MLB and Players Union Start Spinning Steroids

Hey!  What we've been waiting for!  The commisioner's office and the Players Association team up:

Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association each released statements on Saturday, warning that any conclusions reached about the 104 names on a list of players who allegedly tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003 may be subject to conjecture.The warnings came hours before Ortiz met with the media to address the issue prior to Saturday's game between the Red Sox and the Yankees. "The number of players on the so-called 'government list' meaningfully exceeds the number of players agreed by the bargaining parties to have tested positive in 2003," said Michael Weiner, the incoming executive director of the union, who was present with Ortiz at the news conference. "Accordingly, the presence of a player's name on any such list does not necessarily mean that the player used a prohibited substance or that the player tested positive under our collectively bargained program." MLB reiterated that position, as follows: "It should be pointed out that the names on the list, which was prepared by the federal government and not by anyone associated with our Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program, are subject to uncertainties with regard to the test results. There are more names on the government list (104) than the maximum number of positives that were recorded under the 2003 program (96). And, as the Mitchell Report made clear, some of the 96 positives were contested by the union. "Given the uncertainties inherent in the list, we urge the press and the public to use caution in reaching conclusions based on leaks of names, particularly from sources whose identities are not revealed." --

Weiner said during the news conference that players had been notified in 2004 that the government had seized the list but were told that "it was impossible to know whether you tested positively or negatively because it was impossible that everyone on that list" did so. Ortiz agreed, saying he'd had a perfunctory five-minute meeting with the union in 2004 and was not told he had tested positive.

Ortiz didn't learn of the test results until July 30, when he contacted the union, which decided to divulge the information, Weiner said, because Ortiz went public.

--

Regarding the '03 results, the Players Association did not destroy the test results, and officers of the federal government, investigating the case against the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, seized them under a warrant. They are still in government possession, and the union continues to contest the seizure, with the case still at the federal appellate court level.

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"In 2003, legally available nutritional supplements could trigger an initial 'positive' test under our program. To account for this, each 'test' conducted in 2003 actually consisted of a pair of collections -- the first was unannounced and random, the second was approximately seven days later, with the player advised to cease taking supplements during the interim. Under the 2003 program, a test could be initially reported as 'positive,' but not treated as such by the bargaining parties on account of the second test."

There are some inconsistencies here that need examining:  

1. The union is claiming that "it was impossible to know whether you tested positively or negatively because it was impossible that everyone on that list" did so.  In Ortiz's case, he was contacted and spoken to after his results were available, and six years later the union confirmed to him that he tested positive for something.  At the same time, the union states that followup tests were given to eliminate legal supplements from returning a positive result.  Yet despite going to these measures to ensure the proper results, they  still contend that the list can possess false positives.

2. The Players Union claims to have not compiled the list that the was seized in the BALCO investigation, yet they seem to know exactly who those players are and what triggered the total number to be 104 players.  Obviously, whatever information that was seized by the Feds contained both the results and the players' names, all information the union provided, evidenced by the fact that with Ortiz, they "decided to divulge the information, Weiner said, because Ortiz went public."

3. Armed with this knowledge, the Players Union and MLB are urging people not to jump to conclusions regarding who is on the list as a true positive test result and who isn't.  No mention is made by either organization that this grey area includes David Ortiz.  Ortiz himself makes the claim but the Players Union, armed with that information, made no claim on his behalf.  They have access to this information and could clear Ortiz's name but have chosen not to.

  This is a funny time to start discrediting a list that has been talked about ad nauseum in the press for the better part of six years, isn't it?  I didn't see anyone making these comments when Sammy Sosa was reported to be on the list and certainly not for Alex Rodriguez. Big Poppi, though? Everybody's favorite gap-toothed power hitter!  Everybody loves Big Poppi David Ortiz!  He's cuddly and warm.  He always has a smile.  His nickname makes us think of fathers with good hearts and soft words.  Everybody loves Big Poppi! That's the problem here.  Sammy Sosa became unlikable through years of speculation and his sudden inability to speak the English language in front of Congress.  Alex Rodriguez has made himself unlikable by doing stupid things, saying stupid things, and acting like a stupid person.  Heck, (N)ESPN had ARod splashed all over their networks and webpage when the news broke.  Peter Gammons, Hall of Fame writer and Red Sox public servant #1 hasn't even addressed the controversy in any of his articles. Big Poppi's a different story.  People like Poppi.  Heck, up until now,

I

liked Poppi, even though he's a Red Sock.  When Poppi comes out and tells us that he tested positive for some over the counter substance, the great majority of us want to believe him. This seems a bit more calculated than that, though.  Ortiz was quoted in the Boston Herald in May of 2007, saying:

"I tell you, I don’t know too much about steroids, but I started listening about steroids when they started to bring that shit up, and I started realizing and getting to know a little bit about it. You’ve got to be careful. I used to buy a protein shake in my country. I don’t do that any more because they don’t have the approval for that here, so I know that, so I’m off of buying things at the GNC back in the Dominican (Republic). But it can happen anytime, it can happen. I don’t know. I don’t know if I drank something in my youth, not knowing it."

That's a bit of an odd statement, isn't it?  In light of his current

excuse

 situation, Ortiz is either an incredibly smart and manipulative person or his story is actually true.  The problem is, again, that if he was told to back off of these substances for a week after his initial test, he would be in that grey area of players who did not test positive.  This also assumes that Ortiz's last shake happened within a week of the initial test that returned a positive.  I don't know that there is any record of when the tests were administered in relation to their arrival in the United States that spring.  Typically, players undergo a physical upon their arrival, but that seems a bit too systematic if the tests were supposed to be random as the Players Union claims. It's reasonable to assume, then, that if a week was long enough to eradicate these "supplements" from Ortiz's system that rogue GNC shakes from the Dominican probably were not the cause for his positive test.  And if these supplements carried steroids that triggered a positive test, guess what Big Poppi, you're a steroid user and ignorance is no excuse. Ortiz is in a favorable position to hide whatever substance did trigger his positive test.  Unless all of the information surrounding these tests, including the samples themselves, are released, there is no way to fully know what Ortiz did and when.  For now, his career will live like so many others under the veil of steroids and what we don't know.