David Ortiz and Why Steroids Don't Matter

David Snyder

David Ortiz joked with the Boston Herald about steroids. A subject that has nearly destroyed his sport was a subject Ortiz felt he could move in and out of laughingly.

In reality the steroid issue is funny. What is funny about the whole thing is the entire sports worlds' naivete about the issue. We watched as records were torn apart thinking that supplements and weight training had turned great hitters into ridiculous freaks of sports nature. And we sit here again kicking the empty can that is the steroid issue while the next beast runs wild through the sport, HGH.

Ortiz told the Herald:
"I tell you, I don't know too much about steroids, but I started listening about steroids when they started to bring that (expletive) up," Ortiz told the Boston Herald. I started realizing and getting to know a little bit about it. You've got to be careful. I used to buy a protein shake in my country. I don't do that anymore because they don't have the approval for that here, so I know that, so I'm off buying things at the GNC back in the Dominican (Republic). But it can happen anytime, it can happen. I don't know. I don't know if I drank something in my youth, not knowing it."

"I should use steroids just to see what's going on. Nah. I have a good family. I want to see my kids learn and develop. I think I'm having an OK career. So, I take a lot of Advils, but I think I'm going to stop taking them. They say it (expletive) your liver."

What is so interesting about his statements is that they show how little the professional player cares about what goes into his body, only that it gives them the edge. Steroids are tested for, but you cannot test efficiently for HGH. To think that players in every sport are not abusing the substance with so much benefit and so little risk is the definition of naivete.

And so we sit on our couches and hate Barry Bonds, and question the record seasons of Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire, but we never bat an eyelash when a 6'6", 320 pound defensive tackle can run a 4.7 40 yard dash.

When the issue is looked at on the whole the sports fan will see that the playing field has been leveled. No matter what you think, no matter what you believe, your sports are riddled with methods to cheat.

Malfeasance cancels out malfeasance.

If the sports fan were to take the hero worship out of their view of the sporting world, they would have less of a problem with achievements such as Barry Bonds, seeing that he was only a product of an entire system. Homeruns, jump shots, and pure athletic ability have little to gain from drugs. There is no pill that you can take to be the next great short stop or wide receiver.

Ortiz talked about this idea when he told the Boston Herald he thought Barry Bonds was clean throughout his career.

"To hit the frickin' ball, the guy makes it look easy, but it ain't. I don't know how you can have that swing, consistently. I don't know how steroids can do that," Ortiz said. "There are supposed to be guys using steroids in the game, and there's nobody close to Barry Bonds. What's that mean? He was using the best (expletive)? Know what I'm saying?

"I don't look at it like that. I look at it hitting-wise, because I don't know what steroids can do to you as a baseball player. You've still got to swing the bat, man," Ortiz said. "If I ever use steroids, and then I know what the difference can be and I'm using them, I'll tell you, 'Yeah, whatever,' but I don't know what the feelings are when you use the steroids. But I can tell you how it feels to pull yourself together to swing the bat."

And so Ortiz is being naïve. The evidence is there, and if anything it vindicates Bonds' actions. It did not make him a great hitter, he was already a great hitter. It simply made him on par with the rest of the sports world. A community of individuals so wrapped up with their chase to create immortality for themselves and their fans that they forget about their morality.

David Snyder takes on various ideas floating around the sports world at his website bigdaveonsports.com.