Manny reactions mixed

It seems that with the Padres current 4th place standing in the NL West, the fans have also lost their desire to give steroid users an absolutely harsh reception. Several years ago when the Padres were contending for the NL West (during the Bruce Bochy era) every time Barry Bonds came to town, there were clearly more boos than the mix of boos and cheers that greeted Marry Roid-mirez. I remember seeing games where Bonds was greeted with asterisks made of syringes, signs saying "Ruth did it with hot dogs and beers," and even an inflated syringe thrown onto left field at PETCO Park while being manned by Bonds.

But after two games of hosting Manny and the Dodgers, Padres fan have yet to do anything of the sort. Maybe its because half of the 45,000 capacity PETCO Park is filled with Dodgers fans who made the 2-hour drive down or "Manny being Manny" is accepted as an explanation of the 50-game suspension. I'll chose to go with the former and say that the Dodgers fan filled stadium have continued to embrace the man that declares himself “one of the best players to put on a uniform.” A statement which I will disagree with, as great as he is statistically, he has never and will never be a great outfielder, on top of having never won the MVP award, oh and who could forget, the 'roids.

I hope the Padres fan will step it up and give the fans in attendance during Sunday's game a better idea of what they think of Manny and his cheating. Either that or Dodgers fan will stop cheering for Manny because he's one of their own. Because almost all baseball fans know that they did not treat Barry Bonds with the same kind of love everytime he came to Dodger Stadium. As soon as Manny chooses to bolt for Cleveland or another city for a bigger contract, I'm sure Dodger fans will change the way they praise him, just as his welcome has worn out in Boston, a true baseball town. Dodger fans should be ashame of themselves for cheering their own cheater while booing every other cheater not in a Dodgers uniform. In my opinon, every cheater should be treated the same way. I guess we'll see how baseball fans actually view players who choose to use a little something extra once Manny and the Dodgers go to New York.