Schilling Puts an End to the "Tainted" Talk

Curt Schilling was a guest on Mad Dog Unleashed yesterday on XM/Sirius and was asked by Chris Russo if Manny's PED use taints the Red Sox Championships:

Russo: “Do you think it takes away a little bit from the Red Sox’ championship in ’04?”

Schilling: “Listen, if you’re going to be one of those guys who thinks there is a team in the last 15 years that has played with 25 clean guys for 162 games, you’re lying to yourself....Given what we know, given the numbers, there’s no team that went through a full season and won a world championship in the last 15 years, could be 20 years, that was [totally] clean. I don’t think it takes away from our championship because using that argument, how many players on the other side of the fence were using as well? We beat a Yankee team that had how many users on it?...If you’re going to cheapen one you cheapen them all. The fact of the matter is people want to make an argument about, ‘Oh, these guys were cheating. It wasn’t a level playing field.’ It was absolutely a level playing field because there were guys on every team using it. That doesn’t make it right. That doesn’t make it just. That makes it the way it was.”

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Sammy Sosa* Joins the Asterisk Club

In what should surprise nobody, Sammy Sosa* has reportedly been one of the 104 players that tested positive for steroids in 2003. Drip, drip, drip. How long before a Red Sox hero goes down?

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Manny Suspended 50 Games For PED's

UPDATE: Manny's drug choice linked to steroids:

However, two sources told ESPN's T.J. Quinn and Mark Fainaru-Wada that the drug used by Ramirez is HCG -- human chorionic gonadotropin. HCG is a women's fertility drug typically used by steroid users to restart their body's natural testosterone production as they come off a steroid cycle. It is similar to Clomid, the drug Bonds, Giambi and others used as clients of BALCO.

Manny Ramirez has violated MLB policy for PED's and has been suspended by MLB:

The Office of the Commissioner of Baseball announced today that outfielder Manny Ramirez of the Los Angeles Dodgers has been suspended for 50 games for a violation of Major League Baseball's Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. The suspension of Ramirez is effective immediately.

Looks like Canseco was right again.

Where do you even begin with this? First off it should sour any Sox fans that had still be defending Manny. Secondly, as hard as this is to say, it does taint some of the recent Red Sox success. On this site I have called out the Yankees whenever possible and have gone after A-Rod* and Roger*. It looks like now I have to give the asterisk to Manny* too. I am glad that Manny* is no longer on the Red Sox but there is no denying how much this hurts the team and the game. Once again a player puts himself above the game and the fans are the ones left behind.

Manny issued the following statement on the suspension through the MLBPA:

“Recently I saw a physician for a personal health issue. He gave me a medication, not a steroid, which he thought was okay to give me. Unfortunately, the medication was banned under our drug policy. Under the policy that mistake is now my responsibility. I have been advised not to say anything more for now. I do want to say one other thing; I've taken and passed about 15 drug tests over the past five seasons. “I want to apologize to Mr. McCourt, Mrs. McCourt, Mr. Torre, my teammates, the Dodger organization, and to the Dodger fans. LA is a special place to me and I know everybody is disappointed. So am I. I'm sorry about this whole situation.” – Manny Ramirez

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