Manny Ramirez Retires, Quitting on the Tampa Bay Rays

Talented, awesome, dynamic, eccentric, lazy, nonchalant, smart (I’ll get to that one later), dangerous, feared, enigma, cheater and quitter. Those were just some of words that we used to describe Manny Ramirez throughout career.

I speak in past tense in the first paragraph because Ramirez’s career is no longer active.

As reported by FOXSports.com’s Ken Rosenthal, Ramirez retired on Friday rather than face another suspension due to a failed drug test. Since Ramirez was already suspended once, this suspension would have been 100 games.

I guess when you are 38 years old and have made over $200 million in your career, you can afford to just vanish from the game like a fart in the wind.

What happened to Ramirez on Friday was a sad ending to the career of one of the most talented and smartest hitters of our generation. Yes, I did say smartest.

When it came to his approach at the plate and setting up pitchers, few in the history of the game were better at doing that than Ramirez.

No matter what Ramirez accomplished on the field, he will most likely be remembered as a cheater and a quitter.

He failed a drug test with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays and he quit on the Boston Red Sox in 2008 and with the Rays this season.

Manny once had a career that was almost certain to end up in the Hall of Fame. Now, like Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro before him, Manny has no shot at the HOF.

I thought Ramirez would do well with the Rays. I thought he was the “Key” to their season. I thought he would settle in as their DH and produce good, but not spectacular numbers.

I thought wrong. Manny quit on the Rays like I saw him quit on the Red Sox in 2008.

I should have known better.

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