Are Steroids the Breaking Point for Manny Ramirez?

Back when Manny Ramirez played for the Boston Red Sox, he was very forgivable for the misdeeds and quirks that came with his package, but is that forgiving factor beginning to diminish?

We seemed to laugh off his defensive play, or lack thereof. He couldn't play left field whatsoever, as many college players could probably play the position much better than Manny could. He proved to be one of the worst left fielders in Major League Baseball year in and year out, but we seemed to just ignore it and say things like, "Oh that's just Manny being Manny." That just doesn't make sense though. Why should someone be allowed to have inferior abilities when everybody else in the sport gets criticized for an inferior ability? It just simply does not make sense that there is one player who is exempt from this rule.

His off-field antics were also ignored. It seemed that he did not take the game 100% serious and only played when he wanted to play. He even walked off the field during an inning and went into the Green Monster, the left field fence at Fenway Park, to use the restrooms. He didn't take the game as serious as everybody else did and always seemed to have his mind elsewhere, but coaches, fans, and analysts alike all let it go because of his superior hitting abilities.

Though this has been true for his prior work in his career, it seems as though the steroids issue surrounding Manny Ramirez has completely rid himself of the entire "Manny being Manny" issue. His decisions to use steroids, then recooperate from it by taking female testosterone, has lessened the opinion of him from being a future Hall of Famer to becoming another run of the mill baseball player that took steroids to gain an advantage.

So is taking steroids the breaking point for fans? Players such as Rafael Palmeiro, Jose Canseco, Barry Bonds, and other formerly famous and highly regarded players have been completely disregarded by the general public. Alex Rodriguez has been the poster boy for the hate for steroids in baseball. It was widely accepted that he would without a doubt become a Hall of Famer one day, but the instant that there was a serious allegation of steroid use, his popularity level plummeted. Does this mean that Manny Ramirez will lose most of the respect he gained throughout his career? Probably. Taking steroids ruins your body and reputation in all aspects of life, but in baseball, steroids will completely dismiss any respect they have accrued in their careers.