Red Sox GM Theo Epstein was on WEEI’s “The Dale and Holley” show yesterday and talked about all kinds of things -- the Sox’ recent troubles, Halladay, Ortiz’ situation and steroids in general, Youkilis’ suspension, etc. All pretty straightforward stuff, though this bit about finding Ortiz’s statements on PEDs to be satisfying was interesting:
He said, ‘Look, this report is shocking to me. I haven’t taken steroids and I want to find out what the heck I tested positive for. I need to talk to the union, I need to find out what’s going on. As soon as I do . . . I’m not going to hide from this, I’m going to answer every single question.’ When a player says something like that, which is refreshing given a normal response . . . hiding behind excuses or some sort of technical legal situation to not address the question head on . . . you want to stand behind him.
I guess Theo can feel satisfied about that if he wants, but to suggest that Ortiz’s statements weren’t accompanied by “technical legal” excuses is really stretching things. You’ll recall that Union general counsel Michael Weiner spoke before Ortiz did, and what he offered -- while totally valid in my mind -- was about as long a legal disclaimer as anyone has offered in connection with steroids to date.