Well, this is it.

We’ve all had plenty of time to think it over, plenty of time to decide who we’ll support, who we’ll line up behind.

Now it’s almost time to see the decision we’ve made.

No, I’m not talking about All-Star voting.

I’m talking about the return of Manny Ramirez to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday, as he rejoins the team in San Diego to take on the Padres. How should we Dodger fans react to our fallen hero?

The rest of the baseball world has already made up its mind, it seems. They will react to Manny the same way the used to react to Bonds. They will taunt him relentlessly, boo him unmercifully, and hope that he fails.

This was doubtlessly an easy decision. After all, that’s the way anyone would act around an opposing team’s player who is surrounded by steroid talk.

We here in Los Angeles, however, have a more difficult decision to make.

On one hand, we have the return of the key component to our lineup, which has struggled for the past week. We need him badly, especially for the second half.

On the other hand, we have the man who betrayed our trust, who could have singlehandedly destroyed what was supposed to be a dream season. Luckily, his teammates have shown their resilience and maintained a level of play that few expected them to maintain.

What do we do? Do we cheer him and show him support? Do we boo him and let him know how disappointed we are?

We’ve had a bit of a preview as to how it will all go down. Manny has been doing his rehab assignments with the Dodgers Triple-A and Double-A affiliates.

So far, the crowds there have reacted pretty favorably to him, cheering when he comes on to the field and when he bats.

It’s going to be very interesting to see if that plays over into the rest of the Dodger world.

We still have a few days to make up our minds, and even longer before he actually comes back to Dodger Stadium.

After much deliberation, I personally have decided to support him. After all, he’s done so much for our hometown heroes, and been such a huge part of the team in the short time he’s been here.

I am, however, still waiting for him to personally come out and address the fans. I think we’re still owed a bit of an apology.

Either way, though, we’re all looking forward to having him back in the middle of our lineup, whether or not we’re totally ready to forgive and forget.