Why Ortiz Must Come Clean Now

In today’s New York Daily News there is a story about how 8 of the 104 players on the 2003 steroid list tested positive due to a legal supplement:

The supplement 19-norandrostenedione was legal in 2003 and contained the steroid nandrolone, a hard-core performance-enhancing drug used to build muscle.

Major League Baseball maintains that 96 players tested positive for PEDs during the 2003 survey testing year because it does not count any supplement that a player could purchase legally that contained steroids.

So does Big Papi have an out? I guess you could say he does but here is my problem with the story: in Ortiz’s statement he said, “I will find out what I tested positive for. And, three, based on whatever I learn, I will share this information with my club and the public.” If Ortiz was taking the legal supplement he could have come right out and said that he was and that is why he tested positive. By waiting to “find out” it seems like he was using steroids and looking for a possible out. If we have learned anything from users who get caught, it is that you need to own up to what you did and fans will welcome you back. If a player tries to stay in denial when all the evidence is against them it will only cause them to lose in the long run. Look at the deniers and what they have become. (Bonds, McGuire, Sosa, Clemens.) Then look at guys like Pettitte who addmitted use and have been able to keep their popular support. Every day that passes with Ortiz keeping quiet he loses respect from Red Sox Nation. Ortiz either did steroids or he didn’t, right now he is claiming to be “a little bit pregnant.”