» Ortiz

Lee has no sympathy for steroid users

On a day where Alex Rodriguez met 200 reporters to pour his heart out on his past steroid use, every spring camp had steroid clouds floating about. Unless a Cubs player is highlighted in steroid allegations, this is the only post that i will make on steroids. It is a problem in baseball, and I’m sure everyone accepts that, (well maybe everyone apart from Marvin Miller, who gave a unconvincing interview on steroids not being a problem during the Michael Kay show on 1050ESPN last week) however I’m a baseball fan, and i love the game, so i would much rather talk about the on field events rather than chime out yet another story on steroids, that people are getting very bored of hearing about.

Derek Lee, one of the most loved Cubs was asked for his opinions not only on A-Rod but on steroid users in general, and here is his reply:

“There should be zero tolerance,” Lee said. “We’ve had plenty of warnings. There’s no excuses. You get caught now, there should be no sympathy and you do your time.”

“I think a year is — if you got banned, I wouldn’t feel sorry for a guy,” he said. “Maybe if some guy got caught and truly didn’t know what he was taking, in that instance [it'd be different]. But if you’re taking steroids, there should be no sympathy.”

A scathing review by Derek Lee, who has admitted that he has been asked the point blank question of whether he took steroids, and even if he denies it, who is to believe him? Palmeiro denied it, Alex Rodriguez denied it. Every player in this era will be tarred with the same brush, if this was ‘the culture’ like Alex Rodriguez suggested in his interview with ESPN’s Peter Gammons, then who can we believe? that is the saddest part of this whole predicament, we simply don’t know who’s records are tainted and who’s are not.

Derek Lee is not the first person to come out and ask for harsher punishments, David Ortiz said that the punishment should be harder, Ozzie Guillen, the man who always has something to say also commented on it. I heard a fan call into ESPN yesterday, and her simple statement was, shut these players up!, i could not disagree more with this comment, if there are going to be changes to the punishment for steroid users, the players union is going to have to accept them, what better way to encourage this to happen than speak out agains’t the users. This ‘fan’ was telling players to be quiet, I would like them to be louder and more vocal on the issue.

With the Barry Bonds trial just around the corner, I’m afraid the steroid stories in the national and international media have only just begun.

Ok everyone, this big dude has got a point. Seriously, if you take away the random factor of testing, we can at least be somewhat confident that this glorious game will have some serious meaning going forward.

I mean picture it, you have some serious young talent belting home runs left and right, wouldn’t it be nice to know that they are all legit? It would be a dream come true for my children, and my childrens children to once again revert back to having trust in the game we love so much.

Test everyone, if EVERYONE has NOTHING to hide, then test them ALL! Imagine that, a list of players who aren;t on steroids! What a world! Anyways, here’s what the big man said…

Clearly apprehensive about the issue of the use of performance enhancing drugs in baseball, Red Sox slugger David Ortiz said that he is willing to see measures done, in whatever way possible, to protect the game he loves.
Ortiz said that he is favor for the suspension of any player who is found using the said substance for the entire season. Current suspension is at 50 games on first offense which gradually goes up to 100 games for the second offense. He also added that all players should undergo such testing, rather than that of the proposed random testing.
“I would suggest that everybody get tested, and not randomly,” Ortiz said. “You go team by team and you test everybody, three, four times a year, and that’s about it. You do what you’ve got to do … ban them for the whole year [if they test positive]. You’re going to get respect from the players when they know they’re going to get tested. Let’s test the whole team, three or four times a year. I know they can do that. Believe me, if someone was using steroids, it would show up. Because the way they test you, it’s not a joke.”

Ortiz also added that he does not want to see players getting summoned by the court of law due to their substance use before the testing officially started in 2004.

“There have been a lot of players who have been in federal court and being judged like they just killed somebody or they robbed somebody,” Ortiz said. “I don’t think all that is supposed to be happening. If you admitted that you’ve used stuff [in the past], boom, don’t use it anymore. It’s not good for you. You know it’s not good for the game. Let’s move on, you know what I mean?

“All the drama of bringing guys to court and acting like they are serious criminals, it doesn’t look good for the game. What is happening right now is about something that happened in the past. It’s not something that is happening right now. Everything was banned in, what, 2004?”

Ortiz respected the decision of his close friend Alex Rodriguez, who openly told the press about his past with the said performance enhancing drugs which he tested positive in 2003.

“I think the A-Rod situation, it was a little tough for the game, because you’re talking about the best player all the way around,” Ortiz said. “At the same time, people have to give the guy credit, because he came out and said what he said at the point of his career where he had done it all. On top of that, that was what, six years ago? The guy has put up numbers his whole career.

“It was one thing that he said that caught my attention a lot and it was that he was young, and at the time, that was [happening] all around the league. When you’re young and somebody comes to you with an idea of improving your production and things like that, sometimes you make a wrong decision like he did. But he’s been playing clean and still producing, and he’s still been the best player in the game. If I’m a fan and I had to judge a guy, I would put that in the past and move forward. The guy, he works hard, man. He’s still doing his thing. He still has nine more years on his contract, and he’s definitely going to do some damage.”

He also added that he thinks that fans are losing trust to the game they are watching, and love at the same time.
“Like I said, man, this game has been hurt a lot already,” Ortiz said. “This is not a players’ game or a team’s game. This is a family game. We have a lot of families that live off this game. We have a lot of families that enjoy this game, that bring their kids to watch these games, and I don’t think that this game can take anymore.

“Whatever happened in the past … I guarantee you that more than 80 or 90 percent of the players are playing clean,” Ortiz said. “We’re going through a tough situation all the way around. The economy, our soldiers fighting in Iraq and all this stuff, and this game is a distraction for people, for the American families. I would like to see some things. I would like people to leave this game alone and just let us play the game. I would do whatever it takes to make this game get better, but not everybody is on the same page. The game has changed a lot. There’s a lot of pressure. This game, it’s been getting a lot of heat lately. Let’s just play the game. The game is tough enough. People need to hear something different.”

Ortiz takes much pride to the sacrifices he made to climb up to his superstar status, and is sometimes worried that he is going to a victim of guilt by association.

“I just want to go out there and make sure that people aren’t looking at me like, ‘This guy, he’s big. What’s going on?’ There’s a lot of guys here, they work, they work hard,” Ortiz said.
Ortiz said that he is willing to undergo blood tests even to growth hormones, which up to now, is undetectable using urine samples.

“They can figure out a way to test for anything, I’m telling you that right now,” Ortiz said. “Like I said, man, this game needs a breather. It needs to go back to what it was. People come to have fun and watch guys with natural ability playing the game. I guarantee you one thing — nobody is going to take a risk right now. The way they’re testing and the way they’re doing things, you’re not going to hear from anybody testing positive for any kind of steroid.”