He just returned to his home park Thursday and I’m officially sick of the Manny Ramirez love fest already. Hey, folks in Mannywood: He cheated. Put that fact under your fake dreadlocks and ponder it.

There’s been unabashed love for Ramirez at both the stadiums of the Dodgers’ farm teams and in Chavez Ravine itself. Dodgers fans are certainly desperate for success with no World Series appearances since 1988 and MannybeingManny made them hip again last summer.

But it’s been interesting to see how there just isn’t the backlash with Ramirez while most other players caught cheating (see A-Rod and No. 25, ex of San Francisco) got properly crushed by fans on the road. And in A-Rod’s case, there’s been some lukewarm treatment at home.

Ramirez’s minor league games were an absolute circus, with the Dodgers sending souvenir dreads to Albuquerque because fans were so enthusiastic about rushing through the gates and buying up souvenirs. Even Bud Selig admitted last week at the All-Star Game that baseball needs to change the rules and not allow players on performance-enhancing drug suspensions to play minor league rehab games until their bans are up.

Ramirez missed 50 major league games but was playing baseball several days before the 50 games were up. He should have to sit for 50 big league games and then start his rehab. If that means he misses 55 or 56 while he gets ready, so be it. That will have to be negotiated into the next collective bargaining agreement.

Let’s assume Ramirez is his usual self at the plate for the rest of the season. The Dodgers will be a big favorite to get to the World Series (although a Phillies deal for Roy Halladay would have a major say in that). The fans will shower him with adulation. The whole thing is a little odd. I guess all that quirkiness can get you a pass in the court of public opinion.

More Mets messes

Don’t want to be an I-told-you- so type but I’m going to be anyway. I said last week on the Inside Pitch blog that the disabled list stint of former Bison Fernando Martinez for a “sore knee” was almost sure to turn into surgery for the 20- year-old. Sure enough, he had a meniscus procedure done last week and will be out six-to-eight weeks.

The Mets continue to have players try to play through injuries and then decide they need long-term solutions. Same thing for Carlos Delgado, Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran and J. J. Putz.

There’s no excuse for such blatant mishandling of top talent. There’s plenty of talk that the players association is checking into how the Mets are fumbling. There’s other chatter that Beltran is furious how his bad knee was handled.

Are the Mets forcing the doctors to tell players to go back on the field hurt? Are the doctors and trainers just incompetent? Yet another mess in Flushing.

Mitre gets call

The Yankees are calling up Sergio Mitre from Scranton/ Wilkes-Barre to start Tuesday against the Orioles. He was 3-1 with a 2.40 ERA in seven starts—allowing one run over 14c innin 3/4 1/3 in his final two, both against the Bisons.

With Chien-Ming Wang on the disabled list, the Yankees filled that slot in the rotation last week with Alfredo Aceves but they want someone who can go more innings and need Aceves as a long reliever.

Mitre started the year with two starts at Class A Tampa after sitting out a 50-game suspension for PED use. He accepted the suspension but pointed out that he took a supplement purchased legally at a GNC store and did not know it was on the banned list.

Mitre missed all of last year after Tommy John surgery but is a former starter with the Marlins.

More TV time

Speaking of the Yankees, got an e-mail last week from the YES Network trumpeting their record ratings for Yankees telecasts. The figures included a 24 percent overall hike in the pregame show, a 14 percent overall jump in the postgame show and an 8 percent improvement in the actual game in key male demographics.

Sounds impressive but I beg to differ. There are far fewer folks actually at the game this year because the new stadium is smaller and there are a ton of empty seats because of the mortgage-sized prices. More people are home watching the games on TV.

Fuentes hurt by snub

Most players were pretty understanding if they didn’t get to play in the All-Star Game on Tuesday in St. Louis. With the game deciding home-field advantage in the World Series and especially in the wake of last year’s 15-inning marathon in New York, managers are going to hold back pitchers more than we’ve seen in the past.

Angels closer Brian Fuentes, however, was not pleased he didn’t pitch. He said he had been told he was working the sixth inning but learned two hours before the game that he had been bumped from that inning because the Commissioner’s Office told Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon it wanted starting pitcher Halladay to go two innings.

“That soured me a little bit,” Fuentes told the Los Angeles Times. “To think that someone in MLB would dictate who pitches when and where, that is not the way the game is supposed to be played.”

One last game?

Huge pitching matchup today in Toronto with Halladay going against Boston’s Jon Lester. The Jays are off Monday so it’s likely Halladay’s next start will be Saturday—his final home appearance before the trade deadline.

Still thinking there’s no way the Jays trade Halladay within their division. Word out of Toronto continues to creep that a Halladay trade would most likely be to a National League team only. That would put the Phillies squarely in the lead.

History lesson

Ryan Howard became the fastest player in history to get to 200 home runs Thursday but the affable Phillies first baseman then committed a big faux pas when he could only say, “He’s the guy whose record I broke,” when asked what he knew about Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner.

“Not to be disrespectful or anything but he was before my time,” Howard said.

I know Howard didn’t grow up in New York so he didn’t see Kiner the Mets broadcaster as a kid. But how about just a little research when you’re about to break a legend’s record? Bad.

Herd grapevine

Old friend Jason Cooper has resurfaced with the promotion- hungry St. Paul Saints of the American Association. Cooper, released last month as Buffalo’s modern-era leader in games played, hit .336 in his first 16 games for St. Paul.

He’ll take part in the Saints’ Twitter-My-Face Night on Thursday, when team will salute social media by allowing coaches and players to join fans by updating Facebook and Twitter pages during the game.

Try to look at the bright side of the Bisons’ season: They’re no longer on pace to lose 100 games. If things keep up this way, they’d finish 53-90 —which would still be the most losses in their modern era.

It’s a daily double this year in Coca-Cola Field: Most miserable season ever coupled with most miserable weather ever. Can’t even get to 70 degrees in July? What’s this place going to be like in January?