Everybody wants a little piece of my time

Well they sure found something to take our minds off of the trade deadline, didn’t they?

I missed all the live ‘fun’ on NESN yesterday.  The game, the Papi coverage, the Nomar interview…got to check in Thursday night and have a few observations (might be a bit rambling as I started writing this at 3:15am!):

1)  I’ve always suspected Nomar of using PEDs.  For whatever reasons, hypocritical or not, it never bothered me in the “Ooh his career is tainted” way just in a “I wonder what might have been if not for them” way.  After watching his post-game interview on NESN I absolutely believe him when he says he didn’t use.  Maybe I’m naive or maybe I’m just purposely turning a blind eye – either way I look at it, Nomar offered a compelling view yesterday and if you haven’t seen the video of his interview you should.

Garciaparra cast doubt on the method employed to obtain the 103 names on the list, suggesting that some players opted not to take the test in order to purposely fail the test. The players assumed that doing so would increase the number of positive tests and therefore require PED testing throughout baseball.

I’d like to hear more about this.  He specifically mentions the White Sox in the interview with John Chandler.  Someone needs to dig deeper into this.  If they’re going to drizzle the names out this way there should be something in the way of a response from the players.

2)  Most of the NESN folks seem genuinely bummed about this but the likes of the Boston sports writers, predictably, all have erections right now that won’t go away for months.  Unless you want to choke on your own vomit, I suggest avoiding Boston.com like the plague.  Apparently, almost everyone there seems to have known all along that Papi was using and they also think he should have electrodes attached to his testicles and be shot up with a million volts.  (Chad Finn seems to be the only one with a reasonable “disappointed but not surprised” attitude at this point.)  I’m all for fair reporting on this story – it’s huge and the reporters shouldn’t respond like fans – but the absolute glee that some people are reporting with is disgusting.  I can’t even imagine what D&C will be like this Friday morning…I sense I’ll want to tear my ears right off my head if I listen.

3)  Either Tito and Theo are the world’s greatest actors or they genuinely believe that this blindsided Papi.  I was pleased to see them both support Papi so thoroughly during their post-game pressers yesterday.  Neither man looked happy but they certainly held their ground.  Special shout-out to former Globey (and someone I used to respect) Gordon Edes for being asshole enough to ask Tito if this “taints” the two World Championships.  I never thought Edes would follow the lead of the likes of Boston Dirt Dogs.  How depressing to find out I was wrong.

For the record, I don’t believe for a minute those championships are tainted.  For two reasons, one being that the test was in 2003…and if you want me to believe that Andy Pettitte only used once and ARod only used until he got to New York well then I can believe that Papi was only using something in 2003.  The second reason is if you’re going to tell me that many more players than the 104 were using SOMETHING (which I agree with) we don’t know how many players on the 2004 Angels, Yankees and Cardinals (or even the 2007 Angels, Indians and Rockies) were cheating do we?  It saddens me that I have to acknowledge that every team is probably “tainted”.

4)  I take Papi at his word.  As a friend pointed out,  I HAVE to believe him.  Again, that might be hypocritical, but you know what – so what?  I’m human and  I can be a hypocrite (as an aside having nothing to do with Papi or steroids, I find people who use different names from the same IP address to both praise me and criticize me in the comments to be much more hypocritical than my reevaluating my feelings about PED use – only been back here two days and already have two people doing this!).  For reasons I haven’t fully understood, Jay Gibbons was the player who got me starting to pull back on my harsh stance against the cheaters – not one of my beloved Red Sox – Jay Gibbons.  Am I disappointed that Papi tested positive for something?  Hell yes.  But I believe him that he’s going to find out what he tested for and face his team, the fans and the media head on with it.  I believed JC Romero and I can give David Ortiz the same consideration.

I will admit to being worried, initially, at how this would hit the clubhouse.  Losing streaks, trade deadlines, and now this.  Based on quotes from his teammates and the fact that they came back to win the game yesterday (due largely to Ortiz), I’m less worried about that today.

5)  I’m sad that this is happening but, even more sadly I guess, it isn’t like it was unexpected.  The who, maybe, but not the fact that Red Sox players are being attached to PEDs.  It was a nice run, not having our players named, but everyone had to know names of our guys would come out eventually.

Incidentally, this is no way changes how I feel about Alex Rodriguez.  Long before he was outed by Selena Roberts, I thought him a phony, arrogant, obnoxious, bush-league player.  That hasn’t changed.  And maybe that’s why it’s easier to believe an Ortiz over a Rodriguez?   Not because he’s a Red Sox player versus a Yankee but because his playing history isn’t full of times when he blatantly cheated (or at least acted like a six year-old in a schoolyard).  So maybe I can’t call him A*Rod any more but he’ll always be Slappy to me.

6)  Even when ARod was outed I didn’t take much joy in it.  Sure I called him A*Rod but he was actually one of the few players I never thought used PEDs.  I’m not just a Red Sox fan, I’m a baseball fan and I envy other baseball fans who aren’t as bummed out by steroids and other PEDs being infused into the game.  I am and as much as I can understand why players would do it, that doesn’t make it easier to accept.  I want Papi to come out and tell us that he tested for something they find in a supplement and he didn’t realize it would give him a positive test.  I don’t want to hear that it’s something like Manny took that you can’t deny was being used as a PED.  Regardless of what we end up finding out, though, I can’t stop supporting David Ortiz.  I really thought I’d be able to but yesterday proved to me that I was wrong.  I was “mad” for about three minutes after I got over being “devastated”.  Neither of those emotions lasted very long.  I suppose when you start looking at people you care about (hell and even those you don’t) as imperfect beings it gets easier to understand or maybe even forgive possible transgressions.

My closet, she is not so clean, you know?

7)  I’m really starting to wonder why no one is going after the person/people leaking this information.  The guy who wrote the NYT story told NESN that it isn’t like the info is being doled out bit by bit to the media but I call bullshit on that.  Selena Roberts was looking to find out if Alex Rodriguez was on the list – and she did.  This NYT guy was looking to find Red Sox players on it – and he did.  I don’t think either are a coincidence and if the writers know who to contact to get this info why aren’t they getting ALL of it?  That’s a bit of a contradiction, I realize.  I can’t be mad that the names are being leaked and then ask for ALL the names to be leaked but if we can all agree that there were more than 104 players using some form of PED in 2003 can’t we be adult enough about it to get all the names out so the players don’t have to wonder and so we don’t spend the next ten years waiting for another shoe to drop?

EDITED TO ADD #7

7) Today’s Herald has some interesting and honest quotes from Bronson Arroyo about all of this:

Bronson Arroyo, a 2003 Red Sox [team stats] teammate of David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez, said yesterday he would not be shocked to discover his name on the list of 104 major league ballplayers who tested positive in the spring of 2003 for using performance-enhancing drugs.

His reason may shed light on what may have happened to Ortiz in 2003, as well.

Back then, Arroyo said via phone from Cincinnati, he was using both androstenedione, which was not banned until the 2004 season, and amphetamines, which were not banned until 2006.

The only reason Arroyo stopped using andro was because he heard through the grapevine that, because of lax production standards, some andro was laced with known steroids, such as Winstrol.

“I feel like the game’s getting cleared up,” he said. “Personally, I don’t care what people think about what I did. I do what I do.”

Bronson certainly doesn’t mince words, does he? Like Nomar, he brings up an interesting point that I wonder if anyone will bother to follow up with him or other players (or others in the know about Andro).

This morning, I’m off to Baltimore for the weekend.  I eagerly look forward to the time I’ll be spending with some of the sistahs and I’m hoping the Sox began a winning streak yesterday that, at least, covers the weekend.  I’ll be posting from Baltimore at some point and will, hopefully, have some photos to share as well.

And I’m hitting the road today in my David Ortiz All-Star jersey.