Steroids in Boston

This is something that the entire baseball world knew about for a very long time. We just needed proof. Yes, the big bad Boston Red Sox are now linked with steroids. And you’ve guessed it “Big Papi” David Ortiz is the culprit. Back in 2003 when the MLB had anonymous testing, Ortiz, amongst others, were on the list that showed that they tested positive for some sort of performance enhancing drugs. So now that puts a question mark or an asterisk on their championships.

Not to be outdone by his once teammate Ortiz, Manny Ramirez of the Dodgers recently came off of his 50 game suspension for indeed using a drug not sanctioned by the MLB. How long were Ramirez and Ortiz using these drugs, and how much did it affect their playing?

Honestly, I think Ortiz has finally dropped his use of the steroids long before his name was linked to the list. His numbers this year were horrible. He is usually among the top of the all-star votes and MVP votes. This year you won’t even mention his name. He probably knew that sooner or later his name would be thrown out there and I think he just decided to come clean. Not to the media, but to himself. Now you can honestly see evidence that these drugs could really be the reason why he was so good. Now you can make the argument and say, well he had to see the ball to hit the ball. True, but when he made contact, and boy he made plenty contact, that ball went out the park. How many walk-offs did he and Ramirez combine in Boston?

There’s an old adage, cheaters never prosper, well in this case they did. Winning two championships, since the ’03 season. Ramirez’s numbers are slightly off as well. The power numbers just aren’t there. I'm not taking anything away from these hitters, because they are superb in what they do, but did they really have to cheat? How many less homeruns do they have and how many less wins do the Red Sox earn if these guys weren’t using steroids? The buck doesn’t just stop on them though; the entire baseball world is still trying to figure out who is on this list of cheaters.

Ever since the steroids issue began to grow, Ortiz was adamant about the punishment that should be given to steroid users. He willingly stated that he would be tested just to show that he was clean. I guess he was calling the bluff of MLB. But what do you know, his name was linked anyway. What do you have to say now Ortiz?

Hopefully he has nothing left to say, and he just goes out and “cleanly” try’s to win baseball games. The Red Sox are currently a half game behind the New York Yankees, who have steroid problems of their own. But hopefully because of this anonymous list, that has a good amount of players left on it, players that were thinking about “juicing” up, puts the needle down and picks up a bat.

Practice makes perfect, just don’t perfectly practice cheating.