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Hall of Fame baseball writer Hal McCoy has retired from the Dayton Daily News after covering the Cincinnati Reds for 37 years. Hal's blog, though, will continue to be a must-read for Reds fans. He'll share his thoughts on the team this season and will file updates from Great American Ball Park. You also can catch Hal in print every Sunday in his popular Ask Hal columnHome > Blogs > The Real McCoy | Cincinnati Reds baseball news > Archives > 2009 > May > 07 > Entry
Arroyo opens up about Manny Ramirez
What is it with these guys that they are willing to throw it all away - throw away their chances at the Hall of Fame, throw away their reputations, throw away all they have accomplished?
Now it’s Manny Ramirez - caught using some banned substance that is a female estrogen that supposedly tells your body to manufacture testosterone.
And this time it can’t be tossed aside with the favorite phrase everybody uses in regards to Ramirez, “It’s just Manny being Manny.”
This time it is Manny just being plain stupid.
Bronson Arroyo is more likely to miss a start than duck an issue when asked - and he hasn’t missed a start in more than a year.
So when he was approached about the 50-day suspension of former teammate Ramirez for using a banned substance, Arroyo never flinched.
“It’s pretty scary when you can go to the mall and you can buy something over the counter that ends up costing you one-third of your salary,” he said. “We just have to be careful what we put in our mouths.”
Arroyo and Ramirez were teammates with the Boston Red Sox and Arroyo didn’t hesitate to describe those bizarre days.
“At this point in his career and from what has gone on with testing and stuff since 2004, I’m surprised Manny got caught up in this,” he said. “Manny likes to act pretty stupid, but he is a pretty bright guy who is definitely aware of a lot of things. He tried to act like he is completely oblivious, but he isn’t.
“The years I played with Manny, he was such an introverted guy,” Arroyo added. “I’ve always said he was one of the strangest guys I ever played with. Everything you get from him outwardly is like an act. Everything. You could ask Manny if he likes hamburgers and he’d say yeah and he probably doesn’t like hamburgers. That’s the way he was and is. You could have somebody see him somewhere and then somebody would say, ‘Hey, somebody saw you at Appleby’s today,’ and he’d say, ‘I never left my room today.’ And you’d say, ‘What, it is kind of hard to miss Manny with his dreads.’
“You never know and honestly I think he’ll probably disappear for the next 50 days, probably won’t say a word about it, then come back to the clubhouse and won’t even acknowledge that anything happened. That’s the type of guy he is.”
Arroyo, though, says he is guessing. He is basing what he says on personal experience, “But trust me, nobody knows how Manny really is. Nobody knows anything about his personal life. Maybe one guy on each team. In Boston, it was our batting practice pitcher. Not even David Ortiz. Nobody ever really knows the guy. Everything he does at the park is all ha-ha, hee-hee, it’s all a joke. When he goes home, nobody really knows what he does.”
“It’s a sad thing because the Dodgers are playing good and he is a big part of that team,” Arroyo added.
Reds manager Dusty Baker just shook his head and said, “Fifty days is a long time and that’s really going to hurt the Dodgers and it is going to hurt his reputation. I just hate it that another star goes down. We sure can’t afford to have any more heroes go down.”
Added Arroyo: “This is just affirmation over and over again that steroids and human performance drugs are rampant in the game. What are you going to do? People tend to think when we in baseball go home in the off-season, the Cincinnati Reds are watching us every day, watching us individually over what we do and what we put in our body and how we workout. Everybody has their own program and their own life and do their own things. And honestly, in the locker room, guys who are best friends have no idea what goes on in the other guys’ personal lives. By the time you get to this level, everybody has learned to hide what they don’t want people to know about.”
Scary. Very scary.
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Comments
By Florida Buckeye
May 9, 2009 12:20 PM | Link to this
It’s telling to me that Baker didnt even flinch w/r to whether or not Manny was taking enhancement drugs. He just said another hero goes down…considering he was there for the entirety of the Bonds/Balco fiasco…it doesnt surprise me.
By pounder
May 9, 2009 11:06 AM | Link to this
Puts a serious taint on the Sox World Series victories,does it not?
By Ryan K.- Madison, IN.
May 8, 2009 4:06 PM | Link to this
Hope the game doesn’t get rained out tonight. Can you imagine the energy a sweep will generate in the queen city. Even if we take 2 of 3 from them it will be awesome. Going to the game on Sunday to watch Volquez pitch. Buster why dont you meet me at the bathroom close to section 121 so i can slap you upside your big head.
By Tom
May 8, 2009 3:12 PM | Link to this
Many human beings don’t live much beyond the end of their noses as long as things go their way, including the rich and famous. When consequences happen, it’s usually a shock.
By Doco
May 8, 2009 10:02 AM | Link to this
In reference to Hal’s first paragraph, the reason they throw it all away is so they have something to throw away. They use it to get there in the first place. At a minimum Manny used it last year because he was playing for a contract. Look what he did when he got to LA. He was unbelievable! Then he got $25 million a year and decided to not risk it anymore by stopping the program.
By Jeff
May 8, 2009 4:26 AM | Link to this
Re: chiefwino - They are allowed to fill the slot. In fact, I believe the Dodgers have already called a kid up from their minor league system.
By mdguy
May 8, 2009 1:14 AM | Link to this
HCG isn’t something taken by mouth, it is injected. The use of a needle should have sent up red flags. HCG is taken at the end of a steroid cycle to kick start your own testosterone proudction. When you body is getting exogenous test it quits making its own.
By Steve
May 7, 2009 11:29 PM | Link to this
Check out his photo’s when he first came out of the minors. Like most of the chemically enhanced players their bodies changed drastically. The juice is still loose! Manny more suspensions coming…
By chiefwino
May 7, 2009 11:18 PM | Link to this
Is the team allowed to fill his slot during the suspension? Or does it sit empty for the 50 games?
By Kyle
May 7, 2009 6:35 PM | Link to this
I guess what it really shows you is that these guys make too much money. How many of us can afford to toss 1/3 of our salary and not even blink? In general, I’m not sure they care about making the Hall anymore. Intrinsic motivation is gone. Of the 50 kids who come through my class in a year, maybe 10% are intrinsically motivated. The rest…it’s all about the rewards that teachers give. Same for the ball players now.