If you didn’t know, Manny packed up his estrogen and brought it to Oakland. The hysteria has swept over Oakland’s Spring Training in Arizona since he arrived Friday morning. I’m not sure if the bearded lady is a sideshow or the main attraction yet, but it’s become clear that the players are having fun with it using Mannyisms in their interviews whenever possible. I’m not sure why some people think it’s a terrible signing when he’s only making a prorated $333K after he serves his 50 game suspension. If he sucks, so what, they can just cut him. If he’s a cancer to the team, let’s face it, they probably aren’t finishing higher than 3rd in the AL West anyways. At the moment, I’d much rather watch Manny strikeout swinging as hard as he can than see someone else tap out on a weak grounder to the pitcher. If I thought the A’s were a contender, then maybe I’d be angry he’s taking atbats away from someone else, but at the moment that’s just a silly thought, so let’s see what the bearded lady can bring to the circus that is Oakland these days! The circus has for a moment taken over whatever the Giants are doing right now, so for a day or two at least Oakland is in the headlines over the Giants…
Lord knows I’ve never cared about players doing steroids, and if I did, I’d probably have to condemn my favorite A’s teams with the bash brothers or even more recent versions with Giambi and Tejada. When I heard about Ryan Braun’s negative test, I didn’t bat an eyelash. When his ruling was overturned, I didn’t bat an eyelash. When I heard Braun’s prepared statement, I felt like it was Rafael Palmiero waving his finger at me again, but didn’t truly care what his message was or what others thought of him. Whether he’s innocent or guilty, it’s obvious something happened that wasn’t right. The whole steroid era is overblown. It’ not like crappy players were all of a sudden good because they took steroids, they may have become average, but never great. The great players might be able to enhance their longevity a little, but who cares. I don’t watch games worried about who is using and who isn’t. I watch it to be entertained, and if PED’s end up being a part of that entertainment so be it. Hell, I don’t even care what message it sends to kids. Call me heartless, but if parents don’t instill to their kids that cheating is wrong, then they’re probably not that good parents to begin with. It comes down to a life choice for each athlete, and it should be their choice since they know the repercussions in the media and on the field.
I never watch the NFL combine (since I try to have a life), I’ve always felt it’s sole purpose was to keep NFL fans entertained with something during the off-season while players are poked and prodded in their underwear. Maybe if they had pads on doing some of the workouts would make more sense to me, but they choose underwear instead. As a Raiders fan during the Al Davis era you always had to look at the numbers coming out of the combine, because whoever had the fastest 40 time or could bench the most would most likely end up on our team at some point. Now that he’s gone and we only have two draft picks, I have zero reason to care what’s happening. The only thing that I really do think matters is their wonder-lick scores. No, I don’t really care if a player gets average or high scores, but I’d stay away from any player that scored low on the test, because it’s made for elemetary school kids. Other than that, look at film and call it good with making your picks.
By
cali4dre
chappy81
dyslecix
mceezy
Doin Work 
February 27th, 2012 at 1:00 pm
[…] from: Manny, Steroids, and the NFL Combine « Doin Work Tags: always-felt, during-the, fans-entertained, nfl, off-season-while, players-are, […]
February 27th, 2012 at 1:00 pm
Great post, Chap. Well done.
Looking forward to reading more about your Manny-thoughts as the season progresses.
I guess they can’t go wrong, right? I mean, it’s not like they paid that much for him. But the Rays did the same thing last year, for a little more coin, and what did he end up playing in a Tampa Bay uniform? Three days?
February 27th, 2012 at 2:12 pm
Yeah, Manny sure didn’t do much for Tampa. I did read that the players liked him in his brief three day stay there though, so there’s that.
While I don’t see Manny being anything close to what he once was, I do see him being entertaining for a team that hasn’t been all that entertaining for awhile. I like his reasoning for coming back and showing his kids that he’s not a quitter, and wants to leave the game on a good note…
February 27th, 2012 at 7:00 pm
I actually saw Manny’s last hit in person, when he was a Ray. That was his only hit of the year.
Can you imagine the outrage if he was caught for steroids again?
February 28th, 2012 at 9:19 am
Speaking of his time in Tampa, do you remember this interview when he was there? Classic Manny!
One year ago in the Rays’ camp in Florida, I remind him, he playfully asked me to put in a good word for him. Then, a few weeks later, he tested positive. Is that going to happen again? “Only God knows,” he says. No, that’s not true, I tell him. You actually can know what you put into your body. “You’re right,” he says. “You’re right, there. “But God knows what you’re thinking before you’re even thinking about it.”
February 28th, 2012 at 6:07 am
chappy
Explain this to me , with the issues that the A’s have why take a risk of having Manny on the roster ? Beane with this move , albeit , from a financial standpoint it may seem risky but what happens if the player gets busted again ? It’s to the organization’s detriment when they could’ve spent the money elsewhere far more productively wouldn’t you say ?
tophatal ……………..
February 28th, 2012 at 9:20 am
That’s the thing, he’s not expensive! They’re paying him like a minor league player and if they don’t think he’s got anything left in the tank when he goes on his minor league rehab assignment, then they can just cut him. I doubt failing another drug test would hurt the A’s as much as it would hurt Manny…
March 2nd, 2012 at 2:31 pm
Not now anyway, ’til he drops another deuce by testing positive again . However if he can be really productive then it’ll add some “pop” to the A’s offense .
😉
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😉
tophatal ……..
February 28th, 2012 at 11:52 am
Wow Chappy, I think more and more were a lot a like, lol. Some of your takes are right there with mine, I love it. It’s like I was writing this, lol.
Your take on Manny is spot on and it’s made we realize it’s not that bad that they signed him. I love the comment on watching Manny over a dead beat (basically what you said).
I’m not a NFL combine guy either.
Great read, I’m still laughing, to me its was funny.
February 28th, 2012 at 12:22 pm
Glad you liked it! Over the past few years there hasn’t been one A’s player (including Holiday because he sucked with the A’s) until Jemile came around last year that I can truly say that I would stop what I was doing to see what he did. I think with Manny that will happen, and as far as I’m concerned for better or worse it’s a good thing that I WANT to see the outcome of a players AB instead of just being interested in how the starting pitcher is doing and praying they score a run or two to get him a win…
February 29th, 2012 at 11:01 am
Yeah but why Manny ? I’m sure that Beane could’ve gone elsewhere in terms of his search for some meaningful talent ! Ramirez just isn’t that anymore ………… his best days are behind him not ahead of him that’s for sure !
tophatal …………
February 29th, 2012 at 11:16 am
Well, I read they were interested in Magglio Ordonez and Johnny Damon as well, but they wwere asking for a few million at a minimum, so with Manny asking for 10 times less than that, I guess they figured they might as well go the cheapest route possible…