May 8, 2009, Philadelphia Phillies reaction to Manny Ramirez steroid story for Metro (Philadelphia) Newspaper
Clean on Chuck’s watch
Shock and disappointment emanated from the visiting clubhouse Thursday at Citi Field. Similar to the rest of baseball, the Phillies had felt the shock waves following Manny Ramirez’s 50-game suspension for using a banned substance.
Phillies manager Charlie Manuel, who served as Ramirez’s hitting coach for five years in Cleveland, characterized his feelings as “sad.” He was adamant in his belief that Ramirez was clean back then.
“When he was young, I definitely don’t think he was on steroids,” Manuel said. “I know how good he was. I know his talent.”
While sympathetic to the slugger, Manuel was adamant that ignorance isn’t an excuse.
“I think Major League Baseball, in those meetings that we have, is pretty specific,” he said. “If you don’t know the rules, you better have somebody describe them to you.”
During the suspension, Ramirez will miss both series against the Phillies (May 12-14 in Philadelphia; June 4-7 in Los Angeles). In 29 games this season, Ramirez was hitting .348 with six homers, 20 RBI and scored 22 runs.
PHILS BACK SKIPPER. Raul Ibanez and Jimmy Rollins both backed Manuel.
“They do send out a lot of memos, they do talk about it a lot and educate us. But I don’t want to take supplements or anything like that,” Ibanez said. “For me, I kind of look at it and toss it, because it doesn’t really affect me one way or the other.”
Said Rollins: “He said he went to the doctor to get medicine for something and it happened to be on the banned substances list. If that’s the case, it’s unfortunate.”
posted by Denis P. Gorman at 1:37 AM
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