Remember last year when Manny shoved the Red Sox traveling secretary, Jack McCormick to the ground? Apparently it was because McCormick said he might not be able to get Manny the 16 tickets he wanted for an upcoming game against the Astros. McCormick was over 60 years old, and Ramirez physically assaulted him.
Less than a month earlier, Ramirez appeared to have instigated a clubhouse argument with teammate Kevin Youkilis. Reportedly, Manny was upset that Youk gets too angry when he didn’t get on base, always throwing his equipment around, drawing attention to himself. Manny had had enough of Youk’s intensity, intensity which some might appreciate in the clubhouse.
In game 3 of the NLCS last year, Manny had to be restrained by teammates when he went after Shane Victorino of the Philadelphia Phillies. In a bench-clearing altercation (no punches were thrown), Manny appeared to have the most to say to Victorino. Some switch appeared to have gone off in Ramirez’s characteristically happy-go-lucky self.
At the time, Red Sox nation was appalled at Manny’s uncharacteristic aggressiveness. We were willing to pass it off as another case of “Manny being Manny”, when really it was Manny being something totally different from the carefree, fun-loving Ramirez we have come to love. But, with Manny’s recent failure of a drug test, it makes sense. The drug test revealed that Manny had been taking a women’s fertility drug, something which athletes take to replenish their levels of testosterone, depleted after a steroid cycle. Who knows when Manny first starting using steroids? It was probably right around June last year. This would explain Manny not being Manny about a year ago. He was starting to experiment with steroids, and was exhibiting signs of ‘roid rage.
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