Ramirez joins long list of shamed peers

Despite the numerous distractions Manny Ramirez has brought to the baseball teams he's played for during his 15-year career, the flamboyant slugger was able to avoid the steroid scandal that had plagued his troubled peers.

All that changed Thursday when Major League Baseball suspended the Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder for 50 games after he tested positive for a banned substance.

Two sources told ESPN that Ramirez used the women's fertility drug HCG, human chorionic gonadotropin. Steroid users can use the drug after they complete cycles to get their bodies to produce testosterone naturally again.

In using a banned substance, Ramirez joins a long line of superstar players who have either been linked to or were caught taking performance-enhancing drugs.

The list includes Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens and Rafael Palmeiro — all surefire Hall of Famers prior to the BALCO performance-enhancing drug scandal in 2003.

With 533 career home runs, Ramirez has the qualification that should one day land him the Hall of Fame, but as McGwire learned, simply being associated with performance-enhancing drugs can do irreparable damage a player's career.

McGwire hit 583 homers, yet has been passed over by Hall of Fame voters the last two seasons.

"It calls into question what Ramirez has done in his career," said CBC Sports analyst Elliotte Friedman.

"He's one of the greatest hitters of his generation and now people are going to look at it and say, 'Can I believe what this guy has accomplished?' There's a danger now that he goes down with Rafael Palmeiro or maybe Mark McGwire as a guy who should be a Hall of Famer based on the numbers, but because of the link that he used performance-enhancing drugs, he may not now."

Ramirez says a medication given by his physician — and not a steroid — resulted in the positive test.

Regardless of his explanation, he may pay a bigger price than Bonds, Clemens or McGwire. Even with overwhelming circumstantial evidence, those three stars never tested positive for steroids.

"That's why this is different," said Friedman. "In Ramirez's case, he has a positive drug test. Those other guys never were suspended. The fact is he is caught … there is a link there that doesn't exist with Clemens, McGwire or Bonds, though most people believe all three of them were using."

Ramirez will endure the same scrutiny Alex Rodriguez is currently facing. The Yankees third baseman admitted in February to using steroids when he was playing for the Texas Rangers in 2001-03.

A soon-to-be released book alleges Rodriguez also used steroids when he was a highly touted high-school player, and he was also suspected of using performance-enhancing drugs while playing for the Yankees.

Rodriguez, who's missed all of this season to this point following hip surgery, is close to returning to New York's lineup.

Ramirez, meanwhile, is scheduled to come back in early July, when he can expect a herd of reporters to follow his every move.

"People believe Manny isn't bothered by anything," said Friedman. "In Boston, they called him a hitting savant. He was never bothered [by the distractions], and there were a lot of distractions around him, whether it was his behaviour on or off the field. He could always hit, though.

"He was amazing like that and his focus was incredible. But now that's going to be tested too."