Scrapbook Item 8: Manny is Going, Going, Going, GONE!

Link to this article: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/dailypitch/post/2011/04/manny-ramirez-notifies-mlb-of-intent-to-retire/1

In class on November 8, 2011, we continued our discussion on deviance in sport by going further looking into the use of drugs by athletes. Many players use steroids and performance enhancing drugs to make themselves better athletes to win games and improve records. A prime suspect of using drugs while playing in a professional league was Manny Ramirez. He was accused several times of using drugs throughout his career and finally during this past season, he had enough and announced his retirement as an active player. He had an amazing career playing under the Indians, Red Sox, Dodgers and Rays organizations in his 19-year career.

Coakley talks about sport drugs and how to control them on pages 179-191. There is so much the organizations can do to prevent it but the testing can only go so far to keep athletes from doing it. Manny had been tested many times and somehow got away with it for all those years if he was using the drugs his entire career. In 2009 he was suspended for 50 games because he was in violation and if he been caught again, it would have gone up to a suspension of 100 games. Within the MLB especially, it is just a conformity that athletes will use enhancing drugs to get bigger and be able to have more strength to hit the ball harder. It is a sad point of life that has changed America's game. When athletes conform to the norm it is not always the best decision for them to do but if they want to be the best and continue to make money at the professional level, most of them due result in taking the drugs which end up messing with their bodies in the long run for the worse.

Although I used to be a huge Manny Ramirez fan when he did play for the Boston Red Sox, I do not approve in his actions to become the amazing player that he was during his career. Athletes who use performance enhancing drugs are just plain out stupid because it will help them for that specific period of time but it does mess with their body later down the road when they get older. Steroids and performance enhancing drugs are not just ruining MLB but other sports as well, it is just most popular with baseball athletes. Even though drug testing can be viewed as controversial, it needs to be done because sports need to be continued to be played as fair competition. Many would disagree with that statement but that is what they were founded on and it has turned into a huge business but the drugs need to be left out of it. If athletes continue to do drugs, their careers are going to be ruined and ended fairly quickly like Ramirez's was this past season. Athletes are going to continue to spiral down if they do not get their acts together with their careers and reputations being ruined if they don't stop taking the drugs. Are the drugs really worth it, that is the question that should be asked repeatedly and hopefully the answer continues to change for the better over time.