Two more names were released from the anonymous 2003 MLB performance enhancing drug test. They were Manny (who ironically just finished serving a suspension for the same thing) and his old teammate David Ortiz. It just happens that 2003 was the year David Ortiz became a star, with large increases in RBIs and HRs, which continued until last year and this year. It seems believable that he was on them, but to me that is not the issue. The issue isn’t even the fact that the Red Sox, who were lead by Manny and Ortiz, won the World Series the next season (2004) and again in 07.
The issue is the test was anonymous, which means that there should be no list. There should be no record, every other month baseball shouldn’t be reminded of the steroid era. It is time to move on, the MLB has enforced tougher drug policies, but the fact of the matter is that for the right price a player could find an undetectable PED if they really want it. The issue will never go away completely, but it has gotten much better lately.
In an AP report, reported on Yahoo! Sports, it was written:
“Can somebody in baseball—we’re all begging, people—get that stupid list out and move on,” Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. “This is ridiculous; this is embarrassing; this is a joke. Whoever is there is there, get them out, and that’s it.”
I couldn’t agree more, since there is a list (which there shouldn’t be) just get it out so that baseball can move on.
So whoever has this list, do everyone a favor and just release the whole thing or burn it, so that we can move on and try to put the issue in the past.