Spring Loaded

The banners are being hung, the spotlight is being focused and the seats are being polished.

Mannywood is about to be reopened.

The way the Dodgers are welcoming Manny Ramirez back, you’d think he was returning from the war in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Or a life-threatening injury.

Instead, it’s from a 50-game suspension by Major League Baseball. Ramirez was punished for possessing a prescription for HCG, a female fertility drug, coupled with a drug test that, according to the Los Angeles Times, showed an elevated synthetic testosterone level, leading to the conclusion that Ramirez may have taken steroids.

Ramirez didn’t appeal that conclusion, telling the media, “I didn’t kill nobody. I didn’t rape nobody, so that’s it.”

That’s it, indeed.

While the news that Alex Rodriguez had used performance-enhancing drugs was greeted with mostly anger and scorn around the country, and even some embarrassment in New York, Ramirez is being ushered back in with all the enthusiasm that greeted him when he first arrived last summer.

He had sailed in followed by a wake of horror stories about his final days in Boston, stories about bad behavior and a bad attitude that had even caused some teammates to happily escort him to the door.

That was ignored in Los Angeles from the moment Manny first squared up bat and ball. He responded by putting his teammates on his back and carrying them into the playoffs and all the way to the National League Championship Series, invigorating a struggling, feuding franchise.

As for his past sins, that, said his new best friends, was just Manny being Manny.

Even a sometimes ugly off-season and preseason in which Manny dug his cleats in and held out for a long-term contract were dismissed as, again, Manny being Manny.

All was again forgiven when he finally signed with the Dodgers, just as all is being forgiven now upon his return.

So dust off the dreadlocks, break out the jerseys and let the partying begin.

But what if Manny can no longer be Manny?

Whatever he may have been taking, he was doing so for a purpose. If he was on something, was that the reason his production remained so spectacular? If he is no longer on anything, could that cause a dramatic decline in his numbers?

We have all witnessed players balloon physically during the height of the steroid era only to just as noticeably shrink as baseball’s microscope focused in on the problem.

In his recent absence, Manny celebrated his 37th birthday. Even in his prime, he didn’t exactly look like a bodybuilder.

Don’t be surprised if Manny comes back looking like only a shell of his former self. Be forewarned that, if there were performance-enhancing drugs involved, his performance could be seriously affected without them.

And then what?

Manny is supposed to return to left field, replacing Juan Pierre, who, in Manny’s absence, had one of the hottest bats in the league for a while.

What if Manny can’t match those numbers?

He comes back to the team with the best record in baseball, a team that hasn’t exactly suffered in his absence. What if it suffers upon his return?

If Manny is not Manny on the field, will they still love him in Mannywood? Or in the front office? Will it be enough just to have not killed or raped anybody?

Everybody seems willing to look the other way as long as the hits keep coming.

But if those hits no longer fall, watch out. The foreclosure notices will go up in Mannywood and the dreadlock caps will go in the trash.

Remember how reliever Eric Gagne was the toast of L.A.? Remember how quickly he was forgotten after he was named on the Mitchell report about performance-enhancing drugs?

Manny being Manny? Priceless.

Manny no longer able to be Manny? Useless.