Looks Like We Know What Ortiz is Probably Going to Say Today

[He Hate Me]

Probably not good enough to convince those outside of Boston who have convicted him already (including me), but most likely good enough so that fans in Boston who have an issue with this won't feel as icky rooting for him.

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4385699

 

"There are more names on the government list [104] than the maximum number of positives that were recorded under the 2003 program [96]," MLB said in a statement. "And, as the Mitchell report made clear, some of the 96 positives were contested by the union. Given the uncertainties inherent in the list, we urge the press and the public to use caution in reaching conclusions based on leaks of names, particularly from sources whose identities are not revealed."

 

"Accordingly, the presence of a player's name on any such list does not necessarily mean that the player used a prohibited substance or that the player tested positive under our collectively bargained program," Weiner said.

[ManRam]

David Ortiz is the man.

[TheKilo]

If that's what he goes with, I will be very, very disappointed.

[Rdsxmbnt]

What do you want him to go with, "I used steroids"?

[TheKilo]

I'd like more information than the cop-out he's going to feed the media this afternoon.

[example1]

I don't know what the truth is, and frankly I just don't care very much. It isn't that I think it is unimportant... the facts are important to some and should come out. I just don't care very much. I didn't care much when it came out about A-Rod and I didn't care much when it came out about Manny. What everyone wants to hear is "what did he test positive for", but I just don't care. He likely either tested positive for something that enhanced his performance physically or something that would cover up that performance enhancing drug. Either way, I basically know the answer already.

 

I think we'd be hard pressed to find a single player (including angels like Jeter) who hasn't taken SOMETHING throughout the course of his career to improve his performance.

 

Like Kilo, I would be disappointed if he didn't say something substantive, rather than hiding in the cracks that exist in any story.

[jacksonianmarch]

I am shocked actually. The fact that ARod of all people was more candid than Papi makes me feel conflicted. Deep down, I liked Ortiz as a person and a competitor but obviously hate the uniform he wears. If he doesnt come out with some sort of admission, then I will lose a ton of respect for him

[TheKilo]

I am shocked actually. The fact that ARod of all people was more candid than Papi makes me feel conflicted. Deep down' date=' I liked Ortiz as a person and a competitor but obviously hate the uniform he wears. If he doesnt come out with some sort of admission, then I will lose a ton of respect for him[/quote']

 

Are you watching this?

 

I don't excuse Ortiz for his actions, but he has admitted to taking "many supplements and vitamins" but that "he has never bought or used steroids".

 

He seems very contrite, apologizing the the fans, his team, Francona, and the baseball community many times.

 

I don't take back what I said about Ortiz being a huge disappointment now that he has been placed in this situation, but I give him respect for admitting his wrongdoing and apologizing for it.

 

Certainly better than ARod's, certainly better than Pettitte's.

[jacksonianmarch]

He denies steroids but has no idea what "supplements" he took and cannot remember the supplements. Sorry, dont buy it

[plaskari]

I don't call this an apology....This is just another player playing the flack seed oil game. I do agree that he is handling himself well and coming across well but he is not really taking ang responsibility. He is letting the union take care of this. If he is innocent he should be pissed about this and saying I DID NOTHING WRONG SO GO SCREW!

[plaskari]

Just say as a player I am always seeking an edge and unfortunately I crossed the line as blurry as it was but that's just how it goes in pro sports. Don't hate the player hate the game.

[TheKilo]

He denies steroids but has no idea what "supplements" he took and cannot remember the supplements. Sorry' date=' dont buy it[/quote']

 

That wasn't the question, the question was "What supplement caused the positive test?"

 

He was taking a lot, and doesn't know.

 

 

 

I don't call this an apology....This is just another player playing the flack seed oil game. I do agree that he is handling himself well and coming across well but he is not really taking ang responsibility. He is letting the union take care of this. If he is innocent he should be pissed about this and saying I DID NOTHING WRONG SO GO SCREW!

 

He's part of a union, of course he's going to toe the party line. why the hell would he do anything different?

[a700hitter]

Ortiz got f***ed over by those weasel lawyers that leaked this information. This stuff is still sealed so he can't access the information to clear his name. I'll tell you why I tend to believe him. With regard to ARod, he could not take the chance of making this argument because he was the subject of an investigative book and the author may have had other corroborating evidence of steroid use. Ortiz puts himself on the line today that no other incriminating evidence will come out. If it does, he'll look really bad. Regardless of what the 2003 tests showed and regardless of whether he took steroids in 2003, he has passed every test since then.

[RedSoxRooter]

That was awesome on so many levels. If spun well from here, the list becomes useless after a while because (unless you admitted to using, lol) nobody can definitively tell who of the other 100 were the true 84.

 

And every player going forward can use this same excuse on top of it all. wow.

 

Brilliance!

 

And how about Papi - getting the whole union to defend him? Every player in baseball must love this guy.

[TheKilo]

Manny did too, just sayin'.

 

There's many, many questions still to be answered from Ortiz.

[Dipre]

Ortiz got f***ed over by those weasel lawyers that leaked this information. This stuff is still sealed so he can't access the information to clear his name. I'll tell you why I tend to believe him. With regard to ARod' date=' he could not take the chance of making this argument because he was the subject of an investigative book and the author may have had other corroborating evidence of steroid use. Ortiz puts himself on the line today that no other incriminating evidence will come out. If it does, he'll look really bad. Regardless of what the 2003 tests showed and regardless of whether he took steroids in 2003, he has passed every test since then.[/quote']

 

This.

 

Again, i assume whatever Ortiz took was ingested here.

 

I know it's baseless conjecture.

 

But a lot of testosterone production activating supplements are sold here OTC, and they weren't even being regulated until 2005, when steroids were not only illegal, but easily acquirable.

[TheKilo]

This.

 

Again, i assume whatever Ortiz took was ingested here.

 

I know it's baseless conjecture.

 

But a lot of testosterone production activating supplements are sold here OTC, and they weren't even being regulated until 2005, when steroids were not only illegal, but easily acquirable.

 

He said he got the supplements both in the DR and the US.

[a700hitter]

That wasn't the question, the question was "What supplement caused the positive test?"

 

He was taking a lot, and doesn't know.

Exactly, he doesn't have a list of banned substances to match up with supplements that he took in 2003. How could he possibly be expected to know the answer.

[Dipre]

He said he got the supplements both in the DR and the US.

 

It's very possible whatever triggered the response was bought over here.

 

Then again, it's just conjecture.

[SoxSport]

Baseball is in a real bind on the steroids issue. It appears now that just about any power hitter who was hitting 40-50+ Hrs in the last 10 years can be suspected of taking steroids.You can say so what, but it does affect the record books. The other thing is the owners, the GMs, the Commish and the PA are all playing dumb on the issue. They didn't know about it. Cmon now, with millions of dollars at stake, they didn't know about it? They are all in the same money boat.

 

Re Ortiz, Papi was clearly juiced up for all those great Red Sox years. His stats have really fallen off lately, and you wonder if that isn't recoil from being off them. Or steroid-related injuries? He starts this year off badly, suddenly reverses to his old self in June, and trails off in July so that he's now back to where he was in April/May. That tells me maybe he juiced for June, then stopped? Who knows.

 

Baseball would have been far better off if it had come clean on this issue and not stonewalled it. Admit this stuff was going on, and make note of it in the record books. No sense in lying about it. You get in more trouble by not admitting your errors.

[jacksonianmarch]

There are tons of things at GNC that would trip off a drug screen and tons of supplements that are pro-steroids. I had a kid once, who was "roiding out" on a supplement from GNC. Thinking nothing of it, I kinda blew it off initially. But he had the bottle, unfortunately, the name escapes me. But the dosing regimen is a cycle on, cycle off dosing. And when you look at the chemical composition and its degradation products, it was metabolized to an anabolic steroid. Over the counter at GNC. Thats the thing. The US makes specific drugs illegal. But it takes awhile for that to occur. So, in the meantime, these companies will make supplements that get around the specific bans and make bank until the new product is shut down. It is amazing. It is entirely possible that Ortiz tested positive for a steroid without actually intending on taking steroids. Even if that is the case, the fact would remain that he was "juiced" during his early Boston run.

[a700hitter]

Re Ortiz' date=' Papi was clearly juiced up for all those great Red Sox years. His stats have really fallen off lately, and you wonder if that isn't recoil from being off them. Or steroid-related injuries? He starts this year off badly, suddenly reverses to his old self in June, and trails off in July so that he's now back to where he was in April/May. That tells me maybe he juiced for June, then stopped? Who knows.[/quote']He tested clean in every year since 2003, so how do you conclude that he was clearly juicing in those big years? You do realize that he suffered a very serious wrist injury last year right? Maybe you should make a better effort of trying to make conclusions that are logically based on the facts.

 

Baseball would have been far better off if it had come clean on this issue and not stonewalled it. Admit this stuff was going on' date=' and make note of it in the record books. No sense in lying about it. You get in more trouble by not admitting your errors.[/quote']If additional information comes out about him, it would be very damaging. What we have now is a leak from some weasel lawyers who curiously leaked only Manny's and Ortiz's name. How would these stoolies only have their names? Does that make logical sense? What does the name on the list tell us? It tells us that he allegedly tested positive for a long list of banned substances. It doesn't tell us what substance or how it was administered.

[a700hitter]

It is entirely possible that Ortiz tested positive for a steroid without actually intending on taking steroids. Even if that is the case' date=' the fact would remain that he was "juiced" during his early Boston run.[/quote']During 2003.

[He Hate Me]

Are you watching this?

 

I don't excuse Ortiz for his actions, but he has admitted to taking "many supplements and vitamins" but that "he has never bought or used steroids".

 

He seems very contrite, apologizing the the fans, his team, Francona, and the baseball community many times.

 

I don't take back what I said about Ortiz being a huge disappointment now that he has been placed in this situation, but I give him respect for admitting his wrongdoing and apologizing for it.

 

Certainly better than ARod's, certainly better than Pettitte's.

 

Don't see how it's any different than what Pettite said, other than that Andy admitted to taking HGH and Ortiz denying he took any steroids.

[ms_sox]

Even if he knew what supplement he thinks he took to trigger a positive, I feel pretty sure he wouldn't be allowed to actually name it/them w/out more proof that it WAS a particular brand, because, well, everyone's lawyer/sue happy these days.

[a700hitter]

Don't see how it's any different than what Pettite said' date=' other than that Andy admitted to taking HGH and Ortiz denying he took any steroids.[/quote']

 

Pettittie admitted to taking it only twice as reported in the Mitchell Report until congress got involved then he remembered other times, but he did pray to God before he took the needle.

[He Hate Me]

to echo another poster's thoughts, I think the only reason the union in conjunction with MLB is coming out now to backup Ortiz (instead of ARod) and try to cast doubt on any future leaks is 1) Ortiz is simply more liked by fans, players, media, etc. than ARod, 2) it's the last bullet they have to counter the drip drip drip effect of leaking one name or two every few months.

 

I'm thankful in part that they're doing this now and not before ARod's name came out because undoubtedly ARod would have denied everything and played the Ortiz excuse.

[ms_sox]

I also find not being able to say more information without having more information a reasonable stance. It's not a satisfying stance, to be sure, but it's reasonable.

 

It's amazing how much people, even fans, want to believe the worst. I am not saying he is innocent, or guilty for that matter. I don't farking know, do I?

 

I am, however, saying that judging someone's character via these stupid news conferences is like believing the guy across the street is a drug dealer because he has a lot of friends over at midnight. Get off the conjecture high character horses, people. What if you were accused, and you knew you were innocent? No matter what you said, do you think anyone would believe you?

 

This whole list/steroids/legalities crap is sad, stupid, and IMO should be left in the past. Start monthly testing and half-season or full season suspensions and be done with the issue of what who did 5, 10 years ago. Get over it.

[He Hate Me]

Pettittie admitted to taking it only twice as reported in the Mitchell Report until congress got involved then he remembered other times

 

and Ortiz claims he didn't know about the positive even though it's been reported that every player who tested positive was informed by MLB.

 

, but he did pray to God before he took the needle.

unnecessary comment.

[Dipre]

and Ortiz claims he didn't know about the positive even though it's been reported that every player who tested positive was informed by MLB.

 

 

unnecessary comment.

 

Are you even using logic here?

 

Stop the homerism and at least wait to see what actually happened.