DownSwinging.com

When news broke that David Ortiz tested positive (for something) in 2003, I wrote an initial piece that was a little bitter and unsurprised. I, in an attempt to be objective, wrote about how it really wasn’t very shocking that Papi was a PED user, considering his numbers. I guess at that point I didn’t believe there could be some sort of serious explanation that would excuse Ortiz, because no one caught yet has had a real case to acquit them.

But that may change. Before we go farther, I want to point out that it has not been made clear what exactly Ortiz tested positive for. While everyone assumes that Ortiz was on steroids, it may not be the case. Regardless, Ortiz has said that he doesn’t know what he could have tested for and the idea of a false positive has been floating around. For the moment, let’s ignore the fact that so many past users have denied usage or claimed they didn’t think they could have tested positive. What is far more important here is that PED experts have said that the over-the-counter supplements that Ortiz was using during the 2003 season could have caused a false positive in the 2003 tests. Likewise, Major League Baseball has said that there were in fact false positives in the 2003 testing, meaning that some of those 104 players who tested positive may not have actually been PED users.

So does that give Ortiz, and me, a glimmer of hope? Well, yes it does. Actually I started to feel that hope when Bronson Arroyo spoke out saying that in 2003 it wasn’t like it is now. He said there wasn’t a list of what was okay and what wasn’t, everyone was just taking supplements and he wouldn’t be surprised if he was on that list. That says a lot to me about the culture of baseball at the time. And there’s a big difference between Ortiz/Arroyo and A-Rod right there too. At least in my book, pleading innocence when your cousin is injecting you is entirely different from taking oral supplements that anyone can pick up in a GNC and sparking a false positive. A huge difference.

Now I’m not saying that Ortiz definitely didn’t do anything wrong. He may well have. But when we should take away from this is that the issue isn’t settled yet. We don’t know enough to rule on whether Papi is guilty or not, or somewhere in between. But if there was ever someone insistent upon his lack of usage, and they were innocent, it would be David Ortiz.