Another reason people don’t take you seriously…

Manny  Ramirez has been one of the most dangerous hitters in baseball.  He can do what’s very difficult to do in baseball…single-handedly change a outcome of a game.  He’s a very talented hitter, and he has over 500 home runs to show for it.  He’s been very dangerous, especially when he’s motivated.  Just look how he carried the Dodgers into the playoffs last year. 

Now I’m not about to defend how he acted in Boston and got himself traded.  But at the same time, Boston let him get away with childish behavior for way too long.  Guess they learned Manny being Manny was only good when they were winning.  And that hair is just ridiculous.

So all the off-season tabloid fodder has surrounded baseball players and whether or not they’re on steroids.  Who’s juicing?  Who’s not?  Are records legit?  Now one of the great things about baseball is that over the course of history, the game itself has evolved from the introduction of non-white players, to the 162-game season, to division play, to the designated hitter, to the wild card and expansion teams.  Records one year may not necessarily have the same set of scenarios as the next season.  They’re being played in different stadiums with different dimensions.  And different players.  So what? 

So now the question is whether or not steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs really do give players a competitive advantage.  Some can quantify it, others say the jury is still out.  But we do know one thing…they’re not proverbial cans of spinach.  I’m the sam age as Derek Jeter, and you can shoot a gallon of the stuff in my ass, I’m not about to start fielding like Jeter or swinging the bat like Reggie Jackson any time soon.  Or even a single-A player. 

So it’s old news that Manny Ramirez got caught.  He denies it.  OK, what else is he going to do.  He’s trying to land one more big contract.  Per wikipedia, “According to an ESPN report, the drug used by Ramirez is human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), a women’s fertility drug typically used by steroid users to restart their body’s natural testosterone production as they come off a steroid cycle. It is similar to Clomid, the drug Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi and others used as clients of BALCO.”  If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, well, any idiot can draw their own conclusions. 

Now come out the clowns at Peta issuing a press release.  http://www.peta.org/mc/NewsItem.asp?id=13036 “We want to turn Manny on to the wonders of ‘veggie Viagra’–a healthy vegetarian diet–so that he can get his ‘big stick’ back in the game without having to use any weird ‘performance-enhancing’ drugs,” says PETA Assistant Director Dan Shannon. “Guys who stuff their bellies full of dead animals in the kitchen are often unable to score in the bedroom.” 

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME??? Manny Ramirez makes an excuse that’s as hollow as can be to maybe he can get another $50 million dollar contract.  If I were him, I’d say anything short of being Jesus to get that kind of coin.  And the dopes at Peta are taking him at face-value to push their vegan agenda?  It’s no wonder this diddy din’t get much press coverage.

For the record, I have no problems grilling up some veggies next to my steaks.

This is why people don’t take you seriously.

One of my guilty pleasures is listening to the synth-pop dulce tones of the Pet Shop Boys on my ipod.  Their tenth studio album, Yes, is being released in the US today.  Most people don’t realize that they did much after their 80’s hits heyday.  They were nominated for a Best Dance Recording Grammy in 2007 for “I’m With Stupid.”  (They lost to Justin Timberlake’s “SexyBack”.)  So while they’re not in the forefront of US pop culture, they’re still popular on the dance scene and overseas. 

While they may never be as popular here in the US as they were in their “West End Girls” days, I’d say it’s safe to say they’re making a decent living.  So when PETA came in and asked them to change their name of over 25 years from Pet Shop Boys to Rescue Shelter Boys, they lost all credibility with me.  If this was such an important issue for them, they would have spoken up sooner, say at the height of the Pet Shop Boys’ popularity?  It only further enhances PETA’s image as a fringe group desperate for attention that people just don’t take seriously.  Now I don’t advocate beating your dog like Michael Vick, but PETA coming in now is only a desperate cry for attention.  At this point, the band’s name is a household name, even if most know of them as a one-hit-wonder of sorts. 

Every time PETA does one of these publicity stunts, they only further their image as a bunch of screwballs.  While most people in the US don’t necessarily agree with its Vegan position, PETA doesn’t help their cause when they make stupid statements like this.  And they won’t be taken seriously if they continue to do so.