Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz usually doesn't hold his tongue when he feels wronged, and that trend continued in a piece Ortiz wrote for The Players' Tribune.
Ortiz again denied using steroids, as claimed in a 2009 article by The New York Times. The report said Ortiz failed a test for steroids in 2003, when MLB conducted anonymous "survey testing" for performance-enhancing drugs to determine if random testing should be implemented the next year. The results of those tests were meant to remain confidential but were later obtained by the federal government as part of an investigation into PEDs and leaked to the media.
"In some people’s minds, I will always be considered a cheater. And that’s bulls—. Mark my words: Nobody in MLB history has been tested for PEDs more than me. You know how many times I’ve been tested since 2004? More than 80. They say these tests are random. If it’s really random, I should start playing the damn lottery. Some people still think the testing is a joke. It’s no joke. Ten times a season these guys come into the clubhouse or my home with their briefcases. I have never failed a single one of those tests and I never will."
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The briefcase comment was a reference to MLB testers, who this offseason showed up unannounced at Ortiz's house in the Dominican Republic.
Ortiz, who denies ever being told directly about the failed test, said in 2009 he was careless with over-the-counter supplements. He echoed those points in the Players' Tribune piece.
"I’m buying this stuff in line next to doctors and lawyers. Now all of a sudden MLB comes out and says there’s some ingredient in GNC pills that have a form of steroid in them. I don’t know anything about it.
If you think I’m full of it, go to your kitchen cabinet right now and read the back of a supplement bottle and honestly tell me you know what all of that stuff is. I’m not driving across the border to Mexico buying some shady pills from a drug dealer. I’m in a strip mall across from the Dunkin’ Donuts, bro."
The Major League Baseball Players Association released a statement in 2009 saying that "legally available nutritional supplements could trigger an initial 'positive' test under our program."
Ortiz, 39, enters his 18th MLB season with a .285/.379/.547 career slash line and 466 home runs. He hasn't hit fewer than 20 home runs in a season since 2001, and has hit more than 40 home runs in a season three times.
Whether the 2003 test damages Ortiz's Hall of Fame prospects remains to be seen ("Hell yes I deserve to be in the Hall of Fame," Ortiz wrote), but he stands by his claim he never purposely used PEDs.
"I never knowingly took any steroids. If I tested positive for anything, it was for something in pills I bought at the damn mall. If you think that ruins everything I have done in this game, there is nothing I can say to convince you different."