P.E.D. – PLEASE END DISCUSSION!
The Red Sox didn’t need any more distractions after losing not one, but 2 closers to injury this week while dropping to third place courtesy of a recent 3-7 slide; but this past Wednesday (May 8th) Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe published a story, questioning David “Big Papi” Ortiz’ hot start and inferring the explanation could be attributed to PED’s. Shaughnessy, who has a long history of agitating Boston athletes and coaches, alluded to the fact that Ortiz missed all of Spring Training and thus, his torrid start could not be explained, inferring that it was abnormal, enhanced. Shaughnessy was quoted as saying, “It is not natural for a guy to hit .426 out of the gate without the benefit of any spring training.” In his article, Shaughnessy also quoted his own comments that he apparently made directly to Ortiz, “But you fit all the models. You are from the Dominican Republic. You are an older player. Older players don’t get better. You’ve had injuries consistent with steroid use. You showed up on the list from 2003. You fit all the formulas.” Really? To me, that’s borderline racial profiling!
Ortiz was linked to a 2009 NY Times report that stated that his name allegedly appeared on a list of players who failed PED testing back in 2003, a claim which Ortiz refutes (EDITORS NOTE: A-ROD refuted the same thing…). But this is 2013 and MLB has a much more stringent testing policy in place. In an ESPN Boston report this week, Ortiz voiced his frustration over the veiled and unfounded accusation. He had been lambasted by the media for getting off to a terrible start in April of 2009, some who questioned whether his career was over and now he was being questioned for getting off to a great start. You can’t have it both ways! You can’t question a guy’s ability when he does poorly, and then question it when he does well. Unless your just trying to scrape the bottom of the barrel to stir up a story.
In fact, it is not unprecedented that a player miss a large chunk of time, including missing Spring Training, then hit the ground running once they returned. On May 9th, ESPN Boston’s Gordon Edes outlined several instances, where players like Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio missed significant playing time and each time bounced back with similar numbers to Ortiz’ numbers over their first 15 games. In fact, Edes pointed out one case where Williams missed all but 6 games in 1952 while serving his country during the Korean War, then returned in August of 1953 where he hit over .400 the rest of the season, covering nearly 100 at bats. To boot, he hit 13 homeruns and knocked in 34 while posting a robust 1.41 OPS. A year later, at 35 years old, Williams missed all of Spring Training because of injury and returned in mid-May to post similar red-hot numbers to Ortiz’ in his first 2 weeks back. Was he on steroids too? (NOT) Sure, Williams and DiMaggio are among the elite players to have ever played, the game, but Ortiz is no slouch and has been amongst the upper echelon from his generation.
In this new era of scrutiny and testing, people take notice when someone links a player to PED’s. So, in my opinion, any baseless claim or inference of PED use by a reporter is callous and unprofessional. It’s a misuse of the power that reporters hold with the public and thus, wield in the court of public opinion. To insinuate that it’s inhuman for a 37-year old player to start their season by hitting over .400 in their first15 games is like claiming that it’s inhuman for Diane Lane to be that beautiful, into her 40’s. Hey Dan, it happens, get over it! Ortiz is gonna hit and Diane Lane is going to continue to be beautiful! So, Mr. Shaughnessy, unless David Oritz fails a test and is publically punished by MLB or until you actually have facts supporting any such claim, consider PED to stand for “Please End Discussion!”
Yeah, she’s pretty, but can she hit a slider? Photo by: Alan Light
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