David Ortiz Steroid News Comes at Right Time For Yankees
July 30, 2009 · Doug Rush · Jump to comments
Article Source: Bleacher Report - New York Yankees
It is great to be a New York Yankee and be a Yankee fan right now.
I wonder how Red Sox Nation feels right now?
I ask this especially from the news today coming from The New York Times article that David Ortiz tested positive for performance enhancing drugs in 2003.
Now, some might say, so did Alex Rodriguez. Yes, he did.
But A-Rod’s story came out back in February, two months before baseball season started. A-Rod took his bullet, admitted to what he did and moved on.
Having hip surgery before the season started and going on the disabled list for the first month of the season also may have taken away some of the steroid buzz floating on A-Rod’s head.
Ortiz’s news couldn’t have come at a worse time for Boston and their fans.
It’s late July and almost August. We are 100-plus games into the baseball season now and in the heat of a playoff race. Guys are focusing on improving their swings, getting their pitching staff right, adding the players needed at the trading deadline, and worrying about baseball-related news.
Not to mention, Boston is in second place fighting for their playoff lives.
And now for Boston, this news on Ortiz. It’s like a nice anvil being dropped through a wooden table just constructed over the last four months.
Whether Ortiz is guilty or not isn’t the question. It’s the distraction that his news is going to bring.
Reporters will be following Ortiz and the Red Sox around every day and will continue to do so, even if the story is dead. They will want to know and ask their questions.
If you don’t think they won’t, look back at some of Barry Bonds’ pre and post game interviews and watch his irritation level grow when the topic of steroids goes up.
I said in a previous article Ortiz needs to tell the truth, but even if he does or doesn’t, it still is a tremendous distraction to the Red Sox team, fans and organization. It was at the worst time possible.
Now, while all of this is happening in Boston, quietly, the Yankees are simply taking care of business.
They are in first place at 62-39 and three-and-a-half games over the Red Sox. A-Rod has come back from hip surgery and produced nicely for the Yankees. And no one is dragging his steroid involvement from the winter into Ortiz’s fiasco.
Nobody is asking Joe Girardi, Derek Jeter, Brian Cashman, and Mariano Rivera about steroid questions from past and present teammates. They are focused on winning baseball games; 11-2 since the All Star Break.
But after the Red Sox win Thursday in Boston, everyone from Terry Francona, Theo Epstein, Kevin Youkilis, and Jason Varitek were bombarded with questions about Ortiz and Manny. Like I said, major distraction.
The Red Sox are going to try and work through it and shrug it off, but this isn’t something you shrug off. This is your biggest icon being known as a tainted cheater.
He wasn’t having the greatest 2009 season to begin with, but now, it is as though his historic past was all tainted and thrown away with the news.
Not to mention, the Red Sox are struggling. They have won only one series since the All Star break and they are only 5-8. Even All Star slugger Jason Bay, who was brought over last season to help replace Manny’s production, is in a terrible slump.
Does Ortiz’s steroid allegations affect the Red Sox for the rest of the season?
Will the Yankees continue their hot streak and great play into August and September?
One thing is for certain, when the Red Sox come into the Bronx for four crucial games starting Aug. 6, you know how the Yankees fans will treat and greet Big Papi; kind of like how Red Sox Nation treated A-Rod in Fenway Park back in April and May.
I’ll give you a hint to how it starts: “STERRRRRRROIDS! STERRRRRRRROIDS!”
Ortiz’s recent news only adds more fuel to the fire and tacks on greater interest to what is known as the greatest and longest rivalry in all of sports.
And one thing is for certain; times are not good in Red Sox Nation.
As for the Yankees and “The Evil Empire”, times couldn’t be better for the fans of the Bronx Bombers right now.
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