Major League Baseball hit again by steroids with Ramirez and Ortiz named in report

David Ortiz (above) and Manny Ramirez have been named
by the NY Times for failing 2003 steroid test.
(AP/Winslow Townson)

Drip, drip, drip …….

Little by little, names are being leaked about the now infamous 2003 steroid “survey” that has already implicated Alex Rodriguez and Sammy Sosa. The Yankees’ third-baseman went on to admit using a banned substance while a member of the Texas Rangers.

Now, according to a report in the New York Times, two key members of the World Champion Red Sox in 2004 and 2007 have been added to that list – David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez.

Earlier this year Ramirez failed a random test leading to a 50-game suspension but he continues to be one of the most feared hitters in the game. Ortiz, on the other hand, is not the player he once was.

Boston’s designated hitter got off to a horrible start and while his power numbers have picked up a bit his line after 94 games reads: 15 homers (he has had 30 or more five times), 55 RBI (100 or more five times) and a .224 average (lifetime .283).

In 2004 Ramirez had just two homers and 11 RBI in 14 playoff games compared to 5/19 for Ortiz and three years later Ramirez was 4/16 in 14 contests while Ortiz countered with 3/10.

To be clear, players on the 2003 list are not subject to penalties by Major League Baseball because the testing of 1,198 players were meant to be anonymous and designed to see if mandatory checks would be needed.

With the addition of Ortiz and Ramirez to Rodriguez and Sosa it makes four of the game’s biggest names who allegedly failed tests with 100 more on the so-called sealed data.

Fans are somewhat indifferent to news about steroids these days only this impacts the Red Sox who, to this point, have remained relatively unscathed by performance enhancing drugs. It also brings into question the validity of their World Series titles in 2004 and 2007.

The NCAA recently vacated 14 wins from the record of Bobby Bowden and the Florida State Seminoles due to an academic issue caused by cheating on an online music course. While it had nothing to do with the football program Bowden and the team were still sanctioned. The penalty is being appealed.

It would be an unprecedented step but Major League Baseball has the authority to tell teams they alone are responsible for their players under contract. It would raise all sorts of legal questions but while the sport is unwilling to institute a “one strike and you’re out” PED policy, this may be the next best thing.

If Commissioner Bud Selig is true to his word of wanting to clean up baseball after years of looking the other way, he also needs to take the union head-on and worry about the consequences later. The Players Association is in no position to balk especially when Selig has Congress to back him up. But will he?

Selig is an owner through and through and everything he does is to line the pockets of his cohorts. There are still 100 names yet to be released from the 2003 testing and who knows how many other superstars are one it and how many postseason games could be tarnished by those individuals?

Then again, under Selig’s watch we have seen a World Series disappear, a tie game at the All Star Game and to make up for it the mid-summer “exhibition” is now used to decide who gets home field in the fall classic. All that combined and other odd decisions made do not measure up to the scandal perpetuated by the sport on its fans.

One hundred years from now the history books could very well list the Steroid Era as the top negative story in the history of baseball but it could also say it took a gutsy commissioner to set things right. Holding the individual and even the team liable is just what baseball needs.

Mr. Commissioner, here’s your chance to hit one out.