Should David Ortiz Have Gotten A Standing Ovation At The All Star Game Last Night?
Almost seven years to the day, a report surfaced that David Ortiz’s name was on a list of 104 players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs back in 2003.
To this day, we still have no idea what it is that Ortiz tested positive for. Ortiz claimed that it was a supplement that he purchased legally that would’ve flagged the positive test. After Ortiz claimed that he took a legal supplement, which he assumed was the reason for the positive test, the MLB released a statement claiming that, “In 2003, legally available nutritional supplements could trigger an initial ‘positive’ test under our program.” People forget that little detail, and the order in which those events happened are also important.
This will obviously prompt the anti-Ortiz mob to cry out that there’s no way that Ortiz didn’t take performance-enhancing drugs. I’m not saying he didn’t. I’m just saying that he claimed to have taken one thing, which was a legal supplement, and then the MLB came out afterwards and admitted that their anonymous testing in 2003 was so flawed that you could’ve tested positive for something that any of us could purchase at GNC right now. That doesn’t make use steroid users, and the same applies to Ortiz until we find out what it is that caused the positive test.
They won’t release what it is that Ortiz actually tested positive for, since the test was supposed to be anonymous. Unless there’s a rat on the inside, we’ll probably never know. So, it’s up to you to decide. The majority will obviously say that he took PEDs, because, well, everybody did. That’s fair. Nobody could ever blame you for believing that he took them. He put up monster numbers in the heart of the Steroid Era. Fair point. But he’s also been putting up monster numbers from 2005 on, which is when MLB started testing their players, and he’s failed zero tests during the period in which the MLB has implemented PED testing.
There’s a counter to that, too. Alex Rodriguez never failed a PED test, but was suspended for a year for his connection to PEDs in the Biogenesis scandal. The counter to that counter is, where is the evidence against Ortiz? There isn’t any. At least, not since an anonymous test from before MLB started testing players, while the test itself was something that the league openly admitted was flawed. That’s it.
That brings me to the main question. Should David Ortiz have been given the standing ovation that he received in San Diego after he was removed from his final All Star Game last night? Absolutely. But I’m biased, admittedly (no shit). I’m a Red Sox fan, and I grew up watching Ortiz. How could your childhood hero ever cheat the game that you love so much? Well, again, I’m not saying that he didn’t do it, but I am saying there’s reason to believe he didn’t. Delusional, or just being fair? It’s innocent until proven guilty in this country, and nobody has ever really been able to prove that Ortiz is guilty. He’s guilty of failing a flawed test 13 years ago, but for what? We don’t know, and the league won’t tell us.
Does that mean we can’t appreciate one of the great ambassadors to the game of baseball for all that he’s accomplished? There’s no right or wrong answer. If you think he cheated and you don’t want to applaud him for that, then don’t. You’re not wrong for that. But I heard a hell of a lot of cheers last night in San Diego. And that doesn’t necessarily mean that those who cheered him think that he was/is a clean player. They were simply appreciating a man who gave many fantastic memories (or nightmares, depending on your favorite team) to baseball fans, and it was a show of appreciation for what he has been able to do during his career. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.