When blue is in fashion.

If you have paid any sort of attention to Heidi Klum in the last ten years, you know that "one day you are in, and the next you are out." Granted, the supermodel is touting her famous phrase describing fashion and its designers and purveyors, but the tag line still makes so much sense to the world of sports.

I was just reading a horrendously sad article about Los Angeles' once beloved outfielder and slugger, Manny Ramirez. The 41-year old returned from China this year to attempt playing baseball in America again, only to sign a minor-league contract with the Texas Rangers. Unfortunately for Manny, he's only batting .250 (compared to a season-finishing .396 in 2008) with just three home runs and nine RBIs this season (compared to 37 and 121, respectively, in 2008), and shows little hope of playing in the majors again.

I remember the day Manny came to LA. It was July 31st, 2008. It was a little overcast, and really hot. My friend and I were walking up to the stadium and just sweating like hogs. For the first time I can clearly remember, there were big lit up signs on the roads leading up to Dodgers Stadium. They said, "GAME SOLD OUT." I couldn't tell you the last time that had happened.

The crowd was electric. There were lights flashing everywhere from Dodger fans new and old taking photos as Manny made his way to home plate for his first at-bat. Everyone chanted MANNY, MANNY in unison. The Dodgers didn't win that game, but it didn't matter. The fever for Manny Ramirez spread like wildfire. Signs went up all over town with the new #99 player plastered about. Elysian Park was suddenly dubbed Mannywood. The entire team stepped up and started playing like never before.

That was one the best seasons of baseball that I watched with the Dodgers. I'll never forget it. I'll always thank Manny for that season, in some way.

There's no need to discuss the demise of Manny in the MLB. It's all too common anymore, anyway.

But it makes me think: how many more Mannys will the Dodgers have? The MLB? And how many will go down as legends that we know and love forever? How many will retain a legacy untarnished? And how many will end up as a 41-year old playing terrible ball in the minor leagues while the rest of us joke about it on the internet?

As I watch the Puig-Mania already start to tease at a backlash as his insane hitting streak starts to fizzle, I want to remember that we love this game, and this game isn't about a player. It's about a team and a community. Take the good with the good, and take the bad as a team. I want to watch my favorite team succeed over and over again. Who doesn't?

But I don't want to disregard those who have come in and out like a flash of lightning when they contributed so much to our game at some point. And sometimes those contributions were not even on the field. So, no matter what happens next for any of these guys, they still created such special and memorable moments for us on the field. I know that I will cherish many of those moments forever, and I look forward to many more.

"With lies you may go ahead in the world, but you can never go back."

I guess I feel somewhat obligated to comment on the suspension of Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun, so here goes...

First of all, I'm not surprised by this at all. Following an intense appeal against prior accusations of doping brought against him, the investigation bore on rather viciously. Had Braun and his all-star companions come clean about their affiliations with the southern Florida clinic long ago, this wouldn't look as pathetically damaging as it does now. Now faced with "mountains of evidence" proving Braun is linked to Biogenesis, he takes the so-called high road and eats his 65-game unpaid suspension, and is suddenly commended for it.

Second, MLB, this is embarrassing. Braun is not a hero for being forced to admit his guilt. He got caught red handed. He was in the corner with nowhere else to go. How many times did he aggressively state his innocence and how violated he was in the last two years since this all began? Are we going to forget that he somehow weaseled his way out of this once before, while damning those investigating him?

Now, unable to find any sort of loophole to escape this time, he admits that he is only human. He also makes mistakes.

And our response is, 'what a great guy,' and 'we can't wait to have him back?'

So, our role models can cheat, lie, get caught, apologize for it, and it's all good? Is that the message the MLB is sending by patting him on the back for this?

Quite frankly, he should be ashamed of himself and so should the organizations that are not publicly shaming him for being such a giant crock of shit. I'd suggest the other players to come clean sooner rather than later before you look like bigger toolbags than Braun does right now.

On my soapbox.

I was going to refrain from writing anything on the Zimmerman/Martin case, but my incessant tweeting about it is probably getting excessive at this point. I have an opinion. I may as well blurt it out like the rest of the internet.

Whether or not one agrees with the verdict of this tragic case or not (I certainly don't), it brings up a much bigger issue in this country that should have been eradicated in 1776 when we declared our independence. But it wasn't. We held men and women of color in slavery to serve us until 1865. In 1964, America decided that the color of a person's skin no longer mattered, and had zero basis for judgement.

I can not lie and say I've never walked home alone late at night and had an inkling of fear in seeing some "thugged out" men in my vicinity. It has been engrained in our culture that men of a certain color and certain dress are up to no good. They're robbers, rapists, and generally violent. They deal drugs and steal cars. They're all the same. It's in the media. It's in our upbringing...in America.

I lived in Oakland as a teenager, and I was driving through a West Oakland warehouse district for band practice one night. I was probably 18 years old. I was stopped at a red light when a police car pulled along side my car. The office asked me what I was doing. I told him I was waiting for the light to change. He told me to just drive through it because I wasn't safe just sitting there abiding the law. In case you are wondering, yes, the officer was a white male.

It wasn't until I was well into adulthood that my father told me about my family history. My grandmother was adopted into the colored side of the family. Being biracial in the 30s was not acceptable, and her white family gave her up to the black side. I never knew this detail about my grandmother growing up, and it never crossed my mind that some of my family had darker skin than me. Most of my family would actually tease me for being so fair. When my father finally told us about our black side of the family, we shrugged it off like it was no big deal. We're a multi-racial bunch...whatever.

Young people growing up in the melting pot of cultures that is southern California, I had ethnic neighbors. Black, hispanic, Indian, Asian. They were people we said hi to on the street. They came to birthday parties. We rode bikes and went to the park. We were friends. We were human. So, the news of my family also being ethnic did nothing to arouse me.

It just meant nothing to me. It didn't make me better or worse. I think my dad thought it might have meant something to us, but he grew up in a different time.

People want to pretend that this is not about race, but I beg to differ. I'm well traveled in this country, and I would go as far to say that most of it is still racist. Cities are still segregated by design, even if the law doesn't allow the enforcement of it. Many Americans are still outwardly racist and ignorant. Those that aren't just pretend that it's not an issue or live in some segregated community where they don't have to be bothered with people of color.

To say that George Zimmerman did not look at Trayvon Martin, racially profile him, follow him even after he was told not to by emergency operators, and then shoot him because he mistook a pack of skittles for a weapon is absurd. This was an act of racism. This was an act of ignorance. Maybe Trayvon did fight back in the wake of being followed by a stranger. We'll never know the details. But tonight a racist man walks free because a racist jury could not see that George Zimmerman did anything wrong by shooting and killing an unarmed teenager because that teenager was a black male.

The message that jury sent to the rest of the country says that Trayvon Martin must have been doing something wrong because he is a young, black male. The message that jury sent to the rest of the country was that it is okay to shoot a black person because they make us feel unsafe. The message that jury sent to the rest of the country is that we are still so deep-rooted in racism.

America, the free....

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. - United States Declaration of Independence; July 4, 1776