You can’t keep Manny Ramirez out of the press even when he is right in the middle of his 50-game suspension for the use of a performance-enhancing drug.
The last week, while the Dodgers have continued on their torrid pace at the top of the National League West, fans have been going gaga over Manny’s place in the leading four vote-getters among NL outfielders in the All-Star Game voting.
Not only would it be a shame to see Manny at the All-Star Game, it would take the gloss of some amazing NL performances this season – some of them from his own Dodger team-mates in Orlando Hudson, Chad Billingsley and Jonathan Broxton.
While fans have the right to cast their vote as they see fit, maybe this would be the perfect time for MLB to put a rule in place that would disallow any player currently suspended from playing in a game that is meant to be a showcase for everything that is good in baseball!
Why should Manny, on the shelf since May 7, be rewarded for his performances so far this season, when no one really knows if those home runs and RBIs were actually earned, rather than bought.
Sure, he was brilliant over the first five weeks of the season, but at the moment he is suspended for conduct in detriment of the sport – not injured. It’s hard to say what his numbers would be now if he had not been found out, but right now baseball betting suggests there is no way he deserves to be an All-Star ahead of Raul Ibanez or any of the three guys currently at the top of the ballot – Alfonso Soriano, Ryan Braun and Carlos Beltran.
But then again, the ballot is nothing more than a sham anyway, or you can place a baseball bet you’d never be in a position where Milwaukee shortstop J.J. Hardy was about to take the All-Star start over Hanley Ramirez unless Brewers fans spent more time on their PCs than any other team. Brewers position players currently rank No 1 or 2 in all ballots including the struggling Hardy and light-hitting Jason Kendall.
Give the public a vote and they will make a mess of it – now where have we heard that before?
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