Ramirez for the win…or lose?
Major league baseball superstar Manny Ramirez was suspended on Thursday for 50 games.
What to do, what to do…now that one of the highest paid and most popular players in MLB won’t be playing for at least half of the baseball season. (According to ESPN.com, Ramirez will be returning to the game on July 3.)
Even if you haven’t been paying attention to the latest in sports news, or news in general, really, with the magnitude this story has brought, I’m sure you can guess why the Dodgers’ dreadlocked outfielder got such a slugging sit out.
Yes, that’s right, it’s because of those pesky little performance enhancing drugs we all so affectionately know as steroids.
Surprised? I think not.
It’s also interesting that just one day after Ramirez was jerked out of the game, Alex Rodriguez returned to the Yankees after his hip surgery. Let’s not forget that back in February A-Rod admitted to using steroids from 2001 to 2003 while he played for the Texas Rangers.
Ever since the late ‘90s, which featured the famous homerun hitting embattlement of Mark McGwire vs. Sammy Sosa, baseball just hasn’t been that fun. One minute it was Sosa overtaking McGwire with a record 48 homers in a season, and later that day, literally, McGwire regained the lead by hitting numbers 48 and 49.
Although stringent controversy surrounded both McGwire and Sosa as to whether or not steroids were used during their homerun hitting career surges, with McGwire especially under fire, nothing was ever officially confirmed.
My point is, every year athletes in all areas of sport are pressured to push the envelope. As with McGwire and Sosa, fans want to see ball after ball slugged out of the park. Is that really possible without the use of performance enhancing drugs? How far can the human body, even one as strong as that of a top athlete, be pushed before it just can’t give any more?
Brittany @ May 10, 2009