SAN DIEGO - Manny Ramírez will be back in the big leagues tonight after a 50-game suspension for violating baseball’s drug policy. His return should be nothing short of a spectacle.
It’ll be the start of the Fourth of July weekend, and thousands of blue-clad Los Angeles Dodgers fans are expected to be at sold-out Petco Park to support the dreadlocked slugger in the opener of a three-game series against the San Diego Padres.
Harry the Heckler will be there, too.
“Oh, it’s going to be a lot of fun,’’ said Harry Maker, who for years has been ragging on opponents from his seat in left field. “I am not going to let up all weekend long.’’
Ramírez’s ban was based on evidence he used human chorionic gonadotropin, a fertility drug that’s banned by baseball, a person familiar with the suspension told the Associated Press after the suspension was announced May 7, speaking on condition of anonymity because those details were not released.
HCG is popular among steroid users because it can mitigate the side effects of ending a cycle of the drugs.
Ramírez, who playfully said, “I’m baaaaack!’’ after re-signing with the Dodgers during spring training, largely avoided reporters during his minor league rehab assignment.
When he visited Dodger Stadium in early June, he said he was ready to move on and didn’t want to be a distraction.
“I didn’t kill nobody, I didn’t rape nobody, so that’s it, I’m just going to come and play the game,’’ Ramírez said.
“Manny’s used to distractions, anyway, but I think the players will be happy to have him back and I think they understand what goes with that,’’ Dodgers manager Joe Torre said Wednesday.
Regardless of how Ramírez does at the plate, Padres fans will boo and Dodgers fans will cheer.
San Diego has provided several footnotes during the steroid era.
Padres fans loved to hate Barry Bonds, who routinely punished San Diego pitchers during his pursuit of Hank Aaron’s record.
Bonds is under federal indictment and says he never knowingly used performance-enhancing drugs.
Bonds tied Hammerin’ Hank’s record of 755 at Petco Park Aug. 4, 2007, when he homered off righthander Clay Hensley. Two years earlier, Hensley was one of four Padres farmhands who were suspended for 15 games for using performance-enhancing substances.
In April 2006, a fan tossed a syringe near Bonds as he came off the field in between innings at Petco Park. The syringe apparently did not have a needle. Bonds picked it up with his glove.
In 2002, Ken Caminiti told Sports Illustrated he used steroids during his MVP season in 1996 with the Padres. He estimated half the players in the big leagues were using them.
Caminiti died in October 2004 of a drug overdose at age 41.
