Ramirez deserves a one-way ticket out of Mannywood

The best and brightest neighborhood in the Los Angeles sports landscape is a very different place today.

Mannywood has officially gone to hell.

The giddy streets are lined in shadows. The colorful houses are painted in lies. The friendly shops are stocked with juice.

The mayor is a drug cheat.

Manny Ramirez dropped a bomb on Mannywood on Thursday, leveling the Dodgers' spirit, stripping the Dodgers' psyche, and blowing up the Dodgers' safe.

He has been suspended for 50 games after testing positive for a banned substance, but it could be 500 games for all I care.

"You have to remember, there's still a human being behind this thing," said Manager Joe Torre.

Yeah, a selfish knucklehead of a human being who can no longer be trusted.

The Dodgers can't build their team on fakery. They can't march to a championship behind a charlatan. They can't fall for his act again.

I would love for them to release him at the end of the suspension, but the major league drug agreement prevents them from exacting further punishment.

I would love for them to release him at the end of the season, but that would cost them $20 million, and no owner could consider that worth it.

The Dodgers can't trash him, so they must try to recycle him.

If Manny stays, Manny sweats. If Manny stays, he must face his various constituents with truthfulness and transparency, answering all questions about steroid use, a four-step program.

He must come clean for the media who will relay his message to the fans who he has turned to suckers.

He must come clean to teammates he turned into fools.

He must come clean to the front office he robbed, owner Frank McCourt and General Manager Ned Colletti, offering sincere apologies followed by sincere explanations.

Finally, he must take this truth to the streets, becoming the Dodgers' anti-steroid spokesman for kids who listen.

"I'd like for all of baseball to start fresh," Colletti said. "We can't all start fresh until we all start clean."

This wasn't happening Thursday because Ramirez skipped town, leaving the organization he supposedly loves to shovel up his mess.

Yeah, it's going to be a long 50 games. But, no, I won't say I told you so.

In earlier columns I warned the Dodgers against giving Ramirez a long-term deal because of his potential for combustion, but I never thought he would be suspended for something like this.