King Mike's Blog
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All over the baseball community, the raving tonight isn't about any comebacks or bench-clearing incidents. No, it was Boston of all places that was some how as loud as a Bruce Springsteen concert, and yet he wasn't evening playing at that venue. It's rather absurd to think that the Boston Red Sox would be playing at Fenway if Springsteen was scheduled there, but for the home team, a fresh breath of air and cheers freshened the Beantown air.

Mr. Ortiz, of all people, hit his first home run of the season, and why is it so surprising? Why did it have to take him 149 at bats to hit a dinger? And why did he feel shocked and silent when Manny Ramirez was caught with the unexcuseable use of performance enhancing substances?

David Ortiz, earlier this year, made the following statement regarding steroid use in February of this year:

"Ban 'em for the whole year"

It's not professional to give accusations just like the controversal Selena Roberts, but doesn't any coherent person see the irony? Why are millions of fans supposed to believe that Ortiz is a clean-power hitting slugger when it took him this long to finally hit a home run? Oh the shock to hear his reaction to the media when Man-Ram was suspended a while ago:

"This situation has shocked me. That's not the guy that I know...The only thing I know about him is that he's a guy who works hard every day and gets prepared to play the game"

It's astonishing to compare the situations that differ over the course of a couple of months. In February, we have a designated hitter who seems rather enthusiastic about having a policy that would abolish the 50-game suspension and instead have athletes out of baseball for use of PED's. However, in May, it was almost like Manic Depression when he spoke out about his former teammate. I would be the first to guarantee that he would have never reacted this dramatically if Derek Jeter was caught using PED's.

But why raise the question that Ortiz might have been a user himself? Why portray him as a self-victim of hypocrisy?

All a Baseball statistician has to do is read the stats and compare where he was a Minnesota Twin to when he first arrived to Boston:

As a Boston Red Sox, in 7 years, he has hit 232 home runs with a .293 average. However, in Minnesota, where he played 6 years, he hit 58 home runs with a .266 average. Yet, although he played roughly 2 1/2 full seasons as a twin, on a 162 calculated averaged game schedule, he would hit 35 home runs with a .285 average. Maybe this is just because his Boston years he blossomed as a DH, but the career statistics are eye-popping when evaluated carefully.

The last three years, he has been plagued with injury and cold streaks, which are usually side-effects of a user (compare this to Alex Rodriguez, who although has hit 5 homers since coming back, he average is way below .200). This was the not the case for Manny Ramirez, who was using a substance that was alleged to hide possible steroid use.

While Ortiz has had his so-called "homer-less" streak(*), Jason Bay and other teammates picked up the slack, and heavy loading they did, because they were providing the power that Ortiz couldn't until after last game.

The use of performance enhancing substances should be considered critically considered in this case, but, until we discover extreme surprises, left with ambiguity. I seriously recommend that writers everywhere seriously investigate this case and, if possible, find a way to get the remaining 103 names that were on the list that Alex Rodriguez was on. When we have this list revealed, we will know the true nature of Big Papi.

 
May 23, 2009  10:59 AM ET

king Mike,

interesting research, I think you can also add that the Ortiz of 2009 seems to be suffering from the incredible shrinking body syndrome that afflicted Clemens, Bonds, Giambi once more
attention was put on their remarkable accomplishments. You can also mention that Big Papi also used the same trainer that Manny and ARod had during his offseason workouts. The only thing I never recall hearing about Big Papi were the crazy workout habits that seemed to be part of the routine by the other users.
Since Big Papi plays in Boston, doubt if we ever will know for sure due to George Mitchell's relationship with the team and with MLB protecting the Sox to insure they can beat the Yankees.

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