Interesting chatter this morning on Ed Randall’s Talking Baseball radio show on WFAN AM 660 this morning in reference to steroids.
This topic has escalated back to the front burner with the Barry Bonds trial being in full stride and the news of the Manny Ramirez retirement this week due to another steroid test problem.
It was one point that was made in particular that should raise more suspicions. This was concerning players close to the end of their careers, like Manny was.
It’s called ‘The Manny Retirement Plan’.
This is when a player decides to take steroids, or continues taking steroids late in their career in order to productively extend their careers another few years, resulting in additional millions of dollars in income for that player.
Of course, if they get caught, the answer is to just retire as Manny did and call it a career rather than go through the process of facing the chin music.
Of course this will ruin chances of making the Hall of Fame. But let’s face it, the cache of the Hall of Fame has diminished in this current Major League Baseball landscape. Plus, in this day in age, the ability to extend ones career for additional millions of dollars in salary probably outweigh having potential Hall of Fame obstacles, for those that are close to making the Hall. For the players that aren’t Hall of Fame caliber players, the choice to roid-up towards the end of their careers should be an easy one.
Thus, the Manny Ramirez retirement plan.
