My prevailing take on Manny Ramirez‘ departure thanks to a drug ban? As much as anyone getting caught gives baseball a black eye, it does prove that the sport’s drug policy — the toughest in sports, please remember — works. It doesn’t play favorites and there is no wiggle room. You wander from the rules, don’t bother getting a health-related waiver and you’re gone, no matter who you are. Also, as I write this morning, the two New York teams have to be breathing a sigh of relief this morning, and Joel Sherman says, flatly, what would we say if A-Rod tried to put this lame excuse over on us, as Manny has.

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He wasn’t as visible a culprit as Isiah Thomas was, and he wasn’t near the day-to-day problem that James Dolan was during the worst of the past eight Knick years, but Steve Mills was still very much part of the Garden culture — and thus very much part of the problem — and really did need to go before the Knicks could truly move completely forward. Sometimes, even smart guys get caught up in dump situations, so here is hoping things work out better for him with Magic Johnson.