David Ortiz: 'I never knowingly took any steroids'
More than five years have passed since David Ortiz's name was plastered across ESPN's various platforms, the Boston Red Sox icon identified as one of 104 major-league players to have tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003.
Ortiz, though, still remembers when his son approached him, shortly thereafter, with tears in his eyes.
"Dad, why are they calling you a cheater? Are you a cheater?"
On the verge of his 19th season in the majors, Ortiz remains one of the game's most accomplished players and recognizable figures - a charismatic and impossibly talented hitter with a strong case for a spot in Cooperstown. Still, his connections to steroid use, dubious as they are, continue to undermine his legacy, even though the 38-year-old never received an explanation for why he triggered a positive test more than a decade ago.
On Thursday, Ortiz penned a poignant essay for the Players' Tribune in which he vehemently denied ever knowingly taking performance-enhancing drugs during his career while noting that he's been forced to take more than 80 drug tests since 2004.
Let me tell you something. Say whatever you want about me - love me, hate me. But I’m no bullshitter. I never knowingly took any steroids. If I tested positive for anything, it was for something in pills I bought at the damn mall. If you think that ruins everything I have done in this game, there is nothing I can say to convince you different.
No one had ever told me I’d failed any test. Now six years later some documents get leaked and they’re saying I’m dirty. I called my agent and asked what was going on. He didn’t have any answers for me. I called the MLB Players’ Association and they didn’t have any answers for me. To this day, nobody has any answers for me. Nobody can tell me what I supposedly tested positive for. They say they legally can’t, because the tests were never supposed to be public.
The Dominican native also provided some interesting insight into baseball's drug culture, wherein players consume pretty much anything they can legally get their hands on to keep up with the demands of an unrelenting 162-game schedule.
Some people still look at me like I’m a cheater because my name was on a list of players who got flagged for PEDs in 2003. Let me tell you something about that test. Most guys were taking over-the-counter supplements then. Most guys are still taking over-the-counter supplements. If it’s legal, ballplayers take it. Why? Because if you make it to the World Series, you play 180 games. Really think about that for a second. 180 games. Your kids could be sick, your wife could be yelling at you, your dad could be dying - nobody cares. Nobody cares if you have a bone bruise in your wrist or if you have a pulled groin. You’re an entertainer. The people want to see you hit a 95-mile-an-hour fastball over a damn 37-foot wall.
Ortiz, the consummate showman, also refused to apologize for his tendency to admire his home runs, a proclivity that's drawn criticism from both pitchers and puritans in recent years.
Yeah, I’m gonna have fun. It’s who I am. I just hit a baseball 500 damn feet. I grew up in the gutter and now I’m out here in front of the world living my dream and you all want me to feel sad? I can’t do it. I’m here to bring joy to this game.
On the subject of the Hall of Fame, meanwhile, Ortiz did not equivocate.
Hell yes I deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. I’ve won three World Series since MLB introduced comprehensive drug testing. I’ve performed year after year after year. But if a bunch of writers who have never swung a bat want to tell me it’s all for nothing, OK. Why do they write my legacy?