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Posted on 07/30/2009 1:56:53 PM PDT by Red Steel
Boston's erstwhile slugging duo reportedly on list of 104
According to lawyers who spoke to the The New York Times, and whose names were not revealed, David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez are on the list of 104 players who tested positive in Major League Baseball's 2003 survey testing for performance-enhancing drugs, testing that was agreed to and conducted only on the condition that the results would remain anonymous.
Ortiz and Ramirez were members of the Boston Red Sox at the time and helped the club end an 86-year streak in which they hadn't won a World Series.
Results from the 2003 tests, which met a threshold that led to the establishment of MLB's current drug policy that includes random testing, were never destroyed and have been the subject of spirited debate among fans and media about what should be done with the names from that period in which, under collective bargaining rules, the substances were outlawed but use did not carry the penalty of suspension. The results have become a legal issue being contested by the MLB Players Association and the federal government.
Previously, other players have been linked to the list based on leaks: Barry Bonds, Jason Grimsley, Alex Rodriguez, David Segui and Sammy Sosa. There are 97 names that remain undisclosed.
According to the Times, new information on Ortiz and Ramirez - the latter of whom, now with the Dodgers, returned earlier this month from a 50-game suspension for a subsequent violation of the game's drug policy -- sprang from interviews with persons connected to pending litigation.
Earlier Thursday, prior to posting of the story on the newspaper's Web site, Ortiz responded to questions about the 2003 tests by telling a Times reporter, "I'm not talking about that anymore. I have no comment."
Michael Weiner, the current general counsel and executive director-elect for the players union, also declined comment.
"We, of course, would have no comment and refer all comments to Major League Baseball," said Dodgers vice president of communications Josh Rawitch.
"We have no comment because Major League Baseball has no knowledge of the names that are on the list," said MLB vice president of public relations Pat Courtney.
As some names purported to be on the list have trickled out, there have been calls from some for the entire list to be revealed and allow baseball to move beyond.
In a February entry on his blog in the wake of Rodriguez's implication, former big-league pitcher Curt Schilling -- a 2004-08 teammate of Ramirez and Ortiz -- wrote, "I'd be all for the 104 positives being named, and the game moving on if that is at all possible. In my opinion, if you don't do that, then the other 600-700 players are going to be guilty by association, forever."
"We made our bed. We've got to lie on it," Cardinals pitcher Trever Miller said in June. "I would rather just get it over and move on so the future of this game doesn't have to deal with it. Let's get it out, get it over with and move on."
In its report, the Times points out that Ortiz had been let go by the Minnesota Twins following the 2002 season, and after signing a low-profile contract with the Red Sox, set personal highs with 31 home runs and 101 RBIs in 2003. Ortiz continued improving on those statistics, compiling 148 RBIs in 2005 and 54 homers the following season.
When his recent suspension was handed down on May 7, Ramirez said, "I've taken and passed about 15 drug tests over the past five seasons."
That five-year period would extend back to 2004.
Ortiz, by contrast, had never before been connected to PEDs. Having his name surface stunned a former Twins teammate.
"This hurts, this really hurts," Torii Hunter, now of the Los Angeles Angels, told ESPN. "I don't know what to think about this. I guess you just never know what people do in the dark.
"I still love him but at the same time it's tough to hear that. I know it's going to be tough on him and tough on his family once this gets out. It's Big Papi, man, it's the big dog of Boston and he helped win two World Series with those guys, with the clutch hits. And now all those things are going to be tainted."
Ortiz had recently expressed opinions about how baseball should treat players founds to be in violation of the drug policy that went into effect in 2004. During Spring Training, Ortiz proposed that even first-time offenders be banned for a year, not the 50 games called for by the policy.
"I would suggest everybody get tested, not random, everybody. You go team by team," Ortiz had also said. "You test everybody three, four times a year and that's about it.
"I think you clean up the game by the testing. I know that if I test positive by using any kind of substance, I know that I'm going to disrespect my family, the game, the fans and everybody, and I don't want to be facing that situation."
I never cared about ‘roids. I understand it’s technically cheating, since there are rules. For instance, you can’t kick people while boxing. But when you let people kick, it doesn’t stop being a sport, rather it becomes kickbozing. Likewise, baseball may not be baseball with rampant doping. Call it ‘Roidsball. May the best artificial man win.
kickbozing = kickboxing
If you would like to be on The Baseball Ping List let me know.
well this is just payback for that mitchell report in which Mr Mitchell decided not to put any red sox on...yeh that wasn’t a bias report but somehow had a crapload of yankees...
serves boston right
“crapload of yankees...”
The skankees are crap, and the entire team is juiced up.
Please place me on your baseball ping list
Thanks. :-)
Some anonymous weasel attorney somewhere starts whispering malicious gossip, and all of a sudden everyone’s supposed to get their knickers in a bunch?
Fuggedaboutit.
Meanwhile, the once great New York Times demonstrates yet again why it’s on an inexorable slide into the trash bin of history.
It’s not like the New York Times doesn’t make stuff up. Ask Jason Blair. *Snicker*
Ping!
i’m rooting for the dodgers for joe torre at least until he wins a world series ...i’ve been mad at the yankees front office for how they treated good old Joe Torre but i grew up a yankees fans since i was little and don mattingly played for them in the early 90’s
John Kerry is dismayed that his favorite Red Sox pitcher, Manny Ortiz, used drugs.
I don’t care about baseball, so the Yankees/Red Socks (sox?) ratio of steroided players doesn’t matter to me. Where baseball had a problem was that it became obvious players were juicing up, often on illegal substances, and MLB pulled an Annie Hall (well la de dah.) Now, they’ve got a bunch of records and titles that are under suspicion. It hurts the league, particularly since they’ve never recovered from the effects of the big baseball strike.
“We should start drugging enhancing future players at what age exactly?”
That’s up to the players. Individual initiative and all that.
That arrogant a$$ john kerry wouldn’t know what a baseball game is.
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