David Ortiz on Roids: Are You Surprised? I'm Sure Not!

Thank god for public forums on which I'm able to voice my thoughts.  On May 10, 2009 I wrote (right here on this site) that Ortiz almost certainly used steroids and that I expected this news to come out in the very near future.  As a sportswriter I'm happy to be proved correct however, as a Red Sox fan nothing could sadden me more.

Has the Red Sox legacy been tainted forever now?  That seems to be the question on most of our minds.  During their 2004 championship season, the year they "broke the curse" the Sox rode the bats of Ortiz and Manny Ramirez to victory. 

As we all now know, both sluggers were on steroids, both were cheating.  The Red Sox also counted on the strong pitching performances by both Curt Schilling and Pedro Martinez. 

As a fan I wonder how long it will be until we learn Pedro was also on steroids (after all he fits the profile right? Strong ties to the Dominican Republic, as well as 5-6 years of incredible success immediately followed by injury plagued years in which he put up horrid numbers).

Once again however, the fault lies with the fans and the media here.  I mean, could any of us claim that we really had no idea a guy who had hit only 58 major league homers in his life and was all of the sudden putting up 40+ a year was cheating? 

As opposed to reiterating what I've already said, please do find all the facts here.

As fans and as members of the media we need to be more responsible.  Don't just be awestruck by a no name guy who all of the sudden rises out of nowhere to hit 50+ home runs—wonder where that power came from. 

A pitcher that all of the sudden throws close to 100 mph-has he always had that arm strength, or is it recently developed?  We are to easy to please, we are too trusting and too quick to throw our faith behind a player-nowadays you must be wary, you must be cautious, you must be suspicious. 

No matter how desperate your city is for a title—as we were in Boston after an 86-year drought—you must wonder where this sudden burst of power comes from, you must question why the skill wasn't there before.

But has the legacy been tainted?  With so many big names coming out attached to steroid suspicion (Bonds, McGwire, Palmeiro, Pettite, Clemens, Sosa, Manny, Ortiz, the list goes on) one may begin to wonder at this point if using steroids really is cheating-or is it just leveling the playing field?

On this list are most of the best hitters of this generation, along with arguably one of the best pitchers of all time. 

The question is, if you're David Ortiz, struggling to play in Minnesota and you see athletic monsters like McGwire and Canseco smacking homeruns 500 feet-clearly on steroids—what would you do? 

Do you really respect "the sanctity of the game" (a term that has become a joke at this point in time) and just work harder-or do you want to try to find an edge to get ahead as well?

If there were a pill, a shot, or anything you could take to boost your career that you knew a great deal of the all stars in your profession were already taking, well what would you say? 

It's easy to stand high and mighty and claim we would do the right thing, or the honorable thing but let's be honest right now and realize that generally speaking people will do the easiest thing, not the right thing. 

There are entire businesses and industries built based upon the laziness of people as a whole—I'm sure every one of us can remember a time we just did the easy thing, not the right thing.

There are many things wrong with the sport of baseball right now, that's for sure (just don't blame Bud Selig—he's made it clear it's not his fault).  When you're talking about a league where to become a superstar, to even the playing field most have found themselves in a position where they need to take the steroids, things have certainly traveled downhill rather quickly as a whole. 

But at the same time, let's not find ourselves holding these players to a higher standard than we hold ourselves. 

Whether you're a businessman, a teacher, an actor, a salesman, or a chef and you had an opportunity to almost certainly vault up the "ranks" in your industry and become an instant success—a nationally recognized name—would you do it? 

If you even hesitate before saying "no," if you even consider saying "yes" then you need to hesitate just as long before verbally bashing any of these men, who simply fell to temptation in a way we can certainly understand, if not completely sympathize with.