Since many people know I bleed Dodger Blue I think everyone figured I would come up with some excuse to give Manny Ramirez a pass in his performance enhancing drug issue.

NOT GONNA HAPPEN.

I am consistent on this one. Manny screwed up....BIG TIME. Anything short of holding a press conference with the doctor who prescribed the HCG and describing in painstaking detail every nuance of his "male issue" that required use of the drug will leave me wanting to know more.

As a Barry Bonds basher for years, I am getting my own comupence. North State Giant fans are crawling out of the woodwork lambasting Ramirez and waiting to hear me come up with excuses for him. I can't, because there is no excuse.

Every clubhouse in baseball has it clearly stated which drugs are allowable and which ones aren't. And, if the player has a question there is a number that they can call 24 hours a day 7 days a week. There is also a training staff on hand that can answer any of these questions and if they don't know the answer they can go to the bevy of team doctors that will be able to answer it.

This feeling of being let down by a pro athlete is disappointing but not necessarily surprising. I am disappointed personally because it happened to a team I sometimes love too much. When it happens to the Yankees or the Giants, who cares....that's their fans problem. But, on Thursday it hit home for me. And, I don't like it.

When Manny comes back on July 3rd, I will welcome him back. I will cheer for him and hope he leads the Dodgers to the Fall Classic, but the shine is off rock and his aura has lost a bit of its luster. And, he has, at least for awhile turned this Blue Bleeding Dodger into a cynic.