Manny Being..........Barry?

Say it ain’t so Manny! Say it was a mistake by the doctor. Say I didn’t mean to take it. Say it wasn’t my fault.

“Recently I saw a physician for a personal health issue. He gave me a medication, not a steroid, which he thought was ok to give me,” Ramirez said in a statement issued by the major league players union.

Hogwash!

Not in 2009 folks. You just can’t use these bogus excuses anymore. Not knowing what we now know. Not having gone through the recent history of Bonds, Clemons, ARod, etc.

Major league ballplayers are told explicitly prior to the season that you cannot put anything in your body without making sure it is an approved substance and is not on any list of prohibited substances.

Players are given a list that clearly gives all banned substances. There should be no excuses.

If there is any question in your or your doctor’s mind, then get to your team doctor, get to your team trainer, get to the league and find out.

You have to be smarter than that. But, wait, we are talking about Manny Ramirez here.

MLB Network broadcaster Bob Costas said today that after talking to a medical expert on steroids that there is no reason for a 36 year old man to take the drug he did other than to mask steroid use.

The drug in question is HGC which is a woman’s fertility drug and is also used to raise testosterone levels or stimulate testosterone production in the body of males which can and usually are lowered after steroid use. It is used when coming off a steroid cycle.

So Ramirez, who signed a 2 year contract this past off season for $45 million, is gone for 50 games.

Manny was hitting .348 with 6 home runs and 20 rbi’s at the time of his suspension.

 He was not only the best player on the team and in his division, he was looked up to by the young players on this Dodger team as a leader, as the guy who turned the team around after being obtained in a three way trade last summer from the Red Sox.

How that part affects the team will be interesting to see.

All in all this is another chapter in the sad story of the need by players to use performance enhancing drugs.