The Garlic: Manny Being Manny

News Item: Dodgers' Manny Ramirez suspended 50 games after failing drug test

10. After living in "Red Sox Nation", wanted to, personally, create "Manny Nation"

9. The ol' "peanuts and crackerjacks" just wasn't cuttin' it

8. An inexplicable, "Manny-Being-Manny" bonding, and empathy, for Octomon Nadya Suleman

7. Puts a different meaning on old baseball saw, of "He got good wood on the ball"

6. Just trying to put "a little beef, in the ol' bullpen", if you know what I mean

5. Manny was just being Manny ... And, also being Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Alex Rodriguez, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro...

4. Makes you wonder what Manny was doing when he was hiding in the scoreboard, in Fenway Park wall

3. Thought, by talking the substance, he could land one of those "bath tubs, watching the sunset with sexy woman" commercials'

2. Just wanted to live up to "Mannywood" (wink, wink)

1. Well, how should we say this ... Dodger Blue wasn't the only thing blue on Manny Ramirez

Bonus Riffs

Yahoo Sports: Ramirez’s drug used to stimulate testosterone

ESPN: Sources: Ramirez used fertility drug

MLB: Manny suspended 50 games for PED use; Ramirez biggest name to be penalized by MLB's drug policy

Politics and Sports Collide ... Paperwork Mix-Up Has Feingold Censuring Bonds and MLB Investigating Bush

Garlic Coverage of Baseball Steroid Scandal

Could You Please Tell Me, What Is This Thing Called Baseball?

Monday, July 28, 2008

Good Read - Baseball's Greatest Scandal ... It Wasn't Steroids

The fact that "Manny gets to be Manny", and a whole bevy of today's other baseball players are tremendously rich fat cats is, to a large degree, possible, due to the efforts of one man.

Marvin Miller.

Peter Dreier and Kelly Candaele have a great post up - "Baseball's Greatest Scandal ... It Wasn't Steroids" (it appeared in The Nation, initially) - that's worth taking a few minutes to read.

Miller became the first director of the baseball players union, and soon, the word "collective bargaining" become as often used as "take me out to the ballgame".

Miller cut the chains and created free agency and every player since the early 1970's has benefited from it, or, at least, has the opportunity to do so.

With the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies yesterday, Miller, again was odd-man-out, being excluded of inclusion, less to do with the odds of such a thing, but more to the efforts of those that control baseball, and the Hall of Fame.

Many high-profile Hall of Fame players agree. Pitching great Tom Seaver said that Miller's exclusion is a "national disgrace." "Whether you agree or disagree, he was one individual who had as large a ramification as anybody on the history of the game," Seaver, a Hall of Famer, told the New York Times a few years ago. "If the Hall of Fame is an historical repository, he deserves to be there."

Hank Aaron wrote that "Miller should be in the Hall of Fame if the players have to break down the doors to get him in."

When he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1999, legendary pitcher Nolan Ryan devoted part of his speech to paying tribute to Miller. Ryan reminded the audience that when he broke into the major leagues in 1966, he had to spend the winter months working at a gas station from 3 pm to 9 pm, while he wife worked at a local bookstore, to make ends meet. Because of Miller's efforts, Ryan said, "we brought that level up to where the players weren't put in that situation."

And, for good measure, Red Barber;

In 1992, the Hall of Fame broadcaster Red Barber said, "Marvin Miller, along with Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson, is one of the two or three most important men in baseball history."

Check out "Baseball's Greatest Scandal ... It Wasn't Steroids", it's a good read

Bonus Links

Via award, O'Neil forever part of Hall; Inagural O'Neil award given to namesake, accepted by Morgan

Allen Barra: Players Need To Make Stand for Marvin Miller

Hal Bodley: It's time for Marvin Miller to get his Hall of Fame pass

Dave Zirin: Why Curt Flood Belongs in the Hall of Fame; An Interview with Marvin Miller