David Ortiz’s Positive Steroids Test: The Lowdown on Who Is Leaking MLB Players Test Results and Who is Aiding and Abetting the Leakers
August 10, 2009 by dwil
Let me air this right off the bat: what happened to ESPN sports newscaster Carl Ravech’s assertion that, in 2003, when David Ortiz tested positive for a performance enhancing drug (PED), he was informed?
Today, the Major League Baseball Commissioner’s Office, the MLB Player’s Association, and the Boston Red Sox front office all stand behind Ortiz’s assertion that he has never willingly purchased and ingested a PED. They stand behind his assertion that his positive test was the result of an over-the-counter supplement containing a substance that would cause a positive result.
And none of these entities will divulge what it is Ortiz tested positive for.
Where is Ravech now? Why has ESPN failed, so far, to address the fact that Ravech, just last week announced that Ortiz has known of his positive test for six years? Where is the national press on this matter?
I actually chose, for once, to believe ESPN and Ravech. Despite the network’s want to be the first to report news first sometimes at the expense of being correct, there was no real “first” to be had here. The news of Ortiz’s test results was more than 24 hours old so ESPN had plenty of time to put its massive staff to work, including writers and researchers, to dig up more facts concerning the test result.
So, where did Ravech’s news come from? It was repeated as fact by other ESPN on-air personalities for the next week. I called Ortiz a “liar” based on Ravech’s “report.” Now, though, no one at ESPN mentions Ravech’s “scoop.” His assertion seems to no longer exist at the network.
And I gather ESPN hopes Ravech’s gross error or well-planted lie is quietly forgotten and allowed to slide with equal silence down the memory hole.
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There is a second matter to deal with relative to baseball’s unanimous support of David Ortiz. Every mainstream sports writer I have spoken with has maintained that someone in the MLB front office or someone in a management position with a team leaked all the reported positive test results.
I have, on the other hand, maintained that the leaks are emanating from Jeff Novitzky, or someone associated with Novitzky at the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).
It appears for all the world that I am correct.
Major League Baseball has a list of 94 positive test results. However, every mainstream report maintains that there are 104 – or 103 – names on the list; the number of players according to the U.S. Government.
Why is there a discrepancy?
Remember CDT Labs held the test results when Novitzky raided the facility and stole the list. The list was in the lab because the MLBPA maintained that some of the positive results were “false-positives,” resulting from – for instance – ingesting a supplement containing a substance that would cause a positive result – like DHEA – that was not a PED. The potential false-positive were crucial to both the union and MLB. If 5% or more players tested positive for PEDs Major League Baseball could use that as a pretense to automatically enact a comprehensive drug testing program. But if fewer than 5% of players teseted had positive results there would be no drug testing in MLB, and the union would claim a victory.
Novitzky’s theft of the lab results – yes theft, as Barry Bonds case judge Susan Ilston ordered Novitzky to turn over the list and he refused – gave Bud Selig and the owners a de facto victory.
Taking this entire chain of events back to their root, it is Novitzky, who was an IRS agent at the time, who sat at a bar with a fellow IRS agent watching Bonds and the San Francisco Giants and expressed his hate for Bonds. Novitzky claimed, out of the blue, that Bonds was “dirty” and vowed to bust the then Giants left-fielder.
It was through Novitzky that Victor Conte’s BALCO lab was raided in a televised, Waco-like scenario: helicopters with DEA agents carrying semi-automatic rifles, SWAT teams in armored trucks, and armed tax agents bursting through BALCO’s front door with guns drawn. Nothing could have been more pleasing for Novitzky – or the Bush administration, for that matter.
Barry Bonds, BALCO, and steroids into a cottage industry for sports writers and the national sports media. U.S. track and field stars were snared in Novitzky’s net: Marion Jones was the biggest track and field casualty of the raid, her own lies, and a salivating media.
Congressional dog-and-pony shows ensued and we saw baseball players wagging fingers, begging to not dwell on the past and move on to the future, and suddenly fail to understand or speak English. Parents who might have failed their son through an inordinate amount of pressure placed on their son to succeed as a pro baseball player and helped cause his suicide were able to stand in front of cameras and blame steroids for their son taking his own life. Congressional leaders got plenty of much-needed fact time as the nation was just beginning to understand that the people they voted into office were largely failing them. Faced with sinking confidence ratings, getting tough on steroids and casting an ancient spell using the incantation – “We’re doing this for the kids,” allowed a welcome change of subject for the Capitol Hill gang.
For a figurative minute the “Steroid Show” allowed Congress to have a respite from the growing clamor over their claiming war with Iraq was necessary while not finding WMDs, which was a major pretext for war with that country, and the fudged intelligence that was beginning to backfire on an administration hell-bent on bullying the nation into the active thought of a 100-year “Orange Alert” perma-fear status for America.
Next came the glut of anti-steroids and anti-Bonds books by sports writers who cared little for the truth about steroids and less about painting a fair picture of the slugger. ESPN came in and rewarded all the anti-Bonds-steroids writers who received their two minutes of fame by perpetuating lies about PEDS and Bonds, because they aided the Worldwide Leader in sports-related propaganda with its neoconservative, pro-Republican administration agenda.
While Boston Red Sox minority owner Phillip H. Morse allowing the CIA to use his private jet for rendition, the sports story of the year, at least, went completely by the wayside on ESPN, ESPN.com or in ESPN, the Magazine. Today, so few people of know the Patriots owner’s heinous act that is worthy only of a shrug of shoulders and a sigh.
And today mainstream writers still cannot comprehend, fail to take the leap, fear the government, or are mind controlled to the point where, in the face of this litany of events and in the face of Novitzky’s refusing to turn over the list, in the face of a 10-player discrepancy between MLB’s list and Novitzky’s list, that Novitzky’s list contains 104 names, and the 94-player list held by MLB is a number never used by the press, that it is the U.S. Government that continues to manipulate “the game” and that ESPN – the Big Disney, the Big Subliminal – primarily, has been in bed with these powers ranging from the Justice Department to the DEA on this issue all the while.
Is it an accident that Jason Grimsley, a man who refused to wear a wire to attempt to catch Bonds talking about PED use for the government is the only White MLB player named in the leaks of player’s positive test results? Is it an accident that Manny Ramirez’s name was leaked after he was suspended 50 games by Selig? Is it an accident that when Ramirez was tested positive for the sperm-enhancer, diet drug, hCG, Bosch’s son acted as an intermediary between Ramirez and his physician father) suddenly hCG was not the drug found in the “positive” test? Is it an accident that David Ortiz, Ramirez’s former Boston Red Sox clubhouse friend, is leaked with Ramirez?
Is it an accident that every talking head at ESPN has advocated against the release of the names on the list? Is it an accident that these people at ESPN engage in such mind-fuck illogic that they claim players on the list will be wronged if the names are released - despite the fact that every MLB player past and present queried about the list has advocated for their release?
It is no accident at all.
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Addendum:
I remember a mention of a private jet belonging to New England Patriots owner, Robert Kraft being used for rendition. The article had photos of the plane and its number on the tail. I now cannot find the article, but here is another mention:
A US Gulfstream executive jet took off at about 1045, its reg number was N616KG, Owner: Airkraft One Trust,
Address: Corporate Trust Administration
Wilmington, DE 19890-0001United States, may be owned by one (Bob Kraft) New England Patriots.
So everyone who supports Dwil and SOMM should go to the digg site, find this story and Digg it – you have to register but it’s no biggie. The story is submitted under Upcoming ->Sports -> Baseball. Let’s support someone other than the ESPN party line and get this moved to the front page of the DIGG site. OK, I’m done cheerleading.
Niki-
Thanks for letting people know about “Digging ” the article,
You learn something new everyday. Robert Kraft was involved in rendition flights? Where can I read more about this?
newbie-
Sorry about that…. it’s Phillip Morse, minority owner of the Red Sox…. This was reported first at least four years ago. Morse tried to deny it but there were photos of the plane at airports where Morse was in the same town doing business. It turned out it was his personal private jet, so there was really no getting around him not knowing about the whereabouts of his plane. But the story went away quickly then – just as it has now.
great article,
i thought i remembered reading a couple years ago that it was robert kraft who let the cia use his jet for extraordinary renditions. but i could never find any info on it after that. i guess because it was actually a red sox owner.
dwil,
For me, any media credibility ESPN had was lost after the Big Ben fiasco when none of their writers spoke out against it. But at the same time, not everyone feels the way I do or is willing to go deeper to find the truth, as we do here. Because of that, that makes them just as lethal as the Fox News Network, where truth is what you tell people it is, despite the facts that say otherwise.
A private jet used for rendition? My God…
brian on-
So did I. When I write, often I take info from memory. what jarred my memory of Kraft is seeing a mention of Morse in some email that had a link to the Daily Kos. when I read the mention of Morse in the Kos I remember immediately thinking of Kraft. But when “newbie” left the comment, I performed a search but could not find a result for Kraft….
I just checked the archives here at SOMM and found that I referenced Kraft in a 10.30.07 article as well….
Man, I’m sure Kraft did this, too because U remember seeing multiple photos of the plane zeroing in on the number of the plane on the tail….
I’m going to look again…
i always remember the kraft reference because it was two years ago when everyone was going crazy about vick. i use to argue with some friends that vick had nothing on kraft (imo, facilitating the transfer of “terror” suspects to blacksites for torture has to be a worse crime than dogfighting). two years later, one guy has served jail time, had to declare bankruptcy and now has to jump through a billion hoops just to step onto a football field while the other guy is someone we should all look up to. that’s f-ed up.
anyway, i’ve done a number of searches on your site and others trying to find the info but no luck. but i’m glad you and newbie brought it up. i was beginning to think i imagined it.
Did Nexis search and couldn’t find any info on this from any mainstream news source.
Everyone, here’s something to work with:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/03/21/cia_uses_jet_red_sox_partner_confirms/
Oops, no Robert Kraft. My bad.
Big Man-
I thought the source I found years ago was mainstream. It was complete with photos of the plane in different locales, as it was traced from its origin point to an airstrip in Europe. Then there were photographs of it in places where Kraft was at the time.
It was quite an involved piece, if I remember correctly…. I’m just pissed no reference to it exists any more outside of the Indy Media piece I referred to here – but I’m finding that this is becoming more and more common with contentious information that involves our govt., corporations, and people tied to either entity or both entities.
Maybe work with this?
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/88026
dwil:
I wonder why Barry Bonds didn’t get the benefit of the doubt that Ortiz is getting? Why couldn’t Barry’s alleged test results have produced a false positive?
Also…
If President Clinton can go to North Korea to obtain the release of Americans accused of espionage, a crime in which the accused have been summarily placed before a firing squad, why can’t he go to Georgia and negotiate the release of Troy Davis (witnesses have recanted their testimony against him)?
Victor, that Troy Davis situation is real ugly. They have a Black D.A. down in Savannah now but I don’t know how much good its going to do.
I think with the exception of Manny Ramirez and Ozzie Guillen the media gives Lationo ballplayers a pass. Ortiz is a big dude thats always smiling and just comes off as non-threatening like most Latino players. Barry is the brother that ain’t having it and those cowards do their damage with pen and paper because of it. They aren’t man enough to say that they hate the dude because he treats them like a ball of lint on his $5000 suits. While Big Papi looks like he’ll let one of their kids rub their sticky cotton candy hands all over his suit and laugh it off.
mac-
Thanks for the cease fire (you know….) Yeah it’s ugly. And you cold have said, “Victor, that Troy Davis situation is real…” and that would be true, too….
…and I have been thinking about exactly what you said in the 1st sentence of the second paragraph – and thinking about one Albert Pujols.
Victor-
‘Cause he B-A-R-R-Y B-O-N-D-S, that’s why! And B-A-R-R-Y is angry, mean, egotistic, and some more shit if you’re not careful – or if he construes you as “outside of his sphere of being.”
DWIL- The FEDS are the ones spilling this “secret” and what not. I have to laugh, because I have friends on both sides of the law. From the drug game, when the FEDS can’t pin you, they go after your closest friends in the game and wrap them up. They go to your enemies and make it look like you’re talking to them. When drug gangs go at it, it’s because the FEDS create the drama by name dropping on the fake tip. Having friends in the game, you hear of how the FEDS plant evidence and create cases when you’re beating them.
Barry Bonds has beaten the FEDS because he effectively paid his #1 guy off to take the weight and do time, not unlike a drug dealer pays his right hand man to take weight when the FEDS bag him up. What has the FEDS really pissed off is the way they keep getting stoned by Bonds. They managed to nail Jones in the BALCO drama, they’re effectively going after Clemens (his friendship with President Bush will doom the FEDS though), but they haven’t gotten the guy they really want…BONDS. So what do the FEDS do? They’re angry at MLB, because they won’t/cant’ help, they do what they do best…they DROP NAMES. They drop names to the media and the media fucks over MLB/Players.
Who else would be dropping names? You REALLY think attorneys are? That’s a RUSE. The guys dropping names are the FEDS. They’re always behind the scenes creating drama.
On the whole, I would have to disagree with you two fine gentleman about Latino ballplayers getting passes. The Latino ballplayer — particularly the dominican ballplayer — has filled the void left by Barry Bonds and the vanishing black ballplayer in MLB. It certainly isn’t as bad Barry, but it ain’t the protection that Big Mac and Clemens were receiving before being outed by non-media entities.
Just this year ARod, Manny, Sammy, and Big Papi were all reported to have failed the 2003 test by media. Should we believe that these are the ONLY names that Selena Roberts or Michael Schmidt know? I do not believe this. After ARod was outed, a rash of articles ensued about the Dominican Republic, trainer Angel Presinal, and profiles of Dominican minor leaguers. The debate simply shifted from black to brown without Barry to kick around anymore. Bob Ryan has led the war on DR…
If Big Papi received the FULL pass, he would never have been exposed by Michael Schmidt. But he is certainly receiving a pass post-exposure. And that suggests that among other points previously mentioned by Dwil that if you are
a) a great great ballplayer;
b) a post-season hero
c) a clubhouse leader;
d) loved by teammates;
e) loved by media;
f) previously intentionally set-up by media to be the “anti-Manny”
then you are well-positioned to receive a partial white pass that still has less value than Jeff Bagwell.
As for Pujols, he is now the media golden-boy, and why not. He is the best hitter I have ever seen this side of Barry Bonds, and he has absolutely no white competition in sight for his future throne. If not root for Al, then who? ARod has been getting killed by media since 2006.
Media positioned Puljos to be the anti-Arod the way Big Papi became the anti-Manny, the way Hank Aaron became the anti-Barry. These dudes started their roles as media props before the steroid allegations hit the fan. It seems to me that the next best thing to the white pass is to previously regarded as “the antidote” to some other dark villain.
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victor, great point on Clinton-Troy Davis
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D, I appreciate that you continually remind folks that the union was doing their job in not throwing away the test results. It is unbelievable how much this lie travels.
THREAD JACK!!!
Seems Rick Pitino DID have sex with that crazy woman:
University of Louisville men’s basketball coach Rick Pitino told police that he had consensual sex with Karen Cunagin Sypher at a Louisville restaurant where he’d been drinking on Aug. 1, 2003. He also told police that he later gave Sypher $3,000 to have an abortion, according to Louisville Metro Police reports The Courier-Journal obtained under the Kentucky Open Records Act.
You KNOW we’re in a recession when women are out of control with their actions towards accomplished men. Good thing this BIRD was arrested for extortion. Another GOLDIGGING BIRD gets squashed without a penny being earned. Hope she does a few years behind bars.
That shift from Black to brown wasn’t really a shift of shade. It was a shift from Black to Black — for all intents and purposes. The average white supremacist neither cares for nor is able to discuss differences of substance between Africans of US birth and those of Dominican birth — let alone those of Haitian birth.
Dominicans aren’t any more or less “BLACK” than US-born black folk. We’re all run the same shades of the Massa Gotsta Have Some Poom Poom Continuum…from the darkest richest hues to the palest see-through blue (or is that “white”?). It’s all a mind game.
players who kiss the media’s ass always get better treatment the benefit of doubt when bad news comes out.
the majority of the mainstream media is racist. however, they will take the side of the athlete who sucks up whenever possible. (for example, espn spent more time commenting on how much of a jerk curt schilling was instead of detailing his accomplishments)
david ortiz is lovable. barry bonds despised reporters thus they returned the favor whenever possible.
Now along comes Bronson Arroyo, a former teammate of Big Papi and Manny. I love this guy. He doesn’t give a u know f*** and neither apparently does MLB. Can you imagine the response this would get if it was Barry or Manny. Check it out:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/nl/reds/2009-08-12-arroyo-cover-unconcerned_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip
MLB’s response is priceless:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/nl/reds/2009-08-13-arroyo-mlb-meet_N.htm