It doesn’t matter that Manny hasn’t played in more than a month.
Nor does it bother enough folks that the reason for his absence is
a 50-game suspension after he was caught cheating
Monte Pool, McClatchy Newspapers
Baseball fans are speaking with their hands and their hearts, and they are saying they still want their Manny Ramirez.
It doesn’t matter that Manny hasn’t played in more than a month.
Nor does it bother enough folks that the reason for his absence is a 50-game suspension after he was caught cheating.
Ramirez owes his popularity to the power of perception.
What else could explain why he is closing in on 1 million votes on National League All-Star ballots? Results released this week show the Dodgers’ star fifth among NL outfielders, with 838,353 votes.
Which makes several statements, only one of which might comfort the suits running Major League Baseball: The use of performance-enhancing drugs alone is not enough to outrage the truly engaged fan.
So it wasn’t the scandal that shattered the final years of Barry Bonds’ career. It was the scandal associated with an assault on the record book by a player who required his own island and didn’t exactly project natural sunlight when dealing with the media or the public.
It wasn’t the drug allegations that disfigured the reputation of Mark McGwire. It was the drug allegations and the theft of the home run record and the feeling of betrayal when the freckled All-American lumberjack from the heartland sat before the cameras looking guilty as sin.
It’s not the cheating allegations that have Roger Clemens hiding behind his attorneys. It’s the cheating allegations and the bully tactics and the duplicity behind the Cy Young awards and seeing Rocket continue to whine and insist he’s a victim.
Alex Rodriguez, nearly 1 million votes behind Tampa Bay’s Evan Longoria in the voting for AL third baseman, could have saved himself a lot of backlash had he not been so assiduous about cultivating his image.
But the soap and fragrance veneer is soiled by the dirty lies leaping off his tongue and a closet full of skeletons coming down upon his head. A-Rod is being stung by a defrauded public.
Ramirez, 37, has no such concerns. He’s not tearing up the record book, has no carefully manicured image, does not bother to cast phony shadows. He projects neither malevolence nor arrogance.
There is a bit of irony in seeing the guy who cares least about public perception being accepted by the public. He is, it seems, no more or less than we see.
Ramirez is who he is and presumably will be what he will be — a goofball who swings one of the meanest bats in history. His image is that of a big kid, Manny being Manny.
Before being suspended on May 7 after testing positive for artificial testosterone and HCG (a banned female fertility drug commonly used by those cycling off steroids), Ramirez spent a month putting up All-Star numbers. Through 27 games, he was batting .348, with six homers and 20 RBI. The Dodgers were playing well.
He was, by any measure, a legitimate All-Star.
Now, however, Manny doesn’t belong anywhere near Busch Stadium in St. Louis on July 14.
Yet we can’t come down too hard on fans, for they have the right to choose. And they’re knowledgeable enough to place Philadelphia’s Raul Ibanez, having an incredible season, atop vote-getters among outfielders. Milwaukee’s Ryan Braun is second, New York’s Carlos Beltran third and Chicago’s Alfonso Soriano fourth.
Then, just ahead of Shane Victorino and Mike Cameron, is Manny.
Which, friends, is what should provoke outrage within MLB. Such is the talent vacuum in NL outfields that a man on suspension can be fifth in the voting, trailed closely by two dudes whose names would run and hide from a marquee. And to think the late Curt Flood never made an All-Star team.
Seeing Ramirez among the leaders in the voting for the NL All-Star team is a reminder of how forgiving we can be when we don’t feel we’re being played. He doesn’t have to be perfect, or even close. And he’s not.
Nor does he come across as a con or a bully.
We’re OK with Manny being Manny because we can get behind a guy who might cheat to help himself or his team — as long as we don’t perceive pretension or an attempt to hijack our feelings.
