Manny Being Manny

Because he’s one of his and any generation’s’ greatest right-hand hitters, Manny Ramirez has been cut plenty of slack over the years for his “quirky” behavior.

From cutting off Johnny Damon’s relay throw and hiding out in the Green Monster scoreboard to bullying the Bosox traveling secretary and ultimately dogging it against the Yankees, which finally forced his way out of Beantown, much of his boorish behavior was sloughed off as indulgences of Manny being Manny.

Now, that legacy includes a 50-game suspension for a banned substance, HCG, a women’s fertility drug that Jose Canseco was busted for bringing into the States from Mexico. The party line from Manny, the Dodgers, MLB and agent Scott Boras sloughed off the transgression on a doctor’s prescription for a medical issue that violated the league’s banned substance list.

Maybe it was sartorial, too: as in Manny didn’t want to refashion a ballplayer’s lingerie by forking over any of his $25 million salary to buy new jocks and cups for the 2009 season. (And just maybe, that’s why Boras couldn’t muster much of a free-agent market for him beyond the McCourt family.)

Actually, Manny’s timing is pretty good: Alex Rodriguez is returning to the New York Yankees lineup in Baltimore tonight after hip surgery and copping to taking PEDs in the wake of Selena Roberts’ book. Boo-birds and folks from MLB’s office will get to gauge A-Roid’s performance, or lack thereof, on the field, taking some of the shadow and shame off of Manny.

In the meantime, the Dodgers –whose MLB record-setting 13-0 home start crashed to the lowly Washington Nationals last night in his absence — will miss Ramirez’s .348 average, 6 dingers and 20 ribbies in the lineup until July 3.

In the wake of yesterday’s news, the Dodgers were forced to shutter its “Mannytown” promotion — a pair of tickets and two Manny T-shirts for $99. LA will also take a hit on extra ticket, concession and merchandise sales. Not sure, though, given West Coast fashion sensibilities that there won’t be even more demand in Lala land for dreadlock wigs in his absence — the Dodgers sold 6,000 since Ramirez’s arrival last July.

On TV, the hit is likely to be minimal. Despite Manny leading the Dodgers to an upset of the Chicago Cubs in the NL playoffs last year and MLB’s best start in 2009, Prime Ticket’s ratings have climbed just 6% to a 1.8 in the LA DMA through the early stages of the current campaign, versus last year.

Typically, Dodgers games average between a 1.8 and a 2.0 on the RSN.