Big Papi Hypocrisy

It's sad to hear that yet another star baseball plan has been "outed" for his steroid use. As I had mentioned in a previous post, I can't say that I'm terribly surprised. But the revelation that Red Sox slugger David "Big Papi" Ortiz was implicated on PED-use frankly irritated me a bit, as did his predictable "surprise" that the positive test was true. You can pretty much bank on a prepared statement in the next 24-48 hours talking about an "over the counter supplement" that must have been tainted to his shock and dismay.

Yes, it bothers me knowing that it's not at all a stretch to assume that a 'roid-fueled Ortiz and Manny Ramirez were largely responsible for the Red Sox team which (perhaps now not so cleanly) broke the curse in 2004. Red Sox superfan Bill Simmons' nightmare has essentially come true. His 2004 Red Sox, the plucky team that shocked the Yankees by coming back from a 3-0 deficit to the Yankees in the ALCS and then swept past the Cardinals, did it largely on the back of cheaters. I fully admit that me being a fan of the Yankees makes this a little more bitter to swallow.

What I find a little more galling is Ortiz's public pleas that he not get implicated by association in the midst of all of the other sluggers that were caught - McGwire, Giambi, Bonds, Manny, A-Rod - they shamed the game, but he was clean, he insisted. Listen to this impassioned plea to a reporter:

"I know what it is for my son to have Big Papi as a father. There are a lot of people who do great things for him because he's my son. His life is going to be easier because he's the son of Big Papi. And that is the biggest reason why I have never used steroids. Because then he would have to go to school and have to listen to all the kids say that his dad is dirty, a cheater, and everything for him would be taken away from him and he would be ruined. I make sure I don't do those things, for him."

Listen to the claptrap that Ortiz spewed back in February when A-Rod was revealed as having tested positive:

"I think you clean up the game by the testing. I test you, you test positive, you're going to be out. Period. If I test positive using any kind of banned substance I'm going to disrespect the game, my family, my fans and everybody. And I don't want to face the situation so I won't use it. I'm sure everybody is on the same page."

You "disrespected the game, your family, your fans, and everybody", David Ortiz - and you had the audacity to lie about it. Or were you trying to be cute with the nuance that testing began only in 2004, so your new line is that you've been clean since then? It's pathetic to stand there and comment and pontificate on others' issues with performance-enhancing drugs while you're fully aware that you're not being upfront about being a cheater, yourself.

What he's done, at best, is stand silently in the jury box nodding his head in outrage as a murderer gets sentenced to death while his closet contains dozens of dead bodies. Simply awful.