...Of Course He Did

On the scale of shocking news, the revelation that David Ortiz failed a steroid test in 2003 comes in slightly below finding out a musician is smoking pot. All the signs were there: his homerun numbers jumped significantly from 2000 - 2003, they've come back down the last two seasons, during that time his body has started to break down and when you factor in that his running buddy Manny Ramirez already failed a test earlier this year, assuming Ortiz was also on steroids wasn't a huge leap. Sure, you can say that the numbers jump could be attributed to finally getting to play full time in Boston, that Fenway is tailored for his swing and he never had the dramatic shift in body type that we saw in a Barry Bonds or Sammy Sosa. But, honestly, you'd just be fooling yourself.

I just want to say that this still doesn't taint the 2004 World Series in the eyes of Red Sox fans. First off, I doubt anything ever will. Even in a sport as individualistic as baseball, people will take the majority of the team over what 2 or 3 guys were doing. We'll just continue to make the argument that for all we know the Cardinals had people taking steroids on their team (we know the Yankees did). But, if you want to know who would really crush Red Sox fans, I'll tell you the one name that would really anger us: Schilling. If we found out that Mr. Bloody Sock was on the juice, then that would be the one thing that would kill this fan base.

At this point the entire league is playing under the unfortunate heading of "guilty until proven innocent." Outside of Jeter, Eckstein and Maddux no other names would surprise me (Junior Griffey would upset me, but not surprise me). That is why I think Major League Baseball should just go the next step and reveal the names of the 100 baseball players who failed the drug test in 2003, but have yet to be outed. Look, it's the way of the world today - those names are going to come out, no hiding from it (Bronson Arroyo already is putting his name out there just in case he's on the list). By putting those names out then they will essentially be ripping off the band-aid and getting it over with. I feel it's a better way than having a name drip out every couple of weeks for the next few years. Clean player could now play without the steroid cloud hanging over them. Also, I think it would be the best plan for the guys on the list - instead of coming out one at a time and facing a couple days of media fury on their own, 100 guys could stand and deal with it together. For example, Ortiz is big news today throughout the baseball world. If his name was released with 100 other names, he would just be part of the story, not the entire story. The national scope would also be a lot lower. Do you think people in Milwaukee would care about how many Red Sox were on the list if they released 100 names at once? Of course not, they would only want to know if/how many Brewers were on it. I'm telling you, just release the rest of the names and get it over with.

By the way, jacking a go-ahead three run homer to the deepest part of Fenway in the bottom of the 7th might be the best response Ortiz can offer.

-Here's how I know I'm getting old: songs that came out in my youth have now been around long enough to have their copyrights bought out by large companies for commercial use. This week's example is Digable Planets' "Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)" appearing in commericals for Tide.