Mamma Mia! Turns out that Red Sox Nation’s lovable David (Big Papi) Ortiz isn’t such a straight shooter after all. And even now, he’s still playing fast and loose with the truth when he says he was “blindsided” by the news that he failed the 2003 steroids test.
Alex Rodriguez certainly earned his nickname of A-Fraud with his lies to Katie Couric, but while A-Rod had no way of knowing, in December 2007, that the infamous list of 104 would ever be made public, Ortiz has no such excuse.
Yet this spring, after A-Rod was exposed as A-Roid, Big Papi told anybody who would listen about how clean he was, even though he and his good friend Rodriguez both used the infamous Angel Presinal as a trainer.
The Sox slugger was positively Palmeiroesque in declaring his innocence after A-Rod was outed, saying he would “disrespect the game, my family, my fans and everybody” if he used performance-enhancing drugs.
Ortiz played the family card again in May, when he was mired in the worst slump of his career and baseball fans were starting to chatter about the real reason for his power outage. The player called ESPN’s Howard Bryant at home to proclaim that he was clean. Ortiz even invoked his son to prove his case. Bryant writes about what Ortiz told him:
“I know what it is for my son to have Big Papi as a father,” he told me that day. “There are a lot of people who do great things for him because he’s my son. His life is going to be easier because he’s the son of Big Papi. And that is the biggest reason why I have never used steroids. Because then he would have to go to school and have to listen to all the kids say that his dad is dirty, a cheater, and everything for him would be taken away from him and he would be ruined. I make sure I don’t do those things, for him.”
It takes a special amount of hubris to drag an innocent child into the steroids mess to make yourself look clean. As TV character Maude might have said, “God’ll get you for that, David.”
Ortiz’s postgame statement – or is that misstatement? – yesterday about his steroid test failure was nearly as obnoxious. Let’s take a look:
“Today I was informed by a reporter that I was on the 2003 list of MLB players to test positive for performance-enhancing substances. This happened right before our game, and the news blindsided me. I said I had no comment because I wanted to get to the bottom of this. “
Um, no. As the Times quotes him, he actually said, “I’m not talking about that anymore” and “I have no comment.” What is the “anymore” about, given that he is claiming that this news “blindsided” him?
The Mitchell Report revealed that MLB Players Association represenative Gene Orza reportedly told players who failed that first test about the results in the fall of 2004, just before they were about to take another steroids test. Given that information, for Ortiz to declare that he had no idea until yesterday that he failed this test is just laughable.
That wasn’t the only ridiculous thing he said in this statement. He also claimed, ”based on the way I have lived my life, I am surprised to learn I tested positive.”
Other things that surprise Ortiz:
* Jon and Kate didn’t have a happy marriage after all
* Michael Jackson was kind of a weird dude
* Soylent Green is people
Big Papi also declared that he would “find out what I tested positive for.”
Oh goody – Sherlock Ortiz is on the case! Is Manny Ramirez going to be his dear Watson?
Detective Ortiz closed his statement with this:
“Based on whatever I learn, I will share this information with my club and the public. You know me — I will not hide and I will not make excuses. “
I’m picturing Ortiz starring in a new CBS show – “CSI: Boston” – to find out the real story. Maybe he’ll spend late nights in the lab poring over his statistics and blood work, and he’ll finally understand how a mediocre Minnesota player like him became a superstar with the Sox.
Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein backs Ortiz’s “somebody put something in my drink” defense, saying Ortiz “needs some time to get some answers and then he’s going to stand up and answer every question.” He also said, “I admire that courage.”
You know, for all the grief A-Rod got for his “I was young and stupid” defense, at least he fessed up to taking PEDs and showed some remorse. Let’s see if Ortiz will finally tell the truth and show some courage really worth admiring.
Photo by Keith Allison
Lisa Swan
Lisa Swan, a lifelong Yankee fan, grew up in Passaic, N.J., where her favorite player was the talented but insecure Reggie Jackson. Today she lives on Staten Island, where her favorite player is the talented but insecure Alex Rodriguez. A former senior new media editor for ...
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More on these topics:
Boston Red Sox, David Ortiz, Howard Bryant, performance-enhancing drugs, steroids, Theo Epstein
Cher says:
I thought reporters were supposed to be unbiased. This report is full of favoritism for who you like and condemnation for who you don't. I thought you were supposed just tell the facts. Ripping up Ortiz does not make anything better nor does it make Arod look better.
All Ortiz was saying is that he wants to find out more information. That way he will know what the fuck he is apologizing for. He was given the info. one hour before game time (in which he hit a 3 run homer). He is smart to find out exactly what its about before he opens his mouth. Rather than covering it up with lies, he chose to be more mature and find out more info.
theD says:
sonny needs to slap the taste out ya mouth cher!
who cares if he hit a 3 run homer. papi is poppin steroid junkie,
he wants to find out more info? why so he can lie better? dude needs to just fess up instead he blames everybody else what a freakin fake,
they should take the title away from boston
STFU says:
We live in a society which considers it perfectly acceptable to take a pill if you're having a bad day, take another one if you can't get a boner (probably because of the other pill you took), and give pills to your kids if they can't stay focused for more than 5 seconds at a time. But if a baseball player takes a PED, we're supposed to consider them terrible, evil people worthy of public vilification by "journalists" like the moron who wrote the above article. Not to mention the fact that it's insane that baseball is being singled out for this problem when it's obvious to anyone who's paying any attention at all that ALL athletes, professional and amateur, are taking PEDs, and have been for years.
Guapo says:
Let me guess Lisa, you're a Yankees fan?
Tal Shahar says:
Great article. Funny and well Written. Ortiz thinks baseball fans are stupid and will believe his ridiculous statements. Not only is it ridiculous that Ortiz will not confess after getting caught, it is even more ridiculous that Ortiz decided to make up a story in the past that he would never want to disgrace his family by using steroids. What a moron!!! If he was smart he would have always kept his mouth shut about steroids because it is obvious that there was always a chance he would get caught one day. He can still save his reputation a little bit by confessing, but he is too much of a loser to do that. Big Papi=Big clown
Tal Shahar says:
Now we know how the Red Sox curse was broken. Give your two best offensive players steroids and see what happens. If it wasn't for Manny and the Big clown using steroids in 2004 and 2007, the curse would still be alive. Oh well. Hopefully one day the Red Sox will be able to win another championship without cheating. I doubt it, but we shall see.
Lisa Swan says:
I make no secret that I'm a Yankee fan (please check out my bio.) That being said, Ortiz has handled this terribly. If A-Rod had done this, I would have been irate.
cher says:
papi never lied. he found out in 03 that he was positive for steroids....03.....03...03...03..... the steroid he was positive for was human growth hormone which was not banned from sports until 2003......2003.....2003.......2003......2003....
He said he didn't do steroids because it wasn't one until 2003 and when he found out it was classified a steroid, he stopped using it. that's what he meant! It was ok and was not considered a steroid until 2003 so plenty of steroids were used by players until then.
We won in 04...........07.
TalShahar....you are a fool if you think that we won because of one or two players....... the yanks were using steroids then too, so was it steroids vs steroids? were your steroids better than ours? oh, we must have had the best steroids that year....lol
if i was stupid like you, i could say that the yankees only won all their series because they bought them. they have the most money and as we saw by johnny damon that they can buy anyone they want for the right amount. I will brush off your ignorance because of your age.
also, please remember that pedroia, youkilis and ortiz could have gone to the yanks but they CHOSE to stay at boston for LESS MONEY.
would any of your players do that? no way.......
the CURSE is not having the money to buy players and people. you are just pissed because you couldn't buy the ones we one. we actually one with blood (schilling's on his sock) sweat and tears.
We came back after losing 3 games to the yanks and won FOUR games in a row to win the series, so get over it!
also, if we win again this year, it will be a miracle...you have a better team thats all there is to it. I am just so happy we are in the running...should be interesting.
its reporters that write dribble like this without all the facts that have kept this stupid rivalry going.