Why Manny is different than the rest...

Jayson Starks blog post didnt post the way I wanted it to. But follow the link to read the whole thing. It is the best column I have ever read! I have copied the best points below in bold! I couldn't agree more!



We've learned over the years that it IS possible for drug-stained players to get a second chance. But Manny has already seriously endangered any shot he might have had that he could be one of those players. Let's explain why.

The players who found forgiveness weren't players who asked for forgiveness. They were players who earned that forgiveness.

They were guys like Andy Pettitte, whose prior reputations were pristine to begin with. Who then stepped forward and told their story in a way that people could relate to.

They told you what they did. They told you why they did it. They didn't toss out half-baked explanations that were shot down by the fact checkers 20 minutes later.

Most important, they took responsibility -- ALL the responsibility. They didn't try to drag their doctors or their teammates or their knucklehead cousins into the line of fire. They said, "I'M the one who did this. Blame me."


And when they were through telling their stories, they seemed genuine. Believable. Human. Those are the kinds of people we forgive in this country -- people who give us reason to forgive.

But now let's look at Manny, and how he compares with members of that group.

"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 … "

All right, enough of that carefully crafted public statement. We get the picture.

Our first inclination, on first glance, is to feel a pang of sympathy here. After all, who among us hasn't had a personal health issue? Who among us hasn't seen a physician for that issue? Who among us hasn't been given a medication to treat that issue?

It sounds so innocent … so downright normal.

But hold on.

Turns out that this physician he saw wasn't the team doctor -- the physician that 99 percent of all players see when they have a "personal health issue" during spring training or the season.

Turns out that this physician wasn't even located in the state of Arizona, where the Dodgers happened to be holding spring training at the time this "personal health issue" cropped up. He was actually located 2,000 miles away, in Florida.

Oh. OK. (love that part!)

I've read through all the prescribed uses I could find online for human chorionic gonadotropin (similar to Clomid), which ESPN.com is reporting is the drug in question. And let me tell you -- I'm almost 100 percent certain that Manny wasn't suffering from an inability to ovulate. Or polycystic ovarian syndrome.

If you read more extensively about this drug, though, you'll learn that it IS occasionally used to address male infertility. Except if you read the small print, you'll also learn that, according to sharedjourney.com:

"The FDA has not approved the use of Clomid in men, nor has it been found to be especially effective."

Great. So why would a doctor be prescribing it for a guy like Manny, then?

Good question, huh?

A truly upstanding male-fertility doctor wouldn't be likely to do that, right? And a truly upstanding doctor treating a professional athlete would also be likely to know it could cause him to set off a major drug-testing alarm, right?

We also need to recognize something important about baseball's testing program: Its intent is not to catch innocent people who are using run-of-the-mill prescription medications because of pesky "personal health issues."

Basically, the list of substances that can get you flagged fall into three categories:

1. Stuff you'd use to cheat.

2. Stuff you'd use to push the envelope as far as possible in the hope of legally enhancing performance.

3. Stuff you'd use to treat a condition that falls under baseball's limited list of "Therapeutic Medical Exemptions," such as ADD.

(BO-YA-BAMB!)