David Ortiz is the best clutch hitter in baseball, a slugger whose success under pressure led the Boston Red Sox to five playoff appearances and two World Series titles in the last six seasons.
Ortiz came up in another pressure situation Saturday at Yankee Stadium. But this time he whiffed.
Ten days after the New York Times reported Ortiz's name was on the list of players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003, 10 days after pledging not to "hide" or "make excuses," Ortiz essentially did both.
Rather than coming clean, Ortiz took the easy way out, blaming the test results on nutritional supplements and vitamins he bought over the counter.
Rather than keeping his promise to reveal what he tested positive for, Ortiz took cover behind Michael Weiner, the top lawyer for the players' association, who said the union cannot give out that information.
How convenient.
"I definitely was a little bit careless back in those days when I was buying supplements, vitamins over the counter. Legal supplements, legal vitamins over the counter," Ortiz said. "But I never buy steroids or use steroids."
And what were the supplements he bought, legally and over the counter?
"No idea," he said.
Well, whatever they were, they sure worked. Because the year before Ortiz failed his drug test, he was released by the Minnesota Twins after two seasons in which he combined to hit 38 homers and drive in 123 runs. In each of the three seasons after testing positive, Ortiz hit no fewer than 41 homers and drove in at least 137 runs.
That proves nothing, of course. But then neither did Ortiz's news conference, during which he repeatedly admitted to being "clueless," "careless" and "confused."
Which still left him more forthcoming than Weiner, whose lawyerly explanations and accompanying two-page news release made it clear the union will never agree to release the names of players who failed baseball drug tests in 2003, as several prominent players and managers have requested.
He even quibbled with the number of names on the list, saying there were no more than 83 positive tests in 2003. Baseball released a competing statement that said there were as many as 96 positive tests. And the government list the New York Times cited, compiled following a federal raid on baseball's drug-testing companies five years ago, reportedly contains 104 names.
It's a list the union wants back to hold under lock and key forever.
