According to a report by Michael S. Schmidt in The New York Times, David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez tested positive for banned substances in 2003, acording to lawyers familiar with the test results. I would lying if I found this news surprising, and not just because Ramirez recently tested positive for another banned substance. I would also be hypocritical if I did not object to the continued release of names from the 2003 tests. There is no way they should have been released, and MLB and the MLBPA should be ashamed, if not outright sued, for failing to adequately safeguard the names of those who tested positive. There is absolutely no reason why all names should not have been excluded from any and all test results, disassociated from any numbers or names on samples, then simply checked off a list of players to be tested. The release of names has been a disgrace, and strikes me as illegally releasing information the rights to which are currently contested.
I’ll add this, and not for nothing: I genuinely feel bad for the good Red Sox fans I know–Joe the Statistician Magician, Steve from The Boston Red Sox Blog, and Dan from Fans on the Field. They don’t deserve such bad news, and have never struck me as haters as are some among the Red Sox (and Yankees) fan base. Believe me when I say this is not something in which I revel.
That said, how do those Red Sox fans feel who wrongly claimed that the Red Sox won “clean” championships in 2004 and 2007, while the Yankees’ championships of the 1996-2000 era were tainted? For that sanctimonious segment of the fan base, who also reveled in A-Rod’s admission of steroid use, this should serve as a long-overdue wake-up call that steroids have been rife throughout the game, used by players on most if not all major-league teams. I never believed otherwise.
Nor do I doubt this revelation about Ortiz and Ramirez. While I think it was wrong for those who spilled the beans to do so, these charges and others including those in The Mitchell Report have largely been proven true. So I believe with Ortiz and Ramirez, the latter of whom looks particularly stupid for multiple positive tests several years apart.
Heartland Pinstripes 
Great and fair peice mate I won’t repeat what I sad in the other post. Last thing to say from me is I really hope Pujols is clean were all taking way too many hits.
Incredible, really. I had a feeling this has been a long time coming. I really think this is going to distract baseball life in Boston big time, especially because Ortiz is so well-liked. I guess we’ll just have to see what happens!
In the interest of fairness this is another black eye for baseball. However, Steve Phillips for once raised a good point. The players who did not use steroids are complicit in the Steroid Era. If there was such strong feeling against steroids amongst non users (as Derek Jeter claims) in MLB locker rooms then where were the whistle blowers? Personally, I have always espoused the idea of amnesty commissions. It is better to have the truth, however ugly it is, out in the open then shrouded behind a veil of secrecy. What happened? When did it happen? How do we learn from mistakes and move forward? Shrouding the truth behind a veil of secrecy does not rid the game of the black cloud of steroids but only perpetuates it.
Personally, I have no sympathy for the Red Sox or their fans. The fan base behaved sanctimoniously after the Mitchell Report came out and they are getting what they rightly deserve.
Thanks, J.
I am not surprised either, but always gave these players ( all players) a chance, until they were proven to have used. Because I felt it was fair. Now it’s out, and probably explains why Ortiz couldn’t hit an 89 MPH fastball for the two months of the season. It sucks, but what are we going to do?
http://www.statisticianmagician.com/
Suspected, now confirmed.
Sorry for not responding too much lately, but with the house a mess (gut and re-do) things are hectic.
Thanks for the kind words, Nick. We’ll see about Pujols, but I personally don’t put him beyond the pale of suspicion.
It will likely pop up a lot in and about Boston, Lisa. It sure didn’t seem to distract Ortiz today, though.
My concerns about revealing the rest of the names, Tim, center around a couple things. One is that the status of the information contained in the list of names is in question. Therefore, its contents should not be treated as anyone’s property, anyone’s right to reveal names. While your questions to answer are definitely worthwhile, my other concern is that this will simply be player-centered, and should not be. Managers, management, and personnel have been shown in The Mitchell Report to be at least complicit in covering up and overlooking the steroids scandal. In any inquiry, which I would support, I would not want their collective role swept under the figurative rug. On the complicity of non-steroids users in the steroids era, that was the case well before the revelation of some of the names from the 2003 tests. Yet when the aggregate tests results came out, revealing that a sufficient number of players had tested positive and therefore triggering mandatory random drug testing, where was the outcry on behalf of non-steroids users? Hardly a stir, which speaks volumes about how our society functions, how we evaluate information, and to what degree I’d argue individuality permeates our consciousness and affects out judgment. It’s as if the outing of specific players brought this “veil of secrecy” to light when the process itself had done that years ago, agreed upon by both MLB and the MLBPA. On Red Sox fans, I wouldn’t paint with too broad a brush. Plenty didn’t react with glee when A-Rod, Clemens, and other Yankees were implicated.
I hear you, Joe. It may well explain his problems with the fastball. I trust your judgment since you watch so much Sox baseball. Though I forgot to mention this in the post, throws Bill Simmons’s attempt to explain those struggles of Ortiz on his potentially lying about his age into nearly comic relief.
How are the home repairs going, Mike?
Honestly, I think if Theo does something momentous tomorrow like trading for Halladay and Ortiz comes clean, this will blow over fairly quickly. By now we’re all numb from these revelations. It’s a sad day, but one I saw coming.