May 31 2009
Ramirez Might Be Elected in All-Star; Vote for Manny Website Created
Manny Ramirez has recently been included in the National League outfielders in initial All-star voting. A baseball fan, Jason Rosenberg, while listening to satellite radio thought of a way to help Ramirez, and this is the Vote for Manny website. The 39-year-old from suburban Ardsley said on Wednesday that “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 voteformanny.blogspot.com was up and running on Tuesday night and the website is designed to point out that the league has no rule to prevent its players coming off drug suspensions from becoming All-Star. The Vote for Manny website is also linked to an online All-Star ballot that encourages fans to “Remember, vote early and often!”
Ramirez’s 50-game suspension was announced on May 7 because of testing positive for artificial testosterone. Baseball investigators also gathered documents that he received HCG, a banned female fertility drug taken by some after steroid cycles to restart its natural testosterone production. Ramirez is expected to return to the Dodgers on July 3, 11 days before the All-Star game to be held in St. Louis. In the initial votes, Ramirez showed a lot of potential as he garnered 442,763 ballots, trailing Milwaukee’s Ryan Braun (663,164), and Chicago Cubs’ Alfonso Soriano (545, 354) and the New York Mets’ Carlos Beltran (476, 843).
Philadelphia’s NL Manager Charlie Manuel said “the All-Star game is for the fans and I think that if he got voted in, then it would be appropriate for him to play. Once he serves his suspension, he’s paid his penalty and he’s just like every other player.” But Cardinals’ manager Tony La Russa has a completely opposite opinion as Manuel’s by saying, “The fans have a right to vote, but I think it’s probably not fair to the guys who are out there playing,” he said. “It’s pretty tough to do what he did and then miss a good part of the season. But it’s up to the fans.”
Voting for the All-Star started on April 22 so it is still uncertain on how many votes were cast for Ramirez before his suspension. The drug agreement of the league states “a player shall be deemed to have been eligible to play in the All-Star game if he was elected or selected to play; the commissioner’s office shall not exclude a player from eligibility for election or selection because he is suspended under the program.”
Yankee’s Alex Rodriguez, another steroid-tainted athlete, was also among the third basemen by garnering 245,414 votes, trailing Tampa Bay’s Evan Longoria (664,060) and Texas’ Michael Young (296,025). “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 is an avid Yankees fan and works in finance. He also maintains a regular blog for baseball that he started more than a year ago. He is also not in favor of the 2003 rule change pushed by Commissioner Bud Selig that provides the All-Star winner home-field advantage in the World Series.
