Diamondbacks manager Gibson blasts Cabrera, cheating in baseball

Kirk Gibson’s Arizona Diamondbacks are no strangers to performance enhancing drugs.

While they have not had players who use them or have been caught using them, they’ve certainly been victimized by those who have.

Whether it was Manny Ramirez with the Dodgers in 2008, Ryan Braun in last year’s NLDS or Melky Cabrera this season, the D-backs certainly have reason to be upset.

And wouldn’t you know it, Gibson is.

“Part of me says that alright, enough already,” he said before his team’s game Wednesday. “We’ve made a commitment to stopping that type of activity and we still, from time to time, find people are still trying to fool the system.”

Cabrera was suspended 50 games Wednesday after testing positive for testosterone, putting an end to a season in which he was batting .346. The number is well-above his career average, so it’s difficult not to believe cheating helped him.

And he’s certainly hurt the D-backs this season, hitting .462 with two home runs, six RBI and eight runs scored in nine games against Arizona.

“I think they should consider a much stricter penalty,” Gibson added. “I can say that certainly the majority of the people up here in this game care about the integrity of the game, we all committed to that, cleaning it up.

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