Manny Ramirez is returning to the field at the age of 44. The Kochi Fighting Dogs of the independent Shikoku Island League Plus in Japan have announced an agreement with Ramirez, whose last major league at-bat came in 2011. Ramirez’s latest action came in 2014, when he played in the Dominican Winter League and with Triple-A Iowa.
The mercurial Ramirez debuted in the majors in 1993 and ultimately became one of the most terrifying offensive forces in the history of the sport. In a combined 9,774 plate appearances with the Indians, Red Sox, Dodgers, White Sox and Rays, the outfielder slashed .312/.411/.585 with 555 home runs – which ranks 15th all-time. He also earned 12 All-Star nods and helped the Red Sox to two World Series championships, including their 2004 triumph that broke an 86-year drought. Ramirez dominated during that run en route to World Series MVP honors, and he generally thrived in the postseason with a .285/.394/.544 line in 493 career PAs.
Ramirez is currently on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time, but it’s possible his controversial past will prevent him from ever gaining enshrinement. Major League Baseball hit Ramirez with two suspensions for performance-enhancing drugs during his career, the second of which – a 100-game ban – came in 2011. Ramirez hasn’t played in the majors since amassing 17 PAs that year with the Rays, though he did make comeback attempts with the Athletics and Rangers before joining the Cubs as a player-coach with Iowa in 2014. That led to the Cubs hiring him as a batting consultant a year later in 2015.
Ramirez will now head to Asia for the second time, having previously played in Taiwan as a member of the Chinese Professional Baseball League in 2013. His new league includes just four teams and has no connection to Nippon Professional Baseball.
What a bum.
Albeit incredibly talented;-)
Not sure why he’s a bum – he won’t be scratching around for loose change, and he’s ridiculously talented.
Rich..successful..famous….that’s the anti-bum, isn’t it?
I like your loose change comment! 🙂
He’s a bum not because of the money he made, but rather how he went about playing the game.
Disappointed in his later years, definitely. He went to the well too often for PEDs..the perception of Manny could be so different without those test failures. Every chance he was juicing his whole career, but he gets a pass from me for the early years because..well..who wasn’t juicing?
His on field stuff..I can see how he aggravates.
Frank Thomas? Seriously, I’d place ped usage during the heyday at 40%.
Who wasn’t juicing? A lot of players. Very weak, transparent attempt to justify cheating.
Did he not play the game the “right way”?
Griffey, Chipper, Thome etc. weren’t juicing and No we don’t know for sure but I doubt you will find many who actually think they were.
How could you possibly know that they weren’t juicing?
Tired of people making statements as facts of players they believe we’re clean.
You have absolutely no idea if they were or were not.
A lack of evidence does not make someone innocent.
Well, a lack of evidence does makes it pointless to even bring up. You can say “well we don’t know for sure”, but that doesn’t mean anything, because we will never know for sure; you can’t prove a negative. It’s a sort of passive aggressive way of casting doubt on everyone and justifying the actions of those who did get caught.
And a lack of evidence does not make one guilty either. There are three types of players in MLB. The players we have evidence juiced, the ones we suspected did but have no evidence, and ones we didn’t suspect and have no evidence. Throwing them all in the same pot demeans the ones who played it straight.
Does the phrase innocent until proven guilty no longer exist?
Bret Boone and Brady Anderson called. They said less than 40% were juicing. Proof.
In a court…people speed all the time and are guilty without pulling down a ticket. I get what you’re saying though
My 40% guesstimate comes with internal knowledge. Of the players that I was aware of…Id say 40% were using a ped of some type. Unless that organization was just more rampant than others…Id extrapolate that over the rest of the game. It was common common
Knew that was coming. ok…Ill shut up Im not going to talk about it directly anyway…just keep on chattering. You know this site is perused by 100k people..and many on here have a background in the game,.right? My statement leads as far as yours. Im not discussing it anyway here. This came up 10 years ago..so i just shut up…just dont underestimate people. You have no real reason to say anything, and I have ZERO interest in laying my background out there for anyone here…should someone that I knew connect the dots it would break serious trust….I just enjoy the baseball talk.
You from Houston redline 9?
No, why?
I get your point Cam but I feel like this country needs to stop valuing people based on how much money they make and how they are as a person. I actually like Manny but not because of how much money he earned. His PED history made me like him a lot less though.
To continue that, I actually met Manny at an area Restaurant last summer. He was with a bunch of Youth Baseball Players who were in town for a local Tournament. He was very pleasant to talk with, incredibly respectful of the young men he was with, and it was obvious that he was truly enjoying the opportunity to work with those young players (teenagers, prob about 16-17……I believe one was his son).
As for his accomplishments on the field, they are somewhat tainted by his 2 suspensions, but as Cam said above, in his early days, they were all doing it, and “it was an accepted element of baseball then”.
Just keep in mind that “the players are not just baseball players, they are human beings as well”. People make mistakes, even by design sometimes. Not sure if he’ll ever see the HOF, but we’ll never forget what he did while he was on the field.
I think we have to also not criminalize people due to their ped usage. Sometimes I feel that our love for baseball allows us to make villains out of people. We have to keep perspective. Many mlb players havent been pleasant people…many have been downright arrested development jerks. But during the steroid era….many players used..some got away with it…and some were pretty nice guys.
Non forgiven jerks is why a man who earned it ain’t going to the HOF oh Mr righteous
You shut your mouth.
He’s a HOFer. Maybe not first ballot but he should be in the hof.
He tested positive for an illegal substance but it was for E.D. its not like he used steroids. Its a double standard. He never cheated to help himself hit or play better. Or whatever
Sh*# man he’s still kicking?!
Love of the game
Are they allowed to juice in that league?
Better be, or he won’t last a week.
Look at the facts he never juiced. It was some pill to cure E.D.
Future Japanese beer league MVP, Manny Ramirez.
Yea, he’s just an old dish rag that you guys can kick around like an empty can………….But I’m willing to wager that…… “He Can Still Hit A Baseball (or a softball) WAY Better Than You………lol
Introducing NPB’s future scandal….
Not NPB
It would be better if you read the whole article and comprehend what was written.
“Ramirez will now head to Asia for the second time, having previously played in Taiwan as a member of the Chinese Professional Baseball League in 2013. His new league includes just four teams and has no connection to Nippon Professional Baseball.”
Introducing mlbtraderumors.com most inaccurate statement of 2017 so far! Congratulations!
What’s inaccurate about it?
Can you read? The article states no connection to NPB as the comment practically right above yours.
good luck Manny
He needs to join a slow pitch softball league somewhere
You wish your team huh?
That’s alright, Fernando Valenzuela is probably still playing in the Mexican league. For the love of the game.
Despite all of Manny’s flaws (his terrible defense in both RF and LF, the PED use, his unusual personality) I think he still belongs in the HOF. Manny was certainly a better player than Vlad Guerrero, whom many think will be enshrined this year or next. PED use was so rampant in the era in which Manny played that I don’t hold that against him or any of his contemporaries. Craig Biggio for example almost certainly took PEDs. He had forearms like Popeye for the second half of his career and it did not match his body type. Yet Biggio is already in the HOF because he randomly was never suspected of using the way Bagwell and Piazza have been accused.
In that era, Manny was one of the best players. For that reason he should be in the HOF. It is after all a baseball museum, not a morality museum.
right on soxman81, I believe there are already at least half a dozen guys in the HOF that used PED’s at some point, and we know for certain there are a TON of guys that used greenies/amphetamines . The only difference with Manny, and the only argument that has any weight, is that the clear cut testing and punishments were in place when he got caught, However he was punished already, and he was not declared ineligible by Major League baseball like Pete Rose was for gambling, so that still shouldn’t affect the voting now.
Agree with both of you!!
I listened to Tom Verducci on the “museum” bit and changed my view. He responded, NO, it isn’t a museum. The Hall recognizes the finest performers, with rules. A museum creates snapshots of a given era, without the intent of enshrining only the top 2% (or name your number). A hall of fame, in general, is not equivalent to a museum.
well said…err, quoted.
Did you just link Biggio to PEDs because of his forearms size? This is exactly how Bagwell and Piazza’s names are tainted in the first place. Hearsay and baseless accusations.
I saw a very reputable reporter say he saw Piazza’s back in the locker room, and it looked like a pizza pie. Also had the tell tale “groin tear” so common with using. I have no doubt the guy juiced, and I am inclined to believe Bagwell did as well. That said, I think they both deserve to be in the hall of fame, along with Bonds, Clemens, Pudge, etc, etc. but that’s just my opinion.
you are re telling Murray Chass old saw……..he has turned into an internet troll.
name your reporter…ur full of crap
PED’s have a physical effect on a player’s body. Those affects are often “visible”. If you understand science, and you follow the methodologies that are scientific, it wasn’t hard to distinguish who was “PROBABLY” taking some type of enhancement. If a player’s body appeared to “change for the better”, after he was in his 30’s, the chances are good that he was ingesting “SOMETHING’ that caused it to do that.
Unless they admit it, we’ll never know if any of those guys took something illegal, but keep in mind that, many of the products that were being taken at one point were actually NOT illegal or banned when they took them.
“McGwire, who acknowledged that he took androstenedione while … Andro, as the supplement is commonly known, is sold legally over the counter….”
Yet we crucify these guys because they took “supplements”, even though they were legal. The beloved Mickey Mantle was on “greenies” most every day, from what I hear, but nobody talks about THAT.
I would have classified greenies as a “Performance Enabling Drug”.
That’s probably more accurate Red_Line…lol
Still, they weren’t just bad because guys were “cheating”……..they were actually “ILLEGAL”……….lol
It always mystified me that steroids could be against Federal law…but NOT be against mlb rules. You’d have thought clause one of the rules would be…persuant to all federal law.
Were they? Im sure they were used before a federal ban. And I believe team doctors were even prescribing them later on. Jim Bouton said they put them in cookie jars…was like 10 cups of coffee.
Would you say the same for Canseco or Palmeiro? I understand it was a different time along with different rules but there was a reason those players tried to keep it a secret. I mean you can juice, practically lie to congress about it and get a job as an MLB hitting coach.
The fact that Bud Selig is a Hall of Famer is a farce….that means let them all in. The single guy that could have stopped the players and the organizations by displaying accountability…and he just watched it happen….until it exploded and he claimed ignorance. Hall of Farce.
Manny Ramirez
Vlad Guerrero
Lee Smith
Tim Raines
Trevor Hoffman
All should be in.
Bonds
Clemens
A-Rod
Will never ever get in
Even though he was accused Sosa never tested positive for anything
A-Rod failed at least 4 or 5 drug tests. He should have been banned the year he was suspended for the whole year. Bud Selig dropped the ball on that one
Actually Piazza in his very own autobiography admitted he took PED’s though he said they were legal PED’s.
(I have no problem with Piazza in the HOF, but I do think they all belong – Bonds, Clemens, etc.)
I saw Piazza in Spring Training after they came out with the 1st set of harsh penalties…….and He Was A Different Looking Player! Nowhere near as “Big Up Top”. Anybody seen Bonds lately? He’s as skinny as a rail. Hmmmmmm…
He never used PED. it was E.D. issues. Both times he failed a drug test linked to E.D.
He should stay in Chicago to get his 3rd WS Ring. As a coach of the cubs
Then go to Japan
Think this will be the only time ill ever get to see asians with dreadlocks.
Is this the same league that Julio Franco manages/plays in?
2015-The Million Stars play in the six team Baseball Challenge League in Japan. It appears they are the league’s dominant team, winning three championships since the league formed in 2007. Among the other players on the Million Stars roster are Shinji Mori, a long-time NPB player who signed with the Rays in 2005 but never pitched for them due to a shoulder injury, and Eri Yoshida, a female knuckleballer
I’m not sure if he’s still going.
Joins Ricky Henderson and Jesse Orosco.
I hope the team traveling secretary knows Judo. Manny likes to beat old men who say no to him. Maybe he will be calm without the roids.
A bum? Beacuse of how he played the game? Good God, man, you couldn’t be more ignorant about how the game is played. No one worked harder than Manny Ramirez. No one.
Unfortunately it’s all on media/ fans perception of players. Manny was one of the best, yet will never get into the Hall. However, Big Papi will be in on first ballot. Both blatant PED abusers, yet media spun their careers differently.
There’s that, and there’s also the fact that many failed 2 tests post Mitchell report…..by far the best right-handed hitter of his generation
Manny***
Look it up dude he failed for using a pill for E.D.
When did Papi fail a drug test? Sit down.
bostonglobe.com/sports/2015/03/26/david-ortiz-stil…
Basically, the writers have popped the players on ped’s that they liked dealing with least. If you were a decent guy…any ped use would go under the radar. I know with certainty that the Hall will probably put a guy in in the near future that juiced, but no one would argue that he wasn’t a great guy. Truth is probably 40% were juicing back in the heyday. Thing is…dont break records and be a jerk about it…that gets the hall voters in a tizzy…and dont lie to congress…this is what gets the writer ego going more than anything. Those guys follow the players around during their careers and are subject to whatever whim of the players personality….that Hall vote is their power. They exercise it like Dwight Schrute sometimes. Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens are basically the writers Jim Halpert.
Haha Dwight Schrute
Juicer.
I say stop it with all the PED nonsense. We, the fans, created these monsters. Do you really think no one was using amphetamines in the 50’s, 60’s and so on? It’s always the next, new, and undetectable thing, ALWAYS. We pay for it now, they pay for it later.
I view greenies differently though…more like performance enablers.
If Bud f’n Selig is in the HOF, the guy who CREATED this culture of taking PEDs in order to bring fans back after the strike, then Bonds, Manny, Clemens et all absolutely should be there too,
I’m sure the Fighting Dogs won’t be raving about his defense.
I love seeing this- he’s just playing for the love of the game. One of my favorite players to watch of all time, regardless of PED usage.
Manny is a legend. One of my favorite players ever. Best RHH in my lifetime. Proved that “only LHH have pretty swings” is a myth.
Have you seen Pujols, ARod, Miggy, heck even Trout play?
Oh good. Manny the cheater signs a contract. Then he realizes that he is too old so he gets some steroids and cheats. Once caught, he will quit in his team. Maybe the Fighting Dogs are like the Harlem Globestrotters…a bunch of washed up has beens.
The only good news here is that he is 12 time zones away!
FACTS: PEDs dont make players hit better, they simply help athletes recover quicker to stay 100% on the field. Manny should absolutely be in the HOF, he raked since day 1. If Ken Griffey took PEDs, the Reds would have made the playoffs a lot more and he’d probably have the all-time HR crown, instead of being a “what might have been” story.
PEDs for recovery should be legal. Paying to watch replacement level players because star players are hurt is bad for fans and the game.
I totally agree that PEDs do not make you hit better. However, they do make you stronger. Just look at Bonds from rookie year to retirement progression. That dude exploded in size
He had elite power the whole time, no matter his hat size.
That doesn’t change the fact that they obviously had an affect on his performance. I do agree what you say about they don’t magically make you a great player. You have to have to skills first. But, they do technically give you an advantage is what I’m saying. I do miss the times when there were 60 home runs hit on the regular, even so far as to say it almost helped the sport in a way. However, to say that PEDs are just to help with recovery is Ludacris.
Then they arent technically performance enhancing drugs. Guys werent taking them to recover for the most part….you take a guy like Bonds with rare optical ability…and amazing talent and increase his strength….thats performance enhancement.
Frank Thomas never used PEDs …… But he does Recommend NuGenix if your slumping in the Bedroom
Thats how Frank’s pete rose.
Nice
Wow, a lotta hate thrown in this thread.
One generation can look back and they have the Mickey Mante generation and some golden age stories….the next almost every player can’t be spoken of without roids being mentioned. An entire generation has been turned into tabloid fodder. I can’t talk about Roger Clemens warming up in the pen in California in 87….next thing mentioned is roids. It trashed lots of memories. Fans have every right to be upset…..just wish things werein perspective cause other things in life and the world really deserve the ire.
Sure, in the grand scheme of things guys taking drugs to get an advantage in a game isn’t that big a deal, but it’s just kind of endemic of our society and what’s wrong with it and us as people.
Most people would give their right cojone to play in the major leagues….I completely get the frustration by the fans that actually pay the bills. They want character…or atleast not what takes their mind off work etc biting them in the rear.
Character? A myth. Many of the players most respected by fans in terms of character are some of the biggest creeps, and visa versa. It boils down to winning, and every player spends hours looking for the edge that will help them win. Many for a time, when it was largely accepted by their peers, chose peds. The overblown outrage expressed by fans is ridiculously ignorant to the realities of being a major league baseball player.
As far as the HOF is concerned, do folks really think there are no HOF enshrinees who took peds? You believe in Santa & the Easter Bunny too?
I do think fans atleast tire of character lapses…Ive known people in baseball you wouldnt want sitting next to your daughter at supper. Sure….theres probably ped users in….got one maybe heading in soon that Im very sure used.
Roid freak just like David Ortiz.
I thought Manny was busted for the drug HCG not steroids. Splitting hairs here I know but while HCG is used when cycling off steroids to help the body start producing its own testosterone, it is also used as a weight loss regimen. Sox fans know the last few years Manny was getting fat coming into spring training. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was struggling with weight issues.
Regardless the drug was banned, he should have known it and is being punished accordingly.
He couldnt get his grill sold on ebay during spring training…had to get weight off..that one cracked me up. There he was posing with his grill.
That’s kind of how I feel about Manny. For a lot of these guys, rules on PED usage and other banned drugs were either non-existent or very murky when they played. By the time of Manny’s second ban, everyone knew what the drugs were, what was OK and what wasn’t. I like the guy as a player and even as a personality, but the fact that he got caught taking them again well after they were first outlawed is a big issue with his being inducted to the HOF, at least for me.
I suppose….but anabolic steroids have been Federally outlawed without Rx since the late 80s I believe…guys juicing in 1996 have no excuse.
Manny Ramirez is a first ballot hall of famer,Tim Raines?! Who is that
You really seem to like attention. You’ll find out that trolling people will just get you ignored. Enjoy the baseball chat for what its worth…its cold out.
actually they both created almost exactly the same career value, just in different ways.
both are good enough to be in the HOF
I like Raines myself…but he has the cocaine thing pinned on him if that even matters. Hall voters were hard on Cepeda too.
I still believe Manny was clean until that year he played for the Dodgers. That was when he had his first real injury and I believe he cut some corners to return to full strength. Unlike several other players, he was never ungodly big and he was both thick and productive from the minute he entered the league.
I love how some juicers are embraced and others ridiculed.
It’s neat isn’t it ? Allows everyone to just go with their own bias and agenda
Sure there’s bias, but the ones who cam forward….guys like Andy Pettitte come off as decent. Guys like Clemens and Bonds already torqued people….its the defiance and perceived arrogance. Its just surreal that Jose Canseco came out of it somehow as a whistle blower. Thems was odd times.