Ortiz Denies Using Steroids in Press Conference

Ortiz said he was careless in buying legal supplements but denied using steroids in his press conference today. He says he was never told that he tested positive for steroids.

I don't understand why he did not issue an absolute denial from the start. There was no reason he had to wait over a week to make these statements; the only reason for the delay was to allow Ortiz and the MLBPA get their stories together. I understand the problems with the testing system, but Ortiz has made a poor choice in how he approached his response.

Ortiz couldn't name any of the supplements or vitamins he used and was careless in what he took, so how can he deny that any of the supplements he took did not contain steroids? No answers here just more questions and doubt that will follow Ortiz for the rest of his career. More damage done to the game today. Maybe the Ortiz jersey buried at Yankee Stadium foreshadowed the demise of Big Papi that we witnessed today in the Bronx.

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Steroid Story Gets Uglier

As MLB and Ortiz* try to ignore the PED issue and think it will just go away, more and more stories about steroids come out. In today's Globe there is a story that two Red Sox security personnel were fired for posession of steroids last season and MLB did a short 15 minute investigation into the matter. One of the guards was Jerry Remy's son.

Remy, who said he was not surprised that Ortiz has been linked to the doping scandal, said that during questioning by a league investigator last year he was never asked about Ortiz’s assistant - even though Remy said a Red Sox security official had warned him in 2007 to stay away from the man, whom Remy said was a steroid user.

Remy, 30, said he believed the questioning, conducted in a Fenway Park conference room by MLB investigator Eduardo Dominguez, lasted about 15 minutes. It seemed to him a perfunctory exercise in damage control.

“They didn’t ask much at all; they wanted to make it disappear,’’ he said.

As I have said before, until everyone comes clean in an honest way this story will continue until every name comes out. It is time for Ortiz* to come clean and it is time for MLB, and the Red Sox to do their part to truly clean up the game.

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Sammy Sosa* Joins the Asterisk Club

In what should surprise nobody, Sammy Sosa* has reportedly been one of the 104 players that tested positive for steroids in 2003. Drip, drip, drip. How long before a Red Sox hero goes down?

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Papelbon v. A-Rod: Classic Moment

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Manny Being....

As seen in a small Red Sox discussion group: Was it Manny being Womanny?

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Former Red Sox Merloni Claims Sox Received Steriods Training

Former Boston infielder Lou Merloni claimed on Saturday that during his tenure with the Sox (98-03), they were given steroids training:

"I'm in spring training, and I got an 8:30-9:00 meeting in the morning. I walk into that office, and this happened while I was with the Boston Red Sox before this last regime, I'm sitting in the meeting. There's a doctor up there and he's talking about steroids, and everyone was like 'here we go, we're gonna sit here and get the whole thing -- they're bad for you.' No. He spins it and says 'you know what, if you take steroids and sit on the couch all winter long, you can actually get stronger than someone who works out clean, if you're going to take steroids, one cycle won't hurt you, abusing steroids it will.' He sat there for one hour and told us how to properly use steroids while I'm with the Boston Red Sox, sitting there with the rest of the organization, and after this I said 'what the heck was that?' And everybody on the team was like 'what was that?' And the response we got was 'well, we know guys are taking it, so we want to make sure they're taking it the right way'... Where did that come from? That didn't come from the Players Association."

Merloni has since backtracked a bit with a clarification of his statement, and former GM Dan Duquette chimed in with a disclaimer for a response. In his statement, Merloni made no specific claims of anyone on the team at the time using steroids, and said that the 'training' was more of a warning than an endorsement of any type.

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A-Rod* Scandal of the Week- Pitch Tipping with Man-Boobs

The A-Rod* scandals are so voluminous that they now fill a book. The reporter that broke the steroids story is coming out with a book that is sure to be a best seller among Red Sox Nation. In the book, Selena Roberts says A-Rod* starting taking roids in high school and grew man-boobs. It also accused him of helping others cheat:

In one shocking disclosure, the book accuses A-Rod of "pitch tipping" when he was with the Rangers - letting a friendly opponent at the plate know which pitch was coming in lopsided games.

Hat tip to The Bottom Line

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David Ortiz Catches Some Shrapnel From the A-Rod* Bomb

Big Papi trained with one of the people that supplied A-Rod* with PED's. Does that make him a user? Absolutely not but it does bring up some red flags. According to Big Papi, he only trained with this guy in the Domincian Republic in group workouts to get ready for the season and he did not have a one on one relationship like A-Rod* did.

Ortiz is in a tough situation here. Fans want to and should believe that he is clean but they have been burned too many times before. When Mark McGuire was going after Aaron's record, some friends and I picked a game on the calander where it looked like he could hit the magical home run. We picked Milwaukee and planned a weekend trip around the games. Big Mac had already broken the record by the time our trip came around but we did get to see him hit 3 homers over the weekend, each one a new record. We even drove down to Chicago that weekend to see Sammy Sosa play as he was having an amazing season of his own. I had such great memories of that weekend and I even took a great picture of the moment McGuire was connecting with a record breaking homer. Now those memories are tarnished by steriods.

I moved to the Bay Area in 2000 just in time to see Barry Bonds start to hit crazy amounts of home runs. I was in the bleachers when he hit his 600th career home run and I was at 10 games of his record breaking season. Now those memories are tarnished by steroids.

In 2006 I was at Fenway to see Big Papi hit home runs #51 and #52 to pass Jimmie Foxx for the most homers in a season by a member of the Red Sox. Is that memory going to be tarnished? Ortiz is the face of the Red Sox and I don't know what I would do if I found out he was among the cheaters in baseball. I believe that he is clean and I hope I don't get burned again but I have been burned enough in the past to place too much trust in baseball players.

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Amalie Benjamin on David Ortiz

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Tired of the A-Rod* News? It's Just Getting Started

If you thought we were done with the steroid era with the Mitchell Report you are sorely mistaken. A-Rod* has brought the story back to the forefront where it will stay through his retirement as writers vote for or against his admittance into the Hall of Fame. The story will burn brightly until A-Rod* holds a press conference, it will simmer until all 104 names are released, it will smolder as the Bonds* and Clemens* trials drag on. We are in a dark period of baseball history but the game will ultimately survive; just as it did with the Black Sox scandal and the strike shortened season. If you are one of those people that do not care about this story then you are part of the culture that accepts cheating in sports. Let this story run its course, embrace the bad news whatever it may be and hopefully baseball will come out better because of it.

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Another Cover for the Collection

A-Rod* has his share of classic NY Post and Daily News covers....here are a few more to add to the collection:

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Thanks For Hurting the Game A-Rod*

Here we are, one day after Truck Day...Spring Training right around the corner. Baseball is back and we should all be celebrating but now we have to deal with all the steroids talk thanks to A-Rod*. When it becomes one of the top stories on the national news when Congress is debating a trillion dollar bill you know that it is a bad PR day for MLB.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

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A-Rod* Joins the Asterisks Club

Alex Rodriguez* tested positive for steroids in 2003 according to four sources for Sports Illustrated. NO! How could it be??? I am totally shocked!!! Another player doing roids...and A-Rod* of all people. If you did not think A-rod* was an A-hole before this than you have been hiding under a rock but this just hurts the game even more as records become more and more useless from this generation. From SI.com:

When approached by an SI reporter on Thursday at a gym in Miami, Rodriguez declined to discuss his 2003 test results. "You'll have to talk to the union," said Rodriguez, the Yankees' third baseman since his trade to New York in February 2004. When asked if there was an explanation for his positive test, he said, "I'm not saying anything."

Amazing how he can do anything to get attention when he is negotiating a contract but now has nothing to say. What a total loser this guy is. I am happy that no matter what he accomplishes during his career he will always have a big fat (*) next to his name.

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The Needle and the Damage Done

Roger* may be going down hard in the near future now that the tests have come back positive on a needle linking him to steroids. From the Washington Post:

The DNA results, which are preliminary and subject to verification tests, could prove critical if prosecutors seek an indictment of Clemens on charges that he lied about the use of steroids, according to the sources.

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Roger* Throws His Final Pitch.....and Walks In The Winning Run

Somewhere Sammy Sosa is laughing; all he had to do was pretend he didn't understand english and he walked away virtually unscathed while McGuire went down in flames. If McGuires testimony was a crash and burn then Clemens was the Hindenburg disaster. He rode his BS all the way to the point where Rep. Waxman hit the gavel to silence him, and that is what he will be remembered for. Clemens will join other players who are remembered more for the scandals they were involved in than their performance on the field; he will become the Ty Cobb of his generation. When Ty Cobb died none of his former teammates attended his funeral, will Jeter and Pettitte go to Clemens'? Roger's* days in the limelight are over, he will disappear from the front pages and will not be talked about again until his name is on a Hall of Fame Ballot. Roger is making us "misremember" him; he is not to 20 stikeout pitcher for the Red Sox, he is the lying scumbag Yankee pitcher who threw his trainer, best friend and wife under the bus to try and hold on to something he lost years ago. Thanks for giving us the entertaining TV Roger*, pitchers and catchers report tomorrow so we are moving on, your time in the spotlight is over and HGH isn't going to bring it back this time.

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Roger's* Agent Issues Report Defending His Career

Roger Clemens* has released a report showing why his great pitching career was legit and not from using PED's.

Methinks Thou Dost Protest Too Much

you can read the report here.

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More Evidence Against Roger*

Roger Clemens will have a hard time to continue to deny he used steroids now that new information about McNamee meeting with his agent has come out. According to an article in the Daily News, McNamee wanted to discuss some potential problems Roger would have with the new drug testing policy in MLB. He spoke with Clemens' agent in 2003 and notes of the conversation were kept. I don't think Roger will be able to dig himself out of this hole with his "poor me" denials anymore.

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Steroid Hearings Start Tomorrow

The first round of Congressional hearings into steroid use in MLB will take place tomorrow beginning at 9:30 am (6:30 Pacific). Bud Selig and Donald Fehr will both testify about new information uncovered in the Mitchell Report. The hearings will be broadcast in their entirety on ESPN as well as on CSPAN. You can watch the hearings online here.

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Clemens: It was just vitamins

Roger Clemens* told 60 Minutes in a soon to be released interview that trainer Brian McNamee injected him with the vitamin B-12.

I don't know about you, but I tend to think that taking vitamin pills is easier than getting injected with them in the ass.

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Jeter Stands Behind Pettitte and Clemens. Hasn't He Always?

Here's a shocker. MLB.com is reporting that Yankee-boy Jeter is defending Andy Pettitte:

"Andy knows how I feel about him, and he knows how we feel about him as an organization," Jeter said. "It took a lot of courage for him to come out and be honest about it. Hopefully he can move on."

Courage? What's courageous about waiting until he gets named in the Mitchell Report before coming clean?

Then Jeter defends Clemens. He said, "...people are rushing to judgment. I think you have to let it play out a little bit before you make the decision on whether he's guilty or not."

Of course Jeter is defending Clemens. If you believe Clemens is guilty, like most thinking Americans, the Mitchell Report, and the person who injected him with PED's do, then there is a big asterisk on many of the Yankees recent years.

Just what you'd expect from the Evil Empire.

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