his minor-league assignment in Albuquerque, Traub said the Isotopes have sold about 20,000 tickets for this week’s four home games.

Traub had a message for fans planning to buy walk-up tickets.

“If you want to see Manny, you can see Manny,” he said. “But we’re telling people not to wait until the last minute. If they do, they’re going to be standing in line and they’ll miss his first two at-bats.”

Seamheads: Tsuchiya: Shame on You Commissioner Selig!

Guardians of their potential...indeed!

3) And now we get to the truly shameful part. Away from the spotlight, the money, the glory of celebrity sports figures, is a whole generation of teenagers, who in their reckless and insecure youth, still look to us adults as their role models, ethical guides and quite frankly, guardians of their potential. Aside from the fact these drugs, when taken during the growing phase of a young body, can have life-long, debilitating health effects. Aside from the fact these sordid tales of “ends justifies the means” further prove cheaters win and nice guys finish last. Aside from the fact our kids are plenty smart enough to differentiate between double-speak and intelligent discourse. Aside from all that, the more chilling message we’re giving our future parents, spouses, neighbors and leaders is, justice comes from the inside of a well-padded wallet.

Bottom line: If you have enough money and/or power, you don’t have to play by a code of honor or respect anyone else’s for that matter.

...My final $0.02, for whatever worth it might hold. If we minor league fans go along with this charade. . . .if we rationalize buying tickets for this once-in-lifetime chance to watch an All-Star. . .if we ask for autographs on minor-league memorabilia. Well, we are just as guilty as the owners, players and commissioner of undermining “the integrity of our sport.” And we’ll have no one to blame but ourselves for the travesties to follow, in the bigger picture of life, as well as on the diamond. . . Your friend in baseball.

NY Daily News: Ex-Rep. Davis proud his panel has hand in MLB overhauling drug policy

Gee...I hope there’s enough Barry Horowitz T-shirts to go around.

Davis is sad that some athletes got nabbed, but says a crackdown was necessary; steroids were controlled substances, players were role models and baseball’s commissioner and union boss were in denial.

“All Henry Waxman and I wanted to do was expose this and stop this,” Davis says. “We weren’t out to indict anybody. We didn’t want to have a witch hunt. We wanted a change in policy, and I think we got that. There is a policy now in baseball; it will constantly be reviewed and enhanced.

“Bottom line is we changed the game,” Davis says. “It’s not perfect, but any major leaguer will think twice about using these drugs. Nobody wants the stigma that goes with having to appear before Congress.”

It all began with Phil Schiliro, the top aide to Waxman who is now serving in the White House as President Obama’s congressional liaison. It was Schiliro who first talked Davis into investigating baseball. Right from the beginning, Davis says, it was a losing position, politically.

“It all looks so clear now, but it wasn’t clear then,” he says. “We were out there on a limb. In retrospect, I think history will judge us well.”

Peter Gammons: Red Sox want rotation depth, will keep Penny

When Gene Orza spoke at the Red Sox’s spring training site, he was barraged with questions about how the union could have failed to destroy the names from the 2003 anonymous steroid tests. Now Alex Rodriguez and Sammy Sosa have been outed, even though no one in baseball has been more protective of players’ rights than Orza.

Players from two different teams got into prolonged discussions this week about Sosa, Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, et al.

“There is a lot of moral outrage being directed at Sammy,” one veteran said. “But, let’s be honest. Sosa, McGwire and Bonds made a lot of people a lot of money. The owners, the commissioner … all us players, whose salaries got dragged up.”

Now we have the Dodgers trying to get their fans to flock to San Diego for the return of Manny Ramirez on July 3. With all the fanfare that will be attached to his return to Dodger Stadium, it’s all about money. Period.

If Sosa could come back and help the Dodgers make money, they’d sign him in a heartbeat. Sammy can’t help them anymore, but Manny will be their cash cow, and their only regret is that he got caught and they are missing 50 games worth of wigs and MannyLand revenues.

Sherrington: Report about Sosa is proof that vouching for athletes is risky

This has been a Desilucid production?

Palmeiro’s case raised a question for me, a HOF voter like Tim Cowlishaw, and it’s this:

Outside fairly significant confirmation like what we got for Sosa and Bonds and McGwire, how do I throw out some superstar athletes based on how they looked and wave others through the doors of immortals?

The guys who crushed baseball’s biggest records, they were fairly easy to spot. But what about the rest? Many, many others got to the big leagues already pumped up. They started in high school. Or they did just enough to help them make it, a conscious choice to try to remain in their chosen profession, however mistaken they may have been.

Bottom line: If every pro athlete who used steroids or HGH or something similar were to suddenly turn a brilliant shade of blue, every playing field in America would look like a Texas Hill Country pasture come spring.

Fans are all over the map on the issue. Some say hang ‘em all. Most couldn’t care less.

As for me, I’ll probably just continue a personal trend, and that’s to abstain. At least until the topic of steroids finally passes through the nation’s system or the athletes’, whichever comes first.

Florida Marlins’ Wes Helms: No place in Hall of Fame for drug users

And this means you...(THERE’S TOO MANY TO CHOOSE FROM!)

Wes Helms, a steady but unspectacular performer during 11 major-league seasons, doesn’t envision himself landing in baseball’s Hall of Fame. But neither does he want to see those who used performance-enhancing drugs get in, either.

‘The Hall of Fame is baseball, and if you let guys like that in the Hall of Fame, it makes our kids think that `if they did it, I should.’ ‘’ he said.

Helms said the Hall of Fame ban should apply only when there is ‘’100 percent proof’’ that a player used steroids.

‘’It’s sad,’’ Helms said Wednesday, one day after a newspaper report that Sammy Sosa tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug in 2003. ``It’s one of those things where you can’t judge until you know it’s true. But these guys who have come out and said they did it or have been caught and admitted it, yeah. Everybody makes mistakes. But when it comes to an award like the Hall of Fame, you’ve got to count them out.’’

Buzz Bissinger Is Back, And He Hates Harold Reynolds For Some Reason (Audio)

Remember when that international team of archaeologists went into the Chiapas jungle to look for proof of a Zoque civilization? Well, attention Zoqueian searchers, keep an eye out for Bizz Buzzinger...BECAUSE HE’S ALSO FRIGGIN’ LOST!

Buzz Bissinger famously ripped on Sports Blogs (and Will Leitch) over a year ago, and you would think that in the time that elapsed he would have figured them out. Well you’d think wrong. Bissinger went on the Deadcast this week, and somehow came to the conclusion that Harold Reynolds himself, not the website “Hugging Harold Reynolds”, added the Raul Ibanez Steroid Story to his site.

Well then. Now that’s completely and utterly untrue. I think Buzz Bissinger is one of the best things to ever happen to blogs, but the guy still has a lot to learn about them.