grodt
Manny was one of the best right-handed hitters of my lifetime and of all time. You don't hit a baseball like he did without being insanely talented. I'm not sure when he started using PEDs but in 1998 he was 26. That's when many players enter their primes. His numbers didn't take an extreme hike, just as much as you'd expect from a great player hitting his prime. Really his numbers seem to follow a normal arc until maybe 2006 or 2008.
Here's a story Orlando Cabrera told to Jordan Bastian about Manny.
“He’d be the first person you’d see watching the videos,” Cabrera said. “He’d just watch them quiet, like he didn’t want anybody watching him studying the pitchers.”
Once in New York, Cabrera saw Ramirez studying Yankees pitcher Mike Mussina. Ramirez was not watching his at-bats, though. Instead, he was breaking down at-bats of other No. 3 hitters who faced Mussina that season. Curious about the approach, Cabrera asked Ramirez about his plan.
“I said, ‘Hey, what are you going to do?’” Cabrera recalled. “He goes, ‘Second at-bat, third pitch, I’m going to hit a curveball. Home run.’ He goes, ‘Dont tell anybody.’”
On Sept. 24, 2004, Ramirez strolled to the plate against Mussina in the third inning. He only saw two pitches in his first at-bat of the game. The next pitch released by Mussina sailed out of Fenway Park for a two-run home run.
“Third pitch. Breaking ball. Boom,” Cabrera said. “I was like, ‘That’s why I cant be like you. That’s incredible.’ I tell that story and people don’t believe it. I saw it.”
No one knows but Manny...but 1998 and on looks fishy.