Boston’s Ostrich Syndrome: Ortiz and Manny

July 30, 2:54 PMBoston Red Sox ExaminerEric Dorval

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 Eh too, Papi?

At the beginning of the movie “Clerks.”, Dante finds out that his girlfriend has been cheating on him while she was away at college.  His best friend Randal, possibly the greatest movie character of all time, convinces Dante to overlook these indiscretions on the basis that he has never and will never meet any of the other guys.

“The ostrich syndrome: if you don’t see it, it isn’t there.”

This is no different than what Red Sox fans have done with Manny, Ortiz and steroids.  Deep down we all knew the truth.  We all knew Manny and Ortiz were using performance enhancers, but we chose to bury our heads in the sand.

Today the second shoe dropped, as ESPN reported that the Sox best two offensive weapons from their two World Series titles are cheaters.  Am I surprised?  No.  Am I disappointed?  Yes.  Sure, everyone was doing it, but that is no excuse.

As a fan it hurts.  It hurt when Belichick continued to record coaches’ signals (even though he had been officially warned by the NFL) and it hurts now.  The easiest way to handle these situations is to defend your players and your team.  "Everyone was doing steroids, so my guy needed to do it just to keep up."  That is the easy way to react to this news, but it’s not the right way.  Did you defend A-Rod?  How about Roger?

If you feel anything other than disappointment that Manny and Ortiz used steroids, then you are lying to yourself.  They cheated and it’s not ok.

With Manny and now Ortiz, how are we supposed to feel about our two World Series titles?

I previously wrote that I wanted baseball to move past the steroids issue.  I said I would not talk about a specific player’s steroid use unless they were on the Sox.  Well, that time is unfortunately upon us.  As a Sox fan, I'm not angry, but I am disappointed.

You can try and change the subject: “Major League Baseball must release all 104 names from the list right now!”, but that is not the issue of the day.  Between Belichick, Ortiz, and Manny, Boston is probably going to take some heat from the national media in the coming days.  Your first reaction will be to get defensive.  That’s the way everyone reacts when backed into a corner.  But this is not the time to fight back.  Now is the time to take our lumps.  Boston can dish out the criticism as good as anyone.  This is one of those times when we need to sit back and take it.

It is time for Big Papi to come clean.  I hope he mans up and apologizes the way Andy Petitte did.    He used steroids.  He got rich.  He won two World Series.  He became a hero in Boston.  Now he must face the music.

I feel the same way I would if my son or my brother just got caught cheating.  I still love Papi, but I’m disappointed.