The positive test came just two years after he was suspended for 50 games for the use of a substance banned in the same way. That suspension is the result of a positive test in spring training as did the leading today to retire.
Due to the suspension of 2009, Ramirez was subject to further testing and a more severe sentence for another offence of drug. But, despite the increased risks, Ramirez, who is now 39 and has signed a one year contract at the shoulder with the Tampa Bay Rays, has proven to have used an again prohibited substance.
Ramirez retirement came on the same day as another famous batter, Barry Bonds, was awaiting a verdict in his perjury trial with a jury to San Francisco to come to a conclusion about whether he lied in 2003 when he declared that he used never knowingly steroids.
Ramirez and obligations were contemporary, the two left fielders for the Hall of Fame, until they became linked to drugs. While the major League Baseball has made recent progress in cracking down on the use of steroids, that Ramirez and obligations were both unwelcome headlines Friday stressed that the issue of drugs in baseball has hardly disappeared.
The baseball drug testing program, Ramirez will need to use 100 - game suspension if he changes his mind and decides that he wants to play again. But Ramirez legendary offensive production has dropped significantly since the positive test of 2009 has been released - it was just 1 to 17 at the plate this season and hit just 9 home runs in 2010 - and it seems unlikely that any team would like to lure him in uniform.
Ramirez, who was born in Dominican Republic and high School in Manhattan, was chosen in the first round of the draft by the Cleveland Indians 1991. He made his debut in major league, 21 is quickly established as a hitter of power which could also hit for average.
But he has also created an image of himself as an eccentric player who could be almost unconscious of what was going on around him - in the clubhouse, with certainty, but sometimes it seems that in the field and on sax.
After the 2000 season, he signed a $ 160 million, eight year contract with the Boston Red Sox. It was then, in 2003, that it is hung with newly signed free agent David Ortiz to form the most fearsome mid range baseball.
The combination of Ramirez-Ortiz helped propel the Red Sox to the title of champion of the world series in 2004, putting an end to a drought of 86 years. Three years later, the two sluggers helped Boston capture another title.
But, in 2008, Ramirez began to act after the Red Sox showed no interest in signing an extension in the long term. In criticism widespread of his behaviour, he forced Boston to trade him to the Dodgers in July, where he hit. 396 for the rest of the season and led the team in the National League Championship series.
After this season, the Dodgers the reward with a multi-year contract. But training in the next spring, a urine sample, he tested positive, but it was technically suspended for 50 games due to the medical literature showing that he had taken a banned drug fertility linked to steroids.
Two months later, the New York Times reported that he and Ortiz were among the players about 100 which tested positive for drugs improving performance during anonymous testing that baseball conducted in 2003.
Friday, Ramirez was not around cloakroom of rays to address the media. But in Boston, Ortiz was forced to settle the positive test of his former teammate, a battle once there with.
"If you play with Manny Ramirez, I guarantee that you will watch a guy working hard, a guy who tried to do better every day," said Ortiz. "He gets his questions as many people know, but as a player, he did what he was supposed to do.
The rays and Red Sox mutually has played in spring training, and in these games, Ortiz said, Ramirez was"in better shape I've ever seen."
But that Ramirez is now gone, with its 555 home runs, his two rings, his Silver Slugger award, its title of champion 2002 batting, World Series Most Valuable Player 2004 price and very damaged reputation.
Tyler Kepner contributed reporting from Boston.
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