Michael S. Schmidt in the New York Times reports that “according to lawyers with knowledge of the results” both Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz were among the 103 MLB players to test positive for performance-enhancing drugs back in 2003.

That was the first year baseball tested players, and the results were supposed to remain anonymous.  However, names have started to leak out, and now in addition to Ortiz and Ramirez, the names of Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Sammy Sosa, Jason Grimsley and David Segui have been tied to the list.

My question is when do the names of the lawyers who are leaking confidential information come out?

Published by Bruce Allen

Automattician.

30 thoughts on “NY Times – Ortiz and Ramirez Failed Drug Tests in 2003”

  1. I’d imagine these lawyers must be putting their licenses at risk in leaking names from a confidential document. At this point, all the names should come out so that this issue can be settled once and for all instead of being dragged out by having a few names leak out every other month.

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  3. I am curious about the names on the list rather than knowing there might be unethical lawyers (OMG, the shock!). The rest of the names will eventually come out.

    Funny how we hear names every couple of months like a teaser.

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  4. Disappointing but not the least bit surprising. Manny’s steroid use was already known, Ortiz’s was suspected by everyone. Well, everyone except the Buckleys and Mcadams of the world who just weeks ago were ripping anyone who even suggested Ortiz might have been a past steroid user.

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    1. Agreed – its not like I remember anybody from this site getting revved up over the leaks that outed A/Rod, or for that matter the violation of sworn grand jury secrecy that led to Game of Shadows. So now that its our guy we want to go after the source?

      One guy somewhate vindicated today – Terry Ryan.

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    2. No, I’m not really troubled over that. (or revved up)

      Nor am I surprised about Ortiz, or any future name that will come out.

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      1. I am troubled by the fact that there is no outrage concerning the criminal actions of those leaking these names, regardless of who they are.

        The agreement regarding those tests were they were to be confidential. As someone who has been drug-tested and who has run a drug-testing program, a key component to any program is its confidentiality.

        I am consistently amazed at the lack of outrage (in the media and the public) concerning the illegal leaks surrounding those tests. I guess the concepts of privacy; illegal search & seizure; along with those other pesky constitutional rights people have fought and died for are meaningless as long we found out who used and can say I told you so.

        As an aside, I work in Washington D.C., and every night I take the Metro past Arlington Cemetery. I wonder how those buried there would view the trampling on people’s civil liberties they gave their lives for. I think it would be interesting to ask them.

        What happened over 6 years ago cannot be changed and players who were tested during that time frame should NOT have their tests revealed, whether it was A-Rod, Ortiz, Manny, and/or anyone else because it is a violation of their rights.

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  6. Does this really surprise anyone? I didn’t think so. Michael Felger of Comcast Sports Net said best a couple of months ago when asked if Red Sox fans should feel bad about their two World Series wins because of the rumors that Ortiz and Ramirez may have been juiced. He said, paraphrasing, “Absolutely not, every team had their fair share of users. It’s just that our juicers played better than the other teams juicers.”

    As Marc mentioned, the only people who are still stunned by this news are some of the Boston sports media like Steve Buckley and Shawn McAdam who were appalled that people actually believed Ortiz juiced when there was no proof. Other “reporters” who still have their head in the sand are Peter Gammons, Buster Olney and Tim Kirkjian. Kirkjian won’t believe anything unless there is a needle sticking out of their asses.

    As Frank Drebben said after blowing up the Chinese fireworks factory in the Naked Gun, ” Move along people there’s nothing to see.”

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    1. the only people who are still stunned by this news are some of the Boston sports media like Steve Buckley and Shawn McAdam who were appalled that people actually believed Ortiz juiced when there was no proof.

      Yes, it is stunning that someone should be appalled when people accuse players of PED use without any proof. Why should McAdam and Buckley think that there should be some semblance of fair play when accusing people of breaking the law?

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      1. By the way, I could care less about steroid use. If you want to take something that will allow you to hit 50 homers but may kill you by 50 by all means do so. PED’s, like not wearing your seatbelt, is a victimless crime the only person who gets hurt is the juicer. I just finished reading the Michael Gee’s article on Ortiz. It pretty much sums up how I feel. There is no competitive advantage if the guy pitching is juicing as much as the batter. But for some media people to get all huffy because people may actually have an opinion, which these guys give all the time in their columns and on the radio is foolish on their part. They wag their finger at you and tell you they will be the ones who tell you when someone is “cheating”.

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        1. who were appalled that people actually believed Ortiz juiced when there was no proof.

          Read that sentence again. Slowly. After that, tell me how I shouldn’t be appalled that people believe something without any proof.

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  7. Nice job by Tony Mazz quoting from the 2006 Ortiz autobiography in a Boston.com column this afternoon… a bio that HE CO-WROTE! Yet, he didn’t allude to that inconvenient fact.

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    1. Typical Mazz with the self-righteius indignation. If he really is so disgusted then he should have no problem giving back any proceeds he made from the book.

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  8. Reporters like Buckley, McAdam, Gammons and Kirkjian fancy themselves as gatekeepers of the game. They are apologetic mouthpieces for the sport and teams they cover. This clouds their objectivity.

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  9. Maybe this explains why Ortiz was in such a funk the first three months of the season. His head was more messed up than his swing. Once A-Rod got busted, Ortiz knew it was just a matter of time until he was out-ed. Wait until the Red Sox play in the Bronx. The New York press will sink its teeth into Ortiz, unlike the Boston media who are softer than soft-serve vanilla on a 101 degree day.

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    1. Amen, and well stated.

      I wish I had the time to research other players who had great years in the “PED Prime Distribution Years” and now have stats somewhere above ‘Tek and below Bay.

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    2. The Boston media is soft serve? Have you never had the misfortune of listing to the fat people on the Big Show!??!!

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  10. allright!….once again it’s STEROID MANIA TIME!.. in our last exciting episode ARod was outed or was it Manny?…I forget…anyway sit back and watch the thrilling action as the media feeds on Big Papi for a couple of weeks after which it will be back to regular programming and what promises to be a great pennant race!

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  11. It’s rather ironic the NY Times, which we all know owns 17 percent of the Red Sox, out-ed the team’s biggest star. I guess real journalism isn’t quite dead.

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  12. Ortiz has enough ‘community goodwill’ chips in his bank account to withstand any local backlash. He’s bankrolled enough to see him through. Nationally, though, probably not. But then again, that’s not our worry.

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    1. Intersting thoughts on the reorters in this story..

      Gammons is going to the HOF.. For what? Becaused he missed, OR (more likely) turned a blindeye to steroids? As a HOF reporter you think he EITHER missed or blatantly ignored the bigest story in baseball since the Black Sox, on his watch?
      Both are Caardinal Sin failures by any member of the MEDIA

      So that makes him a Hall of Fame reporter? Explain that to me.

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  13. The real story is that the commissioner of MLB thinks that withholding the list is a good idea. Sorry to hear Ortiz’s name but it is his responsibility. If I were commissioner I would be a hard liner, anybody caught juicing would be suspended for a year for the first offense. The second offense would be a ban from MLB. There are many clean players in the minors who will never get the chance on the big state because these cheaters take a spot on the roster. Ban them, get rid of them they all have enough money I do not feel sorry for them. Let the clean players play.

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  14. I’ve said it a million times, I’ll say it again. The media cares (or ‘acts” like they care) about steroids way more than the fans do. Papi won’t get ANY backlash from the fans as long as he hits. I’m sure the word spread like wild fire during the game, by the time Ortiz hit his 3 run bomb everybody in the park knew the story….they didn’t seem too concerned about it as Papi put the Sox up 6-5…..and they shouldn’t have been concerned about it…….we get it, ALOT of player were (and some still are) using roids……

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    1. You just need to understand this in its proper perspective. Media people are ‘low-rent’ folks. Many of them lack college degrees, and those that do have them probably did quite poorly. ‘Media’ was their safe and only landing spot. So you need to run everything they say and do through that prism. I always laugh at their ‘outrage’ over one particular topic or another.

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  15. Read the fantastic piece by Howard Bryant on ESPN.com. Ortiz has a damning quote in it in which he states he wouldn’t “cheat because my son is treated well because of me.” Yup, just like every lowlife who exists in this world, Ortiz hides behind his child.

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  17. Ortiz spoke briefly to the media after the game and none of these moron reporters asked him the obvious question: Did you knowingly ever take steroids or any performance-enhancing drugs? Instead, we got hard-hitting questions like, “What message do you have for the fans?”
    Sheesh.

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