Manny Ramirez mania hits minors on eve of rehab stint

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- J.J. Gutierrez, a 15-year-old baseball fan, didn't mince words when asked about Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Manny Ramirez.

"He's a cheater," Gutierrez said. "But I still want to see him play."

Gutierrez and his father, Julian, were among a steady stream of fans who lined up four- and five-deep at the Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes' box office Monday to buy tickets for this week's series against Nashville.

Ramirez is preparing to return from a 50-game suspension for violating baseball's drug rules. He is eligible to be reinstated on July 3, when the Dodgers are in San Diego and agreed to a stint in the minors to ease back into form.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4279309&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines









This should be good. :)

Does Manny as a Dodger change your opinion of him vs. Manny playing for another team?

(And I should call my brother in ABQ and ask him if he's going to a game while Manny's down there...)

I don't pay much attention to that league until October.



Now? Well, he won us some ball games and put a few more butts in seats (like we need help with that), but we've got one of the best outfields in baseball without him, and in a few days a couple of 'em are gonna go back to ridin' pine part of the time, and I hate that. I don't hate Ramirez for it, though; it's hardly his fault. If they traded or released him tomorrow, I wouldn't be broken up about it. I would be, though, if we needed a solid outfielder.

As for his juicing — well, he owned up and took his punishment, such as it was. I have a somewhat lesser opinion of him for doing it in the first place, but I suppose I respect him for not playing the denial game.

The Dodgers have the pitching and fielding to stay ahead in the west, so like you said, a lot of it is/was/will be about fan reaction and attendance.

And as for his actions, it's got to be one of the best responses to getting caught I've seen, outside of some pro cyclists, who just disappear forever when it happens.

I'm just not really about individual players. I'm about the ball club.

Now, if he'd gone all whiny when he was suspended... different story. Nobody likes a prima donna.

I get so sick of hearing about him.

Before the suspension, the Dodgers were running ads — "Come out and see Manny and the rest of the Dodgers." :eyes:

No player is bigger than the ball club or the game. That goes for every sport, golf included. ;)

Nothing wrong with that, so long as they don't think that it's just okay to (allegedly) use dope to get ahead.

Besides, and I've been very candid on this issue, "cheating" in the MLB is such a gray area, by definition.

In Manny's case, if the reports are correct, he's a doper. Or was. Nice thing is that the Dodgers have done just astonishingly without him.

pretty exciting stuff out here in Albuquerque---seeing a superstar major leaguer right here in our beautiful little ballpark ( not that little;I think it holds about 15,000 and really is a beautiful Triple A ballpark)

A couple weeks ago they went into a hitting slump, and now they're down to about .600 sans Manny — 26-16, somethin' like that.

I'm not throwing a "Manny's back" party. Pierre, in particular, has been freakin' nasty playing full-time — clean, we presume.