Manny Ramirez, now and forever a big question mark.

So this evening when I started writing this post, the one thing I had in mind was to not write about Manny Ramirez. The reason being everything I have watched, read, and seen in the past few days has constantly and consistently talked about Manny's secret love affair with "performance enhancers." So I sat and thought for a while and tried to think about some other big story in baseball I could write about. And I just kept on coming back to Manny Ramirez's suspension.
The reason being that Mr. Ramirez, whether you liked him or not, always had a lot of talk about how he was the best there was and even if he wasn't the very best, he was extremely good. Whenever his team needed him to step up and make the play, get that RBI, or get a home run and boost them to a victory, he did. Now don't get me wrong; this doesn't mean he was a team player because obviously he wasn't, but just because of his baseball ability, he made a good team great. I grantee that even the best pitchers were scared to face him with runners on base. That could be why he is 12th in career intentional walks and third among active players.
He created a whole image that he might not be the best teammate and might have a lot of swagger, but he could always make up for it with his performance. But now, after all those years of talking big and living up to it, his cockiness and bad attitude are just empty words and nothing more now with his suspension.
He was a future hall of famer, had hit more than 500 home runs, was a 12 time all star, has a career .315 batting average, and finished in the top ten for MVP voting 8 times in his 17 seasons. Not to shabby, eh? But of course that is all severely diminished now that he has taken steroids. Those four words are almost a death sentence in baseball because they tarnish everything the player did and accomplished even if that player didn't take steroids most of the time. The lingering question of what if is enough for most people.
THE WAY I SEE IT- To me it wouldn't matter if Manny was suspended for a month, like he is, or for the rest of his career simply because he has solely destroyed everything he has done and worked for by having that ever-living asterisk next to his name. His image as a baseball player will never be the same and hopefully neither will his cocky attitude, even though I don't think anyone would buy it anymore. For me, and for most people now, just the thought of him makes the word steroids pop up into my head. So anyone up for a little game for word association? Manny Ramirez - steroids, baseball, dreads, a million dollar smile (actually more like 23 million dollar smile), a great player, but more than anything else a big question mark (or an asterisk if you prefer it).