A discussion of “God” and anabolic steroids has curiously interjected itself into the recent retirement of Manny Ramirez from baseball. Ramirez decided to retire rather than face a 100-game suspension resulting from a violation of Major League Baseball’s anti-steroid policy.
Ramirez kicked off the discussion of God and steroids when he told ESPN Deportes in an interview that he was comfortable with the recent events in his life since “God knows what’s best (for me).”
This led Brad Greenberg of Get Religion to question the role of anabolic steroids in God’s plan for Manny Ramirez. Greenberg also criticized major newspapers for their failure to pursue the God and steroids angle:
I’m not sure how steroids figure into God’s plan. […]
Most papers seem to have picked up the AP story — from the SF Chronicle to the Wall Street Journal — but other original reports also failed to mention what Manny meant by mentioning God. […]
Look, I know it’s not a story when Albert Pujols touches home plate and points to heaven (though that hasn’t happened much yet this season). But it requires a bit of reporter explanation when one of the greatest players of a generation retires and blames his bad decisions on God.
USA Today highlighted Manny’s God quote in an article entitled “Manny Ramirez saw ‘God’s plan’ in steroids” on their Faith & Reason blog:
Manny Ramirez, the baseball star who evidently never met a drug test he couldn’t fail, says steroids were just God’s plan for him.
Former Houston Astros baseball player Morgan Ensberg also saw the God angle in Ramirez’ retirement but clearly would have disagreed that steroids were part of God’s plan. Instead, Morgan Ensberg believed that God’s plan (at least for Ensberg) involved natural talent and not steroids. “Manny, your actions have reminded me how thankful I am that God blessed me with the natural ability to play in the Big Leagues,” wrote Ensberg in a blog post dedicated to Ramirez.
Who would have predicted that Manny Ramirez (of all people) would inspire a discussion of God and steroids?!
Photo credit: by SoxyLady / flickr
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