Asked if he has been contacted by Drug Enforcement Agency investigators looking into the doctor who wrote the prescription for HCG, he said, "Like I said, I don't want to get into my records. I want to talk about the game."
Later, he was asked if he knew the doctor in question, Pedro Publio Bosch, or his son, Anthony Bosch, who is believed to have led Ramirez to the South Florida clinic.
"I don't want to talk about my criminal records," he said.
He then laughed.
Ramirez's path to this night of cheers mixed with jeers can be traced to the spring, when he took a drug test, one that was flagged for having abnormally high levels of artificial testosterone.
In accordance with Major League Baseball's policy, he turned over his medical records to the players' union, which, in turn, handed them over to baseball officials. Included in the records was a prescription for human chorionic gonadotropin, a female fertility drug often used by steroid users to restore the production of natural testosterone.
HCG, however, wasn't found in Ramirez's system, according to sources with knowledge of the test results, but baseball suspended Ramirez for "just cause" based on "non-analytical evidence."
The absence of the drug in Ramirez's system, coupled with the high levels of artificial testosterone, was an indication that he had used steroids, anti-doping experts told The Times.
Ramirez stayed silent on the subject during the news conference, where he sat alongside his agent, Scott Boras, as Manager Joe Torre stood nearby. The Dodgers left fielder said that because he apologized he didn't have to explain himself any further.
He also acknowledged that the controversy embarrassed him "a lot." But, he added, "we're humans. We learn from our mistakes. There was only one man that was perfect, and they killed him, so that's how I look at life."
Ramirez was unusually boastful, making remarks about his gifts that made him a 12-time All-Star.
For example, speaking of the way fans in Los Angeles have backed him, he said, "I'm not surprised, because I'm one of the best players who ever put the uniform" on.
The player who has often used self-deprecating humor in his interactions with reporters was suddenly sharing what he described as an absolute belief that he would be the same player he was before his ban.
"Now, I got a challenge," he said. "I've got to go out there and show people I could still do it. I know could do it. So that's good. That's going to give me more fire to play the game."
