CALLER:\u00c2\u00a0 Because Big Papi and Manny were using steroids; I think the Red Sox should vacate their World Series titles.\u00c2\u00a0 They weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t clean and those are the guys that beat the Yankees!<\/p>\n
HOST: Umm, didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that Yankee team have admitted users like Jason Giambi, Kevin Brown, and Alex Rodriguez?<\/p>\n
CALLER:\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, right.<\/p>\n
[PAUSE]<\/p>\n
CALLER:\u00c2\u00a0 Never mind.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Despite sounding completely ignorant in a public setting, I can sympathize with the caller. I would be lying if I said I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t angrily flash back to the 2004 ALCS where Ortiz flat out killed the Yankees.<\/p>\n
Ortiz hit .387 with a 1.199 OPS.\u00c2\u00a0 He launched three homeruns\u00e2\u20ac\u201dall in clutch moments\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand drove in 11 runs in Take another glance, Ortiz\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s performance in that series was insane.\u00c2\u00a0 Between games four through seven, Ortiz hoisted his entire team onto his chemically enhanced shoulders and dragged them to the Promised Land.\u00c2\u00a0 Yet, I have no right to be bitter or indignant.\u00c2\u00a0 A year earlier, Jason Giambi blasted two homers in Game 7 of the ALCS off of Pedro Martinez.\u00c2\u00a0 They kept the Yankees within striking distance and laid the groundwork for the now famous comeback capped off by Aaron Boone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 11th inning walk-off against Tim Wakefield.<\/p>\n The reality is that at Yankee Stadium on October 20, 2004, the number of players involved in the game, who used or are suspected to have used PEDs, is not one to be easily dismissed.\u00c2\u00a0 It just so happened that the Red Sox players had the hook-up to the stuff that did not wear off in high-pressure moments.<\/p>\n The entirety of the steroid era has left us adrift in the waters of history.\u00c2\u00a0 We can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t connect or compare our contemporary stars with those of the past, because today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gaudy numbers are highly suspect.\u00c2\u00a0 At the same time, we can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t predict the future of our modern heroes, because their chemical indiscretions have obscured our vision.\u00c2\u00a0 A thick layer of fog envelops us and leaves us blind and unaware of when the next wave of damaging information may hit.<\/p>\n Shawn Anderson at the Hall of Very Good analyzed the Hall of Fame classes of the next few years<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 Starting in 2011, Rafael Palmeiro and Kevin Brown hit the ballot.\u00c2\u00a0 By numbers alone, Palmeiro should be a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer.\u00c2\u00a0 Mark McGwire should have been too.<\/p>\n That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s where we are right now.\u00c2\u00a0 The truisms that we once relied upon now have been muddied.\u00c2\u00a0 Players we thought were great have been proven as cheaters.\u00c2\u00a0 Others play If everything Jose Canseco wrote ends up to be true (shudder)\u00e2\u20ac\u201dmainly that 80-85 percent of major leaguers used\u00e2\u20ac\u201dhow do we evaluate this era in history?\u00c2\u00a0 Does it mean that most of the players WERE actually on an even playing field?\u00c2\u00a0 If so, then, just like always, those that excelled should go into the Hall of Fame, while those that did not should not.<\/p>\n In order to celebrate the players that did not use performance enhancers, I propose that the Hall of Fame create an exhibit in Cooperstown akin to that of the All-American Girls Hollywood could even make a movie trumpeting the courage of ballplayers such as these.\u00c2\u00a0 We could make it as a sequel to A League of Their Own<\/em>.\u00c2\u00a0 Geena Davis could reprise her role as Dottie Henson, a now aged star of the AAGBL disgusted by the current state of the game she loves, who does not want to share the Hall of Fame with known PED users.\u00c2\u00a0 James Cromwell could play Bud Selig, Drew Carey could be Donald Fehr, and Rosie O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Donnell would be perfect as Jose Canseco.<\/p>\n After the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153revelation\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that David Ortiz appeared as one of the 104 players on the 2003 list of positive tests for use of performance enhancing drugs, I transcribed the following conversation from a talk-radio show on ESPN Radio in New York.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t![](\"http:\/\/tiptoeingthrough.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/05\/david-ortiz-ap2.jpg\")
<\/a>SEVEN GAMES!\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll take a moment to let you digest those numbers.\u00c2\u00a0 Take one more.<\/p>\n<\/a>under the suspicion of using PEDs.\u00c2\u00a0 Everything we thought we knew about Major League Baseball has been obscured.<\/p>\n<\/a>Baseball League.\u00c2\u00a0 Clean players that existed during the steroid era could have their own room.\u00c2\u00a0 Murals of players like David Eckstein and Craig Counsell could line the walls.\u00c2\u00a0 The curators could prominently display Alex Cintron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Flintstones chewable vitamins and Carlos Baerga\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s girdle.<\/p>\n<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"