Ortiz Joins A-Roid on the List?

So many of you by now have probably read that David Ortiz has joined Alex Rodriguez on what is sure to be the long list of baseball players who used performance enhancing drugs in the early 2000s. In this case, 2003. Even as a Red Sox fan, I can't say I find this particularly shocking. What is becoming increasingly clear through the names that so far have been leaked from this supposedly closed list, is that many of MLBs big stars during these years were linked to steroids. It's beginning to seem that if Henry Aaron's asterisk for PED users gets approved, we are going to be seeing a whole bunch of asterisks for players during the 2000s. With these high-profile names being leaked, it does make a fan wonder, is this only the tip of the icerberg? Was steroid use as widespread as it appears to be, or were PEDs linked primarily to these players who happened to be at the top of the batting charts? Unfortunately until the whole list is released or leaked, us ordinary fans will have no idea just how widespread PED use was in baseball, all we will be able to do is speculate on who may or may not have done steroids or used other drugs to get a leg up on their fellow players.

As a fan of the Red Sox, I have to say it is saddening in some ways to see two of the best players (Ortiz and Manny Ramirez) on the 2004 World Series team linked to PEDs by this report. At the same time, I would not be surprised to learn if there were other members of the team whose names are also on the PED list. To all the fans who I'm sure will come out of the woodwork and argue that this somehow cheapens the World Series rings that the Red Sox won during this time frame, I cannot really refute this argument completely. But part of me can't help but think that if we were to have the list in front of us, that there would likely be a representative from every team in baseball on that list.

Will we ever see the list appear fully? Somehow I doubt it, unless it gets to a point where credibility for the league gets to such a low that the Players Union just decides to release the list to the press. Part of the reason that we will be unlikely to see a leak of the list, in my opinion is the fact that whoever posts it will get the pants sued off them by an angry group of players who were informed that this list was going to be confidential. On this disappointing day for Red Sox fans, and once again for baseball fans overall, I can't help but look ahead to the coming weeks and months when I'm sure we will find what other players rode the PED bus.

Kyle