| 31 July 2009
I wrote a long-winded reaction last night in response to the news that David Ortiz is on the 2003 list of players that tested positive for PEDs.
But having slept on it and read all the other reactions out there... I don't think it's worth boring you guys with 20 paragraphs on the issue. So I'll try and keep the re-write brief:
This news does not surprise me. In fact, I don't think I'm capable of being shocked by this stiff any more. Maybe if Dustin Pedroia got busted... but only because of statements like this:
"I don't really know too much about it," Dustin Pedroia said. "[Shoot], in 2003, I was in college hitting rockets there. I don't know [anything] about what was going on back then. Obviously David's our teammate, we love him. He's done everything in the world for me. We're here to support him."
But let's face it, Pedroia had to overcome alot of doubt early in his career, so would you really be all that shocked to find out he tried some PEDs along the way?
And that's the problem.
The Steroid Era has made me (and millions of baseball fans) skeptical of everyone.
Do I think the 2004 and 2007 WS championships are tainted now? No. It takes more than two players to win a World Series.
Do I think less of David Ortiz now? A little. But you know what? I do think the new testing policies are working and I do think the game is a lot cleaner than it was five years ago.
The numbers are glaring. Big Papi was otherwordly from 2003 through 2007. So it's hard not to question him now that he looks more like the .270, 20 HR, 75 RBI guy he was in Minnesota. But he was also in his prime during that run (28-32) and he was surrounded my some very good players... so was it really all PEDs?
Personally, I believe that Ortiz may have been aided by some PEDs along the way, but his dramtics over the past few seasons were not soley the work of juice flowing through his veins.
It's takes more than sheer strength to hit clutch homeruns and game-winning gappers, so I'll always believe that there was more magic that steroids in his bat.
An era of baseball was tainted, but the game is cleaner now and unlikely heroes like Pedroia and his short stature and Tim Lincecum and his skinny frame are emerging.
David Ortiz probably won't 40 homeruns again, but he still has some magic in his bat and I think he can help the Sox win another World Series - even without the juice.
Side Note: ESPN's Howard Bryant wrote a good piece about this story. He sounds like a man with a knife in his back, but I think he summed up how many of us feel right now.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
