The L.A. Times’ Bill Plaschke has been carving Manny Ramirez up since his PED suspension back in May, so you know he was just waiting for the right time to bring this kind of noise:
Something is wrong with Manny Ramirez. Something different than a hitch. Something more than a slump.
Something is wrong here, something that might be lodged as deeply in
the head as in the hips, something that perhaps batting practice can’t
fix . . .. . . Although the official explanations for his slump involve those habits,
and are technical and convoluted, those familiar with steroids quietly
submit one simple reason:Ramirez trying to kill the ball to overcompensate for the fact that
he’s no longer juiced, attempting to show everyone that his previous
success was him and not steroids.There are those who also wonder whether he is struggling with the loss
of that invincible feeling that steroids give hitters, a syndrome
commonly associated with those who are struggling to find themselves
after coming clean.
“Those familiar” with steroids submit one question? “There are those” who wonder? How on Earth do Plaschke’s editors allow him to hide behind that stuff? He’s the only one in this article asking that question and wondering those things. He quotes no one, anonymous or otherwise. This is quite obviously Bill Plaschke and Bill Plaschke alone making such an accusation, yet he he’s not willing to simply say it without couching it as the accusations of others.
Why? Probably because he’s a writer who knows absolutely nothing about what causes or ends slumps, be they by ex-PED users or otherwise. He wants to make Ramirez the goat of this Dodgers’ team, and he wants to continue to slam him for his PED use despite the fact that everyone else has moved on. But hey, if he can marry a slump to the ‘roids, it’s a current story that accomplishes both of his goals.
Put differently, it’s hack work. But then again, it’s Bill Plaschke, so what else did you expect?
