Dear Commissioner Selig,

I am a huge Dodgers fan.  I was born and raised in Southern California and I bleed Dodger Blue.  As a Dodgers fan, naturally I have gone through many emotions in the past few days since news has come out about Manny Ramirez being banned from baseball for 50 games due to a failed drug test.  I was in shock after being woken up at 5:45 AM HST by a friend's text message simply saying, "I always knew manny was a cheater."  I went to my computer and typed in 'espn.com' and was flabbergasted to see Manny's face plastered on the front page with the title "Banned 50 Games for Failing a Drug Test."  I couldn't believe it.  Just the night before I was elated and overjoyed as I wrote in my journal about how the Dodgers had just set a new MLB record for most home wins to start off a season. Chad Billingsley was 5-0.  The O-Dawg was playing All-star ball.  Broxton had established himself as one of the game's elite closers.  Ethier and Kemp were really starting to turn it on.  The Dodgers were on fire!  They had the biggest run-differential of any team in the Majors, and were doing so with one of the best offenses and pitching staffs in the league.  Well, I was right about one thing: they were definitely on fire, though not in a good way.

After the shock and denial (and hope), the sadness came next.  I felt betrayed and hurt by what had happened.  And not just Manny, but every player that had ever disgraced the game by seeking their own self interests over their teams'.  Barry.  Clemens.Conseco.  A-Rod.  Who knows how many more people?  And that's just the thing: we don't know.  A ton of good players that've played in the past 15 - 20 years now have a shadows of doubt over their accomplishments. When a player hits a sudden wall, instead of saying, "His prime is passed," we now wonder, "Was he on steroids?"  That's not right.  It shouldn't be like that.  How long will it be before we stop thinking like that?  How irreparable is the damage that they've caused?

A prime example of this is David Ortiz. Prior to the 2003 season, his career high in homeruns was 20.  Then he went to Boston, ironically where Manny Ramirez was at the time, and suddenly his homerun total from 2003 to 2007 was 31, 41, 47, 54, and 35, respectively.  His drop-off from 54 to 35 is considerable, but we gave him a pass since he was still tearing the leather off the ball.  But then last season he only hit 23 homeruns, and now this season through 116 at-bats he has yet to hit a homerun.  Instead of appreciating what he did in Boston through all those phenomenal years, I now wonder, "Did him and Manny team up in more ways than one in Boston?" Manny and all his cronies really have destroyed the respect and goodness of baseball.

With that being said, fifty games is not enough. What's even more ridiculous is the fact that he still gets more chances to mess up.  When he comes back, he can take steroids again, get caught, serve out his suspension of 100 games, and still come back and play more baseball.  Can you imagine the outcry from the public if this would happen.  These men have ruined baseball.  It will take years, nay, decades before baseball ever starts to return to what it was before. Why would you still want these men to be associated with our beloved National Pastime?  All that can come to my mind is greed.  Why else would you still want them in this sport except to continue to make money off of them?

What further confuses me is how you can have the gall to continue to uphold the ban on Peter "Charlie Hustle" Rose for life from baseball, yet these steroid-taking players get multiple chances?!  Where is your reason?  Regardless of whether or not one agrees with Pete Rose's ban from baseball, how can you possibly view taking steroids as anything less than gambling?  Do they not both destroy the game's integrity? Do they not both ruin baseball's reputation and the trust that people around the world placed in it?

I am a huge Dodgers fan.  This will not change despite Manny's actions.  I was a Dodgers fan before him and I will continue to be a Dodgers fan without him.  You and Major League Baseball have come a looong way in addressing and taking care of the steroid problem in this sport.  But you're not out of the woods yet.  Do not allow the Hall of Fame Committee members to be the sole issuers of justice  by informally colluding to deny admission to steroid-rumored players.  The responsibility lies with you. It really pains me to say this, but if you ever want to fully regain the trust of baseball fans around the world, every player who fails a drug test one time must be banned for life from Major League Baseball. That's just the way things need to be.

Sincerely,

A Concerned Baseball Fan