Brian Kamenetzky: There’s no blind loyalty for fans and Manny
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He’s not quite back, but might as well be. And with his return, we’ll likely be treated to bouts of moralizing on the part of writers and TV analysts, chastising fans for not chastising him enough, for cheering rather than treating left field like its own private leper colony.
“He,” of course, is Manny Ramirez, who today will play his last game with the Single-A Inland Empire 66ers ahead of his much-anticipated July 3rd return to active duty with the Dodgers. Many writers and commentators, including the LAT’s Bill Plaschke, wonder how LA fans will sit in Mannywood and bask in his dread-locked glory? Don’t they realize what he did? That he cheated the game and cheated them?
Yes, yes, and yes.
Don’t they care?
Yes, for the most part, but not in the way those scribes and commentators might like.
Manny’s suspension was a shock, but few believe he, A-Rod, or the guys in the Mitchell Report are the only players on the field who took something. Most assume that a healthy percentage of today’s “clean” players aren’t, or at some point weren’t. As a group, fans processed and compartmentalized the steroid era a long time ago. They don’t condone, but accepted the reality and have moved on.
What’s the other option?
Fundamentally, people go to games because it’s a good time. They want to get out to the park, be in the crowd, see their team, have a hot dog and a beer. They go precisely to avoid the truly important, life-altering issues dealt with in everyday life. It’s nine innings of release (plus BP if they can get there early enough). Despite so many reasons to be cynical, from steroids to players who too often seem not to appreciate either their talent or their salaries, sports are still an escape, and a place to go where things can still be relatively simple. If the product is worth supporting, fans will show up and use the same suspension of disbelief they do when heading to the movies.
The other option is simply not to go. The entire era is tainted, and while we all hope the game truly is in the process of cleaning itself up, given how the makers of performance enhancers have always stayed ahead of the testers, nobody can really be sure. That leaves a choice to either accept it and buy a ticket or don’t and stay home.
People have chosen the former, because the experience outweighs the outrage. By a fair margin, it seems. ‘I don’t think I’m cheering for [Manny], I’m cheering for the Dodgers,’ says fan Scott Willens in Plaschke’s Sunday column. ‘I love baseball, and I love the Dodgers, and so I cheer for them all.’
Bingo. The loyalty fans have is ultimately to the game, team, and the ballpark experience.
There’s nothing blind about it.
-- Brian Kamenetzky
Top photo: Manny Ramirez plays left field in a minor league game with the Inland Empire 66ers on Sunday. Credit: Christine Cotter / Los Angeles Times