On Thursday, the New York Times reported that Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz were named as two of the 104 major league players listed as having tested positive for performance-enhancing substances in 2003. 
According to the Times, the source of these claims was “lawyers with knowledge of the results”. While no one should be shocked or surprised by this news, it still makes a difference to hear the names linked to a positive test rather than just being a part of speculation.
Ramirez and Ortiz are the latest players to have their names leaked from “the list” this year. In June, the New York Times reported that Sammy Sosa was on the list, and in February, Sports Illustrated reported that Alex Rodriguez tested positive in 2003, which he later admitted.
In my opinion, since the testing in 2003 was anonymous and there were no penalties, all the results should have been destroyed. That, however, is not the case, which is why names are currently being released.
According to the article in the Times, “The information [positive test results] was later seized by federal agents investigating the distribution of performance-enhancing drugs to professional athletes, and the test results remain the subject of litigation between the baseball players union and the government.”
So that’s why the names are still out there. Fine. But why are they being released one or two at a time? How is it that these “lawyers with knowledge of the results” only were able to see that Ramirez and Ortiz were on the list?
Either the lawyers are Yankee fans, or it makes for a better news story to release these names slowly. By starting with A-Rod, moving to Sosa, and today revealing Ramirez and Ortiz, the media has been able to cover this story from three different angles in three different months.
And, there are still 100 more names to go on that list! At this rate, the media will be covering this story through the end of the next decade.
So even though I’d like to pretend that everyone in baseball is clean and I want to believe the magical home run chase in 1998 wasn’t tainted, I am forced to face reality. The same thing applies here, as even though I wish the results were destroyed six years ago, since they weren’t, it’s time for all the names on “the list” to be released.
It may not be fair to the players who thought they were submitting themselves to an anonymous test with no repercussions, but fair went out the window when A-Rod, Sosa, Ramirez and Ortiz were outed individually. As I presume any of them will attest, it’s probably a lot less painful to be included as a group of 100 rather than singled out.
If Major League Baseball truly wants to get past the so-called “Steroid Era”, they need to work out their legal issues and get all the names out in the open. While it won’t erase what occurred, it will at least put everything in the rearview mirror. Until the next breaking news story of course.
Bloggged MLB Needs to Release the Entire 2003 Steroid List Now: – http://tinyurl.com/ns76qr #cubiclegm
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
Funny a few weeks back I saw the list on http://www.rotoinfo.com and everyone doubted their source… Now it looks like they were dead on, A lot of people owe them an apology and should give them credit for having the balls to post that list.
I saw that list yesterday when I was putting it together. It does seem pretty accurate, and would explain why the Cubs were able to do so well that year.