Devastating.
David Ortiz' name showing up on the 2003 steroid list is absolutely devastating.
It's not like we didn't suspect it. His numbers crashed almost as hard as the stock market over the last two seasons, culminating in a ridiculously long power outage that lasted until the middle of June.
But I really, really wanted to believe he was clean.
The "take away the World Series rings" can go suck on a lemon. What Ortiz did doesn't invalidate anything the Red Sox have done over the last few years any more than what Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, or any of the other steroid user Yankees did invalidated the Yankee dynasty in the late '90s.
When the Red Sox beat the Yankees in 2004, there were steroid users on both teams. When the Yankees beat the Red Sox in 2003, there were steroid users on both teams. The same goes for every other team they beat and every other team they lost to.
But it certainly does invalidate the player.
The most home runs in a season by a Red Sox player? A sham. The most clutch player in Red Sox history? A fraud. Big Papi? Big cheater.
I don't want to feel this way about Ortiz. Unlike A-Rod, he's a genuinely good guy. He's big with charities, great with the fans, and by all accounts, he's a great teammate and family man. It's fun to hate Jason "White Bonds" Giambi and Alex Rodriguez because they're so damn unlikable. It's much harder to feel that way about David Ortiz.
And yet he's put me in a position where I almost feel obligated to hate him.
The "I'll get back to you later" thing is just making it worse. He's "investigating" so he can "get more answers" and yet he hasn't asked the players association to get any of those answers? You seriously expect me to believe this? You've done nothing but make yourself look like a guilty coward who doesn't want to face the music.
Suck it up, be a man, and take your lumps. Doing anything less than that is even more embarrassing than having Manny Ramirez inject you with some of that "B-12" you've been hearing so much about.
This 2003 list is awful for the fans. It is. As far as I'm concerned, the "leaking of the list" is the darkest moment in baseball history. No contest.
Who's to say a few months from now, just as I'm starting to get over the David Ortiz thing, another name of a player I love won't be leaked? How about Pedro Martinez? Or (gasp) Curt Schilling?
This is absolute garbage.
The players association needs to release the entire 2003 steroid list, and they need to do it before any of the other names leak out. Then, once the shock dies down, they need to use every resource available to them to find the scumbag lawyers who are leaking the names and make sure they spend a few years in prison thinking long and hard about whether it was worth the thrill of watching baseball fans suffer every few months.
Lost in the venom being spewed towards players like Ortiz is the fact that the people leaking the names are breaking the law. And the list, as Nomar Garciaparra so aptly put it, is beyond obsolete and even further beyond fair at this point.
Back in 2003, the players were not notified that they failed a test, so they had no chance to appeal (they weren't told until the feds seized the list in 2004). Baseball, back in 2003, was not releasing lists of safe supplements like they do today. Half the crap sold at your local neighborhood GNC could cause a positive test.
Do I buy that excuse for someone like David Ortiz? The tainted supplement excuse? Absolutely not, especially since his "investigation" hasn't turned up a potential supplement issue yet. But it certainly is a plausible excuse. Just ask Bronson Arroyo.
Which is why it's completely unfair to the players to have these names leak out six years later.
Think about it. The David Ortiz test was taken before he ever had a regular season at-bat with the Red Sox. Since he's been with the Red Sox, he's been tested over 20 times and hasn't failed a test. But everything he's accomplished is tarnished by a test he took and was never given the chance to question.
It wouldn't stand up in court. Unfortunately for Ortiz, the court of public opinion has different rules.
As unfair as it is to players like Ortiz, it's even more unfair to the people who root for them. And as Bud Selig always says, the fans come first.
So put your money where your mouth is Bud. Release the entire 2003 steroid list, let everyone react, then let everyone move on. Just close your eyes and rip off the Band-Aid.
This water-torture stuff is ruining the game of baseball.
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