I really hate “Manny being Manny”

LA Times columnist Bill Plaschke said it best when he pointed out that neither Clemens, nor Bonds, nor A-Rod had ever been suspended by MLB.

Because even after the Mitchell Report and the hoopla, MLB still has the most lax drugging rules in sports. In other words, to get caught, you have to be pretty stupid.

Or, as Brewers TV color analyst Bill Schroeder said, you have to think you’re above baseball.

Of course, when Schroeder said it, he didn’t seem to understand that Manny does believe he’s better than baseball. What about his antics would have led you to think otherwise?

The prevailing public opinion seems to be that nobody’s surprised. Because if there’s one player who hasn’t seemed to learn anything from the past few years, it’s certainly Manny.

Can anyone out there explain to me why more people don’t hate this guy? Why is “Manny being Manny” a fully accepted explanation?

I really feel like more people should be offended by his blase attitude and how it demeans the whole spirit of the game. I mean, I know that sounds all cliche and heartfelt, but really, we’re all so emotionally attached to the game and I find it weird that more people aren’t insulted by his cavalier attitude over a job that most people would literally give body parts to be able to have.

It’s sad that we as hardcore fans put all this time and effort and passion and emotion into this sports and this league and this is what we get in return. I’ve been on a complete baseball high as my team has continued to surpass my expectations and thinking through this in order to write a post has really made me sad about that state of a game that I cling to 162 games a year.

It just seems like we deserve better than six of the top ten home runs hitters since 1986 having had their names connected to performance enhancing drugs.

And we shouldn’t have to listen to players like Manny or agents like Scott Boras feed us the completely asinine explanations about prescriptions and doctors and drugs. I really wish someone would just publicly call bullshit.

As ESPN Investigative Reporter TJ Quinn said today, it’s doubtful Manny needed the drug for it’s female fertility benefits.

I call shenanigans if for no other reason than I feel like as an athlete, one of your responsibilities is to know exactly what you’re putting into your body. We go through this in cycling and every time the Olympics comes around and someone has innocently taken anti-baldness medication or some other such nonsense and didn’t know what was in it.

That excuse is tired and played out and so sickening. It’s your job to know. Your entire career, character and livelihood rest on passing those tests and I can’t imagine you would risk it for a minute. If I had Manny’s money, I’d have someone on the payroll for this specific purpose. I wouldn’t swallow a pill, drink or supplement without knowing it’s entire DNA.

When asked on ESPN about Boras’ comments, Plashcke said,

“Now wait a minute, was there a Dominican cousin mentioned in their somewhere? C’mon. C’mon. Who in their right minds would believe that? After all they’ve gone through?

Manny appealed this and they still – you don’t think baseball, you don’t think they gave Manny every chance? The Dodgers are a marquee franchise… They’re playing great. It’s great for baseball how well they’re playing, they’re setting records. You don’t think they gave him every chance in the world to get out of it? There’s no way that’s correct. There’s absolutely no way. That’s a joke. There’s no way that’s correct.”

While we’re not surprised, I think we’re all just starting to feel let down. After the Mitchell Report and government hearings and the past few years, why hasn’t MLB figured it out? It’s not as though there aren’t better models out there.

The NFL went through their own “Steroid Era,” and have come out with a definitive three-strikes policy. And as Raven pointed out in an email, they’re information breaks immediately, they deal with it, and then it’s old news. Is anyone still talking about Shawne Merriman?

So what is MLB waiting for?