Report: Ramirez, Ortiz failed drug tests in 2003
David Ortiz(notes) and Manny Ramirez(notes), the slugging combination that led the Boston Red Sox to World Series titles in 2004 and 2007, appeared on the list of more than 100 players who tested positive for steroid use in 2003, according to the New York Times.
While numerous members of the New York Yankees have been linked to the use of performance-enhancing substances – Alex Rodriguez(notes), Jason Giambi(notes), Roger Clemens(notes), Andy Pettitte(notes), Chuck Knoblauch, Mike Stanton(notes) and Jason Grimsley(notes) – this is the first time players from the teams that broke Boston's 86-year championship drought have been identified as users while they were playing for the Red Sox.
Now with the Dodgers, Ramirez recently completed a 50-game suspension after Major League Baseball officials discovered Ramirez had been prescribed human chorionic gonadotropin, a fertility drug for women that men can use to generate production of testosterone after they have stopped using steroids.
Since his return, Ramirez has consistently refused to acknowledge whether he had used performance-enhancing substances.
Ortiz, who has adamantly denied using performance-enhancing substances over the years, had no comment before Thursday's game with Oakland when approached by a New York Times reporter.
"People will say they'll get you big, they'll get you strong, they'll make you rich, but personally I think it's a terrible decision," Ortiz told me a couple of years ago. "Because life continues after baseball. What if right after you retire, your body breaks down and you have to spend two years in bed and then die? How was everything you did to make money, how was it worth it? So your family could look at you as a superhero, and you left a ton of money for them?
"I was talking to my son [D'Angelo] this morning. He kept saying, 'Daddy, I love you, I miss you, when are you coming home, Daddy?' You know what that tells you? They care more about me being with them than what I can give them. They're not asking me, 'Hey Daddy, are you going to bring me something?' No, they're saying, 'Daddy, we love you, we miss you.' That's a quick example to me of why it's not worth it, man."
Ortiz fell to 35 home runs in 2007, but still led the American League in extra-base hits with 88 and finished with a .332 average, fifth best in the league. Last season, he appeared in just 109 games after sustaining a partially torn tendon sheath in his left wrist on a swing in Baltimore on May 31. He did not require surgery, but was out until July 25 and never fully recovered, finishing the year by batting .154 in the ALCS against Tampa Bay.
He began this season with the biggest slump of his career, going 35 games without hitting a home run before connecting on his 133d at-bat on May 20 in Toronto. He was hitting just .196 as recently as June 10 before beginning a 40-game stretch in which he has hit .267 with 10 home runs and 31 RBIs entering play Thursday.
His prolonged slump prompted renewed speculation, particularly on radio talk shows, newspaper columns and Websites, that Ortiz was no longer using performance enhancing drugs. His friendship with such players and fellow Dominicans Rodriguez, Sammy Sosa(notes) and Miguel Tejada(notes) also fueled such speculation.
"I think it's always going to be fair to jump to that conclusion now," Michael Cuddyer(notes) of the Twins, who was Ortiz's teammate for parts of two seasons in Minnesota, said in an interview with the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. "Which is sad to say. Do I jump to that conclusion about David? No, I'm not saying that at all. But is anybody fair game in this day and age? Of course. That's what everybody means when they say that those guys are giving a black eye to baseball. It's because everybody jumps to the conclusion, `Well, it's because he juiced.'
"That's not right, but it's obviously fair, because people in the game are giving you the opportunity to think that. It sucks. It's unfortunate. Do I think David did it? No."
Five others have been tied to positive tests from that year: Barry Bonds(notes), Alex Rodriguez(notes), Sammy Sosa(notes), Jason Grimsley(notes) and David Segui.
