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Defending Manny and Papi
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I assume you want me to comment on this. Those of you who know me know I'm a big Red Sox fan. If you've been paying attention to the sports news, both espn.com and sportingnews.com have as their head stories that both Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz tested positive for steroids in 2003, one year before breaking the curse in 04. In 2003, steroids were not banned, the tests were merely taken so that Major League Baseball could investigate how many players were juicing. No suspensions were to be given out and no one was supposed to find out. I guess Major League Baseball kind of messed up that 2nd part. This list first came to prominence when Alex Rodriguez was revealed to be on the list. At that time, Major League Baseball announced that 103 other players were on that list. Sammy Sosa's name as well as Barry Bonds' name were also on that supposedly secret list. I'm going to defend my team here a little. Before you call me a homer, I promise these are valid points.
Yes, Manny and Papi did take steroids in '03. However, we won in '04. The year steroids were banned. The whole point of the ban was the stop the steroid use in major league baseball. Do you think Major League Baseball would ban steroids and then not retest the players who tested positive in '03 to make sure they stopped? Unless you believe in conspiracy theories, Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz were clean in '04. As far as I'm concerned, '04 was not tainted. No asterisk needed, in fact, I doubt you can even put an asterisk on any World Series title because that would be taking away from the clean, hard working players on that team. Plus, its not like its just one team that was juicing.
Now, this is not to say that I'm not dissappointed in them for using steroids, especially David Ortiz, one of my favorite players and a man who several times denied using steroids, but as you've heard, there were at least 104 players using steroids at the time. Steroids were seen by the players as not a way to get ahead, but a way to catch up with all the other players who were using it. It was dirty and wrong, but you didn't think you'd get caught and it was what you had to do to keep up with Barry and Sosa and A-Rod. Not that I'm saying what they did was right, but I don't think that if I were a major league baseball player in the early 2000's that I would be able to resist the steroid temptation and before you ridicule any players, whether Red Sox players, Yankee players for juicing, think to yourself whether or not you would have been able to resist the temptation, because I'm willing to bet a good percentage of you would not. We're humans, everyone's human. Baseball players, though we like to hold them to godlike standards, are human too.
Now comes the matter of what to do with steroids and this list. Major League Baseball, how about, instead of trying to keep this information private, which you obviously suck at doing, reveal the whole list, give everyone who failed in '03 the same treatment as each other rather than having your star players have their career tarnished one at a time for failing a test that was supposed to be private. I'm willing to bet, when people see the list, all 104 of them, it won't be as bad on the players' reputation as it would if it were revealed one at a time, so that the media could make sure that every single player on that list's career is tarnished. I'm willing to bet that at least one player from every team is represented on that list, maybe even another Red Sox player (like how did Johnny Damon grow a beard that fast).
Then, Major League Baseball needs to make an official statement, saying that they are sorry that they let what was supposed to be classified information slip out. And Bud Selig has to actually do it this time, rather than send one of his hencemen like he did when Barry broke the record. He needs to say that cheating is not right, but neither is letting classified information slip out, tarnishing players' careers. He needs to say that he's sorry he had to release the whole list, but in fairness to the players who had already been outed, he had to. He needs to say that each and everyone of the players who failed these drug tests will be treated equally, whether they all have asterisks slapped next to their stats that they failed a test or whatever, they all need to be treated equally.
Honestly, if Selig doesn't come out with a statement like this, anything resembling this, in the next week or so, I'll have lost all respect for him. Steroids happened on his watch. Steroid testing happened on his watch. The players' names slipped out on his watch. That ridiculous Mitchell Report, which may or may not have even been true, happened on his watch. And yet, he's sitting on his ass not saying anything. Where Bud Selig these days?
Categories: MLB, Boston Red Sox, Steroids
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