David Ortiz

Today comes the news that David Ortiz flunked a drug test for performance enhancing drugs back in 2003. Is anyone really that surprised?

I travel a lot and I recently had a long conversation about this very eventuality with a cabbie on the way to the airport in Dallas. The cabbie asked if I thought Ortiz was juicing and I responded something along the lines of:

As a Boston fan I really hope not. However, as a parent you would have to be naive to think that even though your kid hangs around with kids who smoke pot that your kid has never tried it. Miguel Tejada, A-Rod, Manny and a few others Big Papi hangs around with down in the Dominican have all flunked drug tests. You would have to be blind not to see the possibility. I don't even blame the players. Look at Rafael Palmeiro who was born poor but made over $100 million playing baseball. He made that money because he juiced. His name is mud in baseball now but he secured the future for his kids and grandkids. They'll never know hunger. I can't blame him at all.

If Ortiz flunked a drug test in 2003 then that would have been within 12 months of having been released by the Twins. Ortiz has made about $57 million since then. Think about that - from being released to making over $57 million. Would you have tried steroids if you were in his shoes? I'm pretty sure I would have.