MLB Babble

I have heard myriad columnists and sports personalities claiming the fact that David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez juiced automatically taints the 2004 and 2007 Red Sox championships. This is an absolutely ludicrous thought.

First off, the tests were administered in 2003. Who is to say that Ortiz and Manny were juicing in 2004 and 2007? Yes, they did in 2003. But 2004? 2007? Also, on this point, do we have any tangible evidence that the performance-enhancing drugs increased their playing ability? Here are their 2003 numbers:

Scrutinize their year-by-year numbers a little more closely. From 1998 through 2006, 2003 was actually Manny’s lowest slugging percentage. Interesting?

As well, 2003 was Big Papi’s first year in Boston. 2003 has his lowest slugging percentage during his Boston career until 2008.

OK, enough analyzing stats. We don’t even know if they were using steroids. We don’t know if they were trying to gain power. Perhaps the banned substance was HGH, primarily used to recover more quickly between games. Who knows? Moving on…

Maybe they injected each other?

Since when does a team live and die with two men? Yes, these boppers were instrumental in both championship runs (perhaps more so than any other roster player), but how can you take away those championships from the other 23 players? They didn’t—to our knowledge—use PEDs. The coaches didn’t. The guys in the front office didn’t. How can two individuals’ selfish actions taint an achievement that was collectively reached by dozens? Uhh, it can’t.

Here’s the bigger issue: everyone was juicing. OK, not everyone. But, odds are, Manny and Ortiz were not the only two on the 2003 Boston Red Sox that juiced. And, odds are, they were not the only two superstars “cheating.” We already know that Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa were doing so (along with Jason Grimsley and David Segui). At this point, who cares? Everyone was using something (and I use the word ‘everyone’ as an implicit ‘majority’ of course).

Just please release the rest of the names already. I’m tired of talking about this. I’m tired of hearing and reading about it. Major League Baseball obviously can’t do it; the players will sue them. But whoever at the New York Times has the list, or whoever the source is that every few months leaks a name, must come forward and divulge the names. Please. For the love of God, just end this misery. We cannot move on from the Steroid Era until we have complete closure. And that will only come with a full admission.

For the sake of the game of baseball, we must know who was on that list. We all want to move forward. This is the only way to do so.