David Ortiz addressed the media about his positive PED test from 2003 on Saturday and stated that he never buys or uses steroids.
“I definitely was a little bit careless back in those days when I was buying supplements and vitamins over the counter — legal supplements, legal vitamins over the counter — but I never buy steroids or use steroids,” Ortiz said during a news conference that began about 3½ hours before his Boston Red Sox played the New York Yankees.
“I never thought that buying supplements and vitamins, it was going to hurt anybody’s feelings.”
If you replace “vitamins and supplements” with “flax seed oil,” then Ortiz essentially did the same thing Bonds did in that he attributed the positive test results to over-the-counter supplements and not anabolic steroids.
This may sound like I’m defending Big Papi, but maybe he really did take an over-the-counter supplement or something like Androstenedione, which is banned now, but wasn’t in 2003. Some people like to group supplements like testosterone boosters in with anabolic steroids and there is a massive difference between the two in terms of the effect they can have on your body. We don’t know what Ortiz took, so it’s not really fair to speculate until more details come out (if they ever do, that is).
It’s not surprising that Ortiz didn’t reveal much in the press conference. Don’t forget that these test results were supposed to be confidential and therefore Ortiz was probably legally bound from providing too much detail.
That said, it would have been nice if he admitted what he took, especially if he’s telling the truth about never taking steroids. He could have gotten on the podium and said, “I took Supplement X, Y and Z” and at least gained a little respect from his detractors. But since he didn’t reveal anything, many fans will go onto believe that he disgraced the game by cheating.
The sad part is that we may never know what these guys took.
