Hank, here’s a start: Ramirez, Ortiz exposed
Ramirez: "Big Papi, you think they'll ever catch us?" Ortiz: "No, Manny. It's all good."
The greatest clean home run hitter in baseball history said last week he wanted the entire list of 104 players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003 exposed. I don’t know how much Henry Aaron’s comments weighed on authorities but we can scratch two more names off the secret list.
The New York Times reported that Manny Ramirez — who already has sat out a 50-game suspension this season — and his former Boston Red Sox teammate, David Ortiz, tested positive in 2003. And for those deluded fans who still believe performance-enhancing drugs do not hugely impact the game, Ramirez and Ortiz were big reasons the Red Sox won World Series titles in 2004 and 2007. So Ramirez and Ortiz join previously outed druggies Alex Rodriguez and Sammy Sosa. I guess this thing is being released piecemeal.
Attention Braves fans: If you’re interesting in venting on this subject in some place other than in the commenting section below — which we always encourage — the Braves would love for you to attend Friday’s series opener against Ramirez and his current team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, at Turner Field. I believe it’s souvenir syringe night.
Baseball screened players for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003. The results were expected to remain confidential. But for some reason the list of 104 players who tested positive was not immediately destroyed and it soon ended up in the hands of the federal government as part of its investigation into BALCO, which provided PEDs to several high-profile athletes. The investigation led to Barry Bonds’ indictment for perjury. (You might’ve heard rumors that Bonds also took something on the way to breaking Aaron’s home run record.) The Major League Baseball Players Association has been fighting to keep the list confidential and obviously wants it destroyed. Legally, the union probably has a point. But the prevailing anti-drug sentiment in sports currently might trump that position.
In my conversation with Aaron last Sunday, he said, “If there’s another 102 players on that list, that would be my position — bring it all to light now and get it over with. The game has come through things before. It needs to come through this. If there are a hundred and some names on the list, let’s just get them out and get this over with so we can get on with the game.”
Angels center fielder Torii Hunter seems to agree with Aaron — to a point. He told ESPN: “Whoever got that list is just playing with Major League Baseball right now. Either put [the list] away, or just put it out. It was anonymous and now the names are leaking out and it’s a joke.”
Yes. But let’s not forget how this “joke” was made possible.
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76 comments Add your comment
Marseilles Mutt
July 30th, 2009
6:47 pm
If memory serves, both Maddox and Glavine ‘bulked up’ one year- presumably on the golf course- to add additional ‘oomph’ and mph to their fast balls. However, although it did make them appreciably faster- got them both into the 90’s- it also took off the movement of their pitches, and the great experiment went by the boards.
Always wondered about that…. Enter your comments here
Truth
July 30th, 2009
6:56 pm
Only one name is being released at a time because that allows the press to make it a story over and over again. Release the whole list and the press can no longer milk it.
Jeff Schultz
July 30th, 2009
7:01 pm
Truth — I don’t know advantage of stretching this out — and speaking for the media, it would be a MUCH better story to have the whole list released. Also less of a headache.
BigMike
July 30th, 2009
7:02 pm
If you remembered back win Baseball said they needed something to get fans back to parks. Thanks to the commish he not only knew about, but he approved it. Baseball had got boring and why not let players start juicing up so that it could be something Special. The persons to blame is the MLB for trying to make it the number 1 pass time again.
gatorman770
July 30th, 2009
7:03 pm
They need to quit this BS of releasing the list piecemeal and release the whole darn list, but the list is probably just a fraction of the users since the players union warned of the pending test plus intelligent users (that did’t want their natural testosterone producing testicles to permantly atrophy and shutdown) usually did 6 week cycles and then layoff for 6 weeks so their bodies would start back producing it’s one natural hormones again (so they wouldn’t end up like Manny).
I know it’s not fair for any sports atheletes that never used them, but the record books for baseball, football, track, etc. need to have the period from 1970 thru 2005 highlighted and noted that many players used performance enhancing drugs during this period. This should also apply to high school records since the use of steroids was rampant in the 1980s and 90s atleast from what I witnessed in Gwinnett County gyms.
Sage of Blueland
July 30th, 2009
7:29 pm
Any chances ol’ Hank Aaron is on that list? Then what will you sheep do?
Suckers.
Hillbilly Deluxe
July 30th, 2009
7:43 pm
I wasn’t an athlete in high school but I remember football players telling me that the football coach handed out “meany pills”. This was the early 70’s. Didn’t do any good though they still only won 2 or 3 games. Maybe the other teams had better stuff.
Drew
July 30th, 2009
7:54 pm
And the witch hunt continues. At least this will be good for ratings/sales for sports journalists.
MiltonDawg
July 30th, 2009
8:13 pm
JS: Maybe we should come up with a “Golden Syringe” trophy for all the active players on that list who put up good numbers this year!!
Evening Headlines (Video of a 7-year-old leading police on a car chase) by Hard Knox Sports
July 30th, 2009
8:14 pm
[...] Hammerin’ Hank wants MLB PEDs list released: I couldn’t agree more. There is no point in releasing a name every other month. Hank Aaron has a point: Release the names of the players that tested positive for performance enhancing drugs now and let’s move on. [AJC] [...]
james
July 30th, 2009
8:27 pm
the braves paid to much money for nate mccloutfor him to lead the league in strike outs
this guy cant see howto catch also.
Hillbilly Deluxe
July 30th, 2009
8:38 pm
I think we can be sure that Bud Selig’s brain has never been on PED’s.
Roberto
July 30th, 2009
8:59 pm
Everyone is missing what is important by trying to guess who is on the list. I’m sure like many others, I am a life long baseball fan. We remember all the greats and their statistics. Who can believe that any player today producing exceptional results is straight. Many PED’s remain undetectable. Baseball does random testing. Who really knows. Everyone denies they are quilty or cannot understand how they could have tested positive and they turn out to be liars. The fans and the media still glorify the cheater. AROD has passed Mantle…Ramirez moves up the HR list…the fans chear and treat them like heroes. They’re cheaters. Do you remember when “Cheaters never win” Well now they win and they prosper. It travels all the way to high schools and even below high school. Cheating has become acceptable. What a world we have created for our children and what a farce we have made all sports. Of course the cheating goes far beyond sports because as far as are children can tell it is OK to cheat. Everyone caught cheating should be banned…PERIOD! Everyone caught cheating in academic situations should severely dealt with. Every adult supervising a child’s sport who cheats, high school basketball for example, should be banned..PERIOD. This is the only thing that will stop it.
Jeff Schultz
July 30th, 2009
9:21 pm
Sage — pretty sure Hank is safe. Especially since the test was given only 6 years ago. He could test positive for Maalox.
Hillbilly — funny line about Selig.
MIltown Dawg — may have to do that one day. We could come up with a great All-Star team.
Jeff Schultz
July 30th, 2009
9:23 pm
Drew: Witchhunt? Are you serious? These are names on a list of lab results.
TPM
July 30th, 2009
9:42 pm
The names in the Mitchell Report were there mainly because they dealt with Mets and Yankee’s trainers. Someone is now leaking slect names from the 2003 tests. Don’t think for a minute that Javy Lopez and Ryan Klesko are clean.
godless heathen
July 30th, 2009
9:44 pm
Andruw Jones may have taken PEDs, but his downfall was the girls at Cheetah and Scott Boras telling him to be home run hitter. Similar thing with Francour. He had a great rookie season and in the off-season he muscled up. Seems to me that there are two ways to hit a lot of homers – bat speed or muscle. Aaron wasn’t a great big muscle man. He did it with his wrists. Jones and Francour tried the other route – and it ruined them as “hitters”.
Ken Stallings
July 30th, 2009
10:00 pm
I would challenge in court the previous court’s order to seal the list. The list contains information on those who may have violated federal controlled substances restrictions. Therefore, the list could be a material fact in a crime. Depending upon the statute of limitations, one could claim that the previous court is hiding evidence.
Sonny Clusters
July 30th, 2009
10:26 pm
Should it be a quick bat or a fast bat? We was thinking it must be quick bat instead of fast bat. Quick bat, fast swing. We was always swinging a quick bat back when we was playing ball together.
Sonny Clusters
July 30th, 2009
10:31 pm
We was thinking how KJ went 0-4 today and Prado might have got a hit. Can’t be sure but maybe Prado could have drove in a run along the way since he swings the bat a lot better than KJ has been swinging. Well, Bobby must have figured that it wouldn’t hurt none to sit Prado in case they needed him later to pinch hit.
scottbravesfan
July 30th, 2009
11:04 pm
Anyone who didn’t have David Ortiz on that list is fooling themselves. He was awful with the Twins for years and then they cut him and the Red Sox sign him and he becomes the Dominican Babe Ruth? Please that guy cheated big time.
I would be shocked if Javy Lopez was not on the list.
BigJake
July 30th, 2009
11:28 pm
Seems to me that there is a direct correlation between the Dominican Republic and steroid use – I have heard stories that there is a culture of cheating there and recently several players from there, minor-league level, were given 50-game bans. Look at all the players already outed from that list and other sources that hail from the DR. Cheating on a wide scale that includes birth certificates, (can you say Danny Almonte, former Little League World Series cheat?), steroid use, etc.
Piso Mojado
July 31st, 2009
12:31 am
God bless Big Papi! In the 2004 ALCS he hit that dinger against the Evil Empire, in extra innings when the Sox were down 3-zip in the series, to win the game. He turned it all around, and the Bosox won the big one. Finally.
I can die happy.
PM
Obama All Star Game | All Days Long
July 31st, 2009
6:46 am
[...] Hank, here's a start: Ramirez, Ortiz exposed | Jeff Schultz By Jeff Schultz 1) Call a prime time news conference (heck, Obama can do it, why not me?) 2) At this conference, have the national championship Little Leagers sit behind me, on bleachers. 3) Announce that this game's greatness is about history, tradition, and how we pass down this tradition to our …. All Star game reverts back to not mattering (not that it really does), home team advantage determined by results of interleague play – ties broken by best record of team of either league. … Jeff Schultz – http://blogs.ajc.com/jeff-schultz-blog/ [...]
htownbravesfan
August 1st, 2009
3:38 pm
I was a police officer for almost ten years, and what always amazed me is how officers always stood by other officers who were accused of some sort of wrongdoing, whether it be departmental or criminal. If I were a clean player, I’d be demanding the list be released, not getting on TV like Nomar Garciaparra and calling the whole testing process into question such as to deflect attention away from the real problem–cheating teammates.
RJ
August 4th, 2009
1:49 pm
It is not fair for teams and players to use drugs to enhance their performance. Here is a way to stop this. Any player caught using performance enhancing drugs be banned from baseball for life and his record wiped off baseball records. It would be like the player never played.
Then, that brings us to the teams that benefit from these players. They would forfeit all post season games that they allowed a drugged up player to play in. Put the responsibility back on the team and player to stop this madness. I no longer watch or go to baseball games because of the problem.
Do you think it was fair for Hank Aaron’s record to be broken by a player usiong performance enhancing drugs? i don’t!
Make the game wholesome again.