David Ortiz thinks New York bias might have been a factor in leaked 2003 PED report
"This was just something that leaked out of New York, and they have zero explanation about it."
David Ortiz addressed longstanding allegations that he tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003 during a lengthy interview on WEEI on Friday.
“Yeah, show me I was on the list. Show me what I tested positive for,” the retired Red Sox slugger said. “Give me a reason why you say I used steroids. It don’t make any sense to me.”
Ortiz spoke about the 2009 New York Times story that first reported a leak from an anonymous testing program conducted by Major League Baseball. The article alleged that Ortiz and his former teammate Manny Ramirez both failed a drug test in 2003.
When the Times reporter asked Ortiz about the test in 2009, he declined to comment. “I’m not talking about that anymore,” he said at the time. “I have no comment.”
Ortiz told WEEI on Friday that he thinks the location of the newspaper was a factor in the report:
What happened in 2009 when they threw my name out there, you know I always sit down and think about what was the reason for them to come out with something like that? And then only thing that I can think of, to be honest with you, [is] a lot of the guys from the Yankees were getting caught, and no one from Boston. So who was the big guy from Boston? It was me. So the newspaper coming out of New York with that news…They were just trying to do what they did: cause the attention [to be on] someone else. Somewhere else.
Ortiz also said he remains unhappy with the lack of details regarding the allegations.
“This was just something that leaked out of New York, and they have zero explanation about it,” he said.
