NY Times: Ortiz and Manny Ramirez on 2003 PED list

[blueclown]

Source: New York Times

Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz, the sluggers who propelled the Boston Red Sox to end an 86-year World Series championship drought and to capture another title three years later, were among the roughly 100 Major League Baseball players to test positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003, according to lawyers with knowledge of the results.

Some of baseball’s most cherished storylines of the past decade have been tainted by performance-enhancing drugs, including the accomplishments of record-setting home run hitters and dominating pitchers. Now, players with Boston’s championship teams of 2004 and 2007 have also been linked to doping.

Baseball first tested for steroids in 2003, and the results from that season were supposed to remain anonymous. But for reasons that have never been made clear, the results were never destroyed and the first batch of positives has come to be known among fans and people in baseball as “the list.” The information was later seized by federal agents investigating the distribution of performance-enhancing drugs to professional athletes, and the test results remain the subject of litigation between the baseball players union and the government.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/sports/baseball/31doping.html?hp

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And the city of Boston loses its moral high ground. As a Yankee fan, this is schaudenfraude.

The last 15 years of baseball will be known as the Steroid Era, and hopefully we have moved beyond that.

[flvegan]

1. Could be, though

I don't have much faith in any information given by lawyers in violation of a court order, especially when it's published by a Yankees rag.

[DaveinMD]

4. A Yankee rag?

The NY Times are part owners of the Red Sox.

[flvegan]

7. No matter.

[DaveinMD]

8. not a Yankee rag

as you charged when they were part owners of the Sox. So your point just isn't valid.

[Name removed]

11. Deleted sub-thread

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[Dreamer Tatum]

19. How intellectual nt

[MADem]

2. Manny's an asshole and no one is surprised. David Ortiz is a nice guy, though.

It's plain though, that he has slimmed down and it's not Jenny Craig that has done it for him.

Boston never claimed to have "moral high ground" on this issue--it was pretty obvious, just to look at many of the players on most teams, that they were juiced.

It's not normal for people to have necks that large. And pimples approaching thirty? No, no, no....

The Yankees were juiced back then too.

[BeyondGeography]

3. It's official: Boston won the Juice Bowl against the Yankees in 2004

Level playing field. Best combination of PED's and a propensity to deliver in the clutch took it.

[MADem]

9. These results are a year earlier, though.

They probably bought the stuff from ...... A-Rod!

[BeyondGeography]

12. A-Rod never could find the drug that handled things from the neck-up

Damn.

[blueclown]

14. Still in denial, huh?

Must suck to be knocked off your high horse.

[MADem]

21. What's wrong with you? The "clown" part of your name is right on the mark.

I'd preface it differently, though.

Like I said, if he got 'em, he probably got 'em from the guy who supplied the entire YANKEE clubhouse for the last two decades.

Be careful what you wish for--there are a hundred and two more names to go.

I don't believe much in the "sources say" NYT anymore, anyway. The difference between them and the NY Post is the type face and the size of the paper, these days.

[sharp_stick]

5. As a Yankees fan

you will do what Yankee's fans do and cling to any piece of schadenfreude you can while patiently waiting for the inevitable. A-roid to go into his yearly death spiral just before the playoffs leading one of the nicest guys in the league (Derek Jeter) just a little closer to finally saying Ah fuck it, I can't stand the Steinbrenner family anymore. ;-)

In all honesty though, we'll know when the steroid era is over when home run stats return to pre McGwire, Sosa and Bonds levels and these scumbags along with any others testing positive are barred from the hall of fame for life.

The game has been tainted for years not just because of the overabundance of juiced up idiots taking the field but the anemic and pathetic response by MLB to the scandal.

[MADem]

10. Yes, indeed. "It's everywhere, it's everywhere!" You've summed it up well. NT

[GoesTo11]

6. Ortiz earned a total of $3M in contracts through 2003, $60M since then.

Was it worth it to use steroids?

Hell yeah!

[Titanothere]

13. That was a great series ...

not a big baseball fan but that comeback was awesome to watch.

[Blue_Tires]

15. wow...is there ANYONE from this era left other than Pujols?

[JackDragna]

18. Frank Thomas

Thomas was always a big, big guy.

[Blue_Tires]

20. yeah, folks like thomas, mcgriff and griffey are obvious ones...

they all have the same bodies they came in the league with...

[Ter]

22. In a four year span, Griffey hit over 200 home runs

This during the peak of the steroids era. Don't get me started on him, he's a major suspect.

[fascisthunter]

16. very disappointing, but not surprised

I had a hunch he was doing it too, because of his massive slump. Makes ya wonder how many others were doing the same thing.

[JackDragna]

17. This shouldn't be a shock.

Ortiz, in particular, underwent a pretty significant jump in his batting stats shortly after arriving in Boston. Sigh. Baseball needs to do more than slap these people on the wrist.