"Vote for Manny!"
Fan rallying voters for steroid-suspended superstar
By SCOTT ROSS
Updated 1:14 PM EST, Thu, May 28, 2009
Baseball's dark overlord Bud Selig has created and confronted countless messes as steward of our national past time. On Tuesday, a new problem arose in the form of a Web site calling for the election of fallen star Manny Ramirez to the National League All Star Team.
While driving home the other day, Jason Rosenberg heard over the radio that Ramirez was fourth in the All Star balloting among NL outfielders with 442,763 votes, trailing only Milwaukee’s Ryan Braun (663,164), the Chicago Cubs’ Alfonso Soriano (545,354) and the New York Mets’ Carlos Beltran (476,843).
"I said it would be funny if Manny got elected, because he’s coming off a suspension on July 3 and the All-Star game is a week later, so they don’t even have that sort of built-in protection," the 39-year-old Yankee fan said Wednesday. "So I got home, and just quickly threw a Web site together."
Ramirez was suspended for 50 games on May 7 after his drug test showed artificial testosterone and baseball investigators obtained documentation that he received HCG, a banned female fertility drug taken by some after steroid cycles to restart natural testosterone production. His suspension is due to end just 11 days before the All Star Game.
"It would be too interesting, too funny, too pick-your-adjective to see Manny get elected," Rosenberg said. "It’s got to be MLB’s nightmare that the two biggest stars who have implicated themselves or gotten implicated by this are now potentially starting in their signature midsummer moment."
Rosenberg doesn't much care for Ramirez and doesn't really want for him to make the team. What he wants is to "highlight the silliness that are the MLB rules towards PED users as well as their "head in the sand" approach to this situation. Rather than confront it head-on, MLB is choosing to do nothing and simply hope there are three higher vote getters in the NL OF," as he writes on his new site.
Copyright Associated Press / NBC New York
First Published: May 28, 2009 6:52 AM EST
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