Let me preface this by saying I am writing this as a baseball fan, not a Yankees fan. Yes, I love the Yankees, but I enjoy the game as a whole. I love watching Clayton Kershaw work magic on the mound. Nobody is more exciting to watch than Mike Trout. I respect what Dustin Pedroia has done in his career. I love Bryce Harper’s…hair. This article comes from a fan of the game.
Back in April 2014 I wrote an op-ed piece about why some cheaters get treated like heroes (Braun & Ortiz) and why others get treated like the worst thing since Whitey Bulger (A-Rod and….A-Rod.) And yes, NY Daily News writer Bill Madden actually compared A-Rod to notorious criminal Whitey Bulger.
Anyways, Braun had just come back from his PED suspension and the Milwaukee crowd gave him a standing ovation. A-Rod had come back from a DL stint and was in the midst of battling MLB over his impending PED suspension. He was booed at every single stadium he was at, including Yankee Stadium. Braun had his share of boos, but nothing close to what A-Rod was getting. The media was absolutely dismantling A-Rod. Everyday it seemed like the NY Daily News had some headline bashing him. Meanwhile, David Ortiz gets a free pass, and has gotten one for over a decade. Nobody dares question him. There’s no way on God’s green earth that he has taken PEDs.
So David Ortiz, Big Papi, whatever the hell you want to call him, took to Derek Jeter’s Players Tribune website yesterday and wrote a nice little piece called “The Dirt.” You can read it here so you have some reference to what I am talking about, but I’ll give you the highlights.
The piece is about steroids of all things. I know I was as surprised as you. He talks about 2003 when MLB was just beginning to take control of testing and eliminating PEDs. He talks about his upbringing in the Dominican Republic. He talks about 2009 when his name was on a list of players who had failed a PED test back in ’03 (a test which was used to gauge how rampant PED use was in MLB.)
He uses a lot of swears because he is articulate beyond words. He uses Barry Bonds’ and Gary Sheffield’s “I never knowingly took steroids” defense. The whole thing has the feel of what you would expect from a guy who destroyed a dugout phone with a bat because he struck out. You can just feel the narcissism and righteous indignation oozing out of the article. You can sense his smugness in the words. Every sentence as high and mighty as the last one.
Let me throw some numbers out there. In his six years with the Twins, age 21-26, he averaged 9.6 homers a year. Since 2003 (when he failed a PED test for the first time) age 27-38, he has averaged 34 homers a year. In late August 2012, 36 year old Ortiz came off the DL from an Achilles injury that sidelined him in July. In his first 20 games back he was hitting .400. He played 90 games that season and hit 23 home runs, had 60 RBI’s and a .318 batting average. AT 36 YEARS OLD AND COMING OFF AN ACHILLES INJURY! His old age/injuries don’t seem to effect his ability to hit home runs whatsoever, now why is that? Here’s his reason:
People ask me all the time how I turned into such a monster in my early 30s. ‘How are you doing this? You must be cheating.’ You know how? Physically, I was always a bull. But I learned to play the game with my head and my heart and my balls. I got smarter. I got mentally tougher. – The Players Tribune
Oh you got mentally tougher? That’s why you’re able to hit 30 home runs even in your mid to late 30’s? Damn that makes perfect sense! Why didn’t I think of that? I totally forgot your mind, heart and testicles are the one hitting the baseballs, not your entire body which has been repaired and restored with chemicals. How do you think A-Rod was able to put up the numbers he did in Texas for three straight years in 100 degree heat day in and day out? But I digress.
This article isn’t to debate whether Ortiz has taken steroids or not, because everybody knows he has (outside of Boston.) It’s why does he continue to get a pass? Has he failed a test since 2003? No. Does that mean he’s playing clean? No. Look how long A-Rod got away with it and look at how he is treated by the media and MLB. All the while Ortiz walks around like he owns the place and MLB says peep. Manny Ramirez, Ortiz’s best friend, took steroids while on those Boston teams but NOOOOOO not Ortiz! No way! Plus he is only 50% of a player, if that. He’s a DH. Put him in the field, make him work more than 10 minutes a game for 162 games a year and see how well he does.
Now the creme de la creme of the entire article is this; this is in Ortiz’s own words mind you:
Hell yes I deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. I’ve won three World Series since MLB introduced comprehensive drug testing. I’ve performed year after year after year.
Let that sink in. “Hell yes I deserve to be in the Hall of Fame.” I don’t care if you are a Boston fan, a New York fan, a Kansas City fan, it doesn’t matter; that is classless. That is the definition of classless. That is disrespectful to the game of baseball. Just like how he admires every home run he hits and slowly jogs walks the basepath. He is a stain on baseball. His attitude, the way he carries himself, the garbage he spews totally disrespects the game I love.
Imagine if A-Rod said “hell yes I deserve to be in the Hall of Fame.” Seriously take a second to imagine that. Every media outlet in the WORLD would put him on blast. How dare he say that! That’s so unprofessional! Burn him at the stake! David Ortiz says it and it’s: oh silly Ortiz. That’s just his attitude. He’s so great. He failed a PED test but let’s give him a nice big hug.
Now I’m not saying A-Rod is a hero or an idol or a role model, because he is not in any way shape or form. I’ll be the first person to tell you I don’t like him and the way he handled everything, putting a black mark on the Yankees and MLB in the process. I despise Ortiz even more and the stain he continues to put on baseball. He thinks he is bigger than the game. It’s about him and what he has done. Just look at the language he uses in the article: “I won three World Series.” I. Not we, not us, not the team, I. I won three World Series. “…I’ve helped win this town two World Series titles…” Again “I’ve.”
Earlier this month he gave an interview at spring training and was asked about his showboating/adoring his homeruns. His response:
The way that works, basically, is how much time you have at this level,” he said. “If you’ve got two days in the big leagues, I don’t agree with you doing crazy stuff out there. But you have 19 years in the big leagues like I do, you can do whatever the hell you want, because you’ve earned that. The bottom line is, it’s not that bad. It’s part of what people come and want to see. People want to come to the field, and the power hitters, they want to watch them hit homers.
Now I don’t disagree that people want to see homers. What I disagree with is a guy standing at home plate watching the ball the entire way and not budging until it lands. And when he does finally make his way around the bases he takes a nice slow walk. That is asinine, ostentatious, arrogant, unprofessional and a whole slew of other adjectives. Like you said, you’ve been in the league 19 years, grow up. Act like you’ve hit a home run before.
Baseball is a team game and Ortiz doesn’t care. Imagine if Jeter or Mariano had said they deserve to be in the hall? There’s just no way a professional baseball player, with kids looking up to them, should ever say that. Humility is what made Jeter and Mo great. Of course they were talented beyond words, but how they handled themselves and respected the game is what made them legends.
I’ve lived in northern Connecticut my entire life, right on the border of Massachusetts, which is Red Sox country. I have listened for over a decade to Boston fans ranting, raving and adoring Ortiz while cursing A-Rod’s name in the same breath. The hypocrisy of Boston fans and MLB as a whole is just staggering to me. I don’t know whether Bud Selig is to blame or what, but the league is becoming a joke. Let’s have a witch hunt for one player and suspend him for a year, making him the poster boy for 20 plus years of rampant steroid use, but let this clown run around acting like he’s the cock of the walk. 2009 was the only time the media gave him any kind of hassle. He babbles on about the disrespect the media gave him. Disrespect actually came out of this guys mouth. Kettle black anyone!? Nobody disrespects the game more than David Ortiz.
Go read his article on Players Tribune and judge for yourself. I can’t wait for this guy to be out of the game that brings me so much pleasure. But then he will be elected into the hall which is just as bad, if not worse. Just come out and admit you took steroids. I’ll still hate you and will never respect you, but at least stop with the arrogant lies. Be a man. And MLB, stop with the hypocrisy.
