Your Lyin' Eyes

David Ortiz held a press conference at Yankee Stadium, prior to yesterday's game with the Yankees, to address his failed steroid test in 2003. The Boston Globe's Bob Ryan was the only person I know of going in that thought Big Papi would come clean about his steroid use. And Mr. Ryan was, sadly, wrong.

"I'm not here to make excuses or anything, I want to apologize to the fans for the distraction, my teammates, my manager. We go into a situation now, it was a nightmare to me. I'm one of the guys, I think about the fans, it wouldn't be as good as it is without the fans. People look at me as a guy who hit the ball, but I try to do things the right way. I definitely was a little bit careless. I was buying supplements and vitamins over the counter... but I never buy steroids or use steroids.

I don't believe Ortiz for one second. However, I'm not sure I'm in the majority with that thinking. Because of his fan appeal, his big personality, and his great relationship with the media, Ortiz seems to be looked on more favorably by the media than other accused players such as Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez.

If Ortiz was really careless about what he was taking, then why should we believe he never took steroids? It's a lame excuse. And perhaps he never did buy steroids, someone else did and he had them delivered. And who knows of HGH use? Naivete sound disingenuous and, again, lame.

Just look at Ortiz's numbers in Minnesota, then his numbers in Boston, and now his numbers in Boston again now that testing is much stricter. The numbers speak for themselves. They say much more than David Ortiz did yesterday.