David Ortiz has learned: The past is never truly forgotten.
With the Red Sox and Orioles recently sniping at each other — started by John Lackey’s comments referencing Nelson Cruz’s Biogenesis suspension last year — Ortiz was surprised and upset to hear his name and history with performance-enhancing drugs thrown into the conversation.
After Lackey said, regarding Cruz, “[The media] forget pretty conveniently about stuff,” Orioles manager Buck Showalter shot back: “We need to all make sure we check our own backyard before we start looking at someone else’s.”
The two comments sparked a discussion on MLB Network Monday afternoon that included a mention of Ortiz getting a “free pass” after a 2009 report identified Ortiz as one of roughly 100 players who were named as alleged PED users in a 2003 survey test, which was supposed to be anonymous. Ortiz denied using PEDs and contended a legal supplement triggered the result.
Here’s the back-and-forth between MLB Network analysts Jon Heyman and Joe Magrane that sparked Ortiz’s fury:
Magrane: Other than [Dan] Shaughnessy, why did everyone in Boston just forget about Big Papi? It’s like, ‘I’m going to work with the Players Association and try to find a result,’ and then that’s it. It was over. He got more of a free pass than anyone I’ve ever seen.
Heyman: I give Shaughnessy credit for sticking with it, but I would say that test was a long, long time ago, it was a reported indiscretion on his part, or failure on his part. It was a survey test, it wasn’t supposed to come out, so there are a lot of issues here.
Magrane [in agreement]: Sure.
Ortiz happened to see the segment on MLB Network.
“What pisses me off is the whole thing about, why does my name got to be mentioned in that? What did I have to do with that? I saw on MLB the guys talking about it, and then they brought my name up, and one of the guys said that I got a free pass on that,” Ortiz told WEEI.com. “It was the Lackey and Showalter thing, going back and forth. Showalter didn’t say anything about me.”
Ortiz claims there was never any proof of the allegations made against him.
“But then, when they are commenting about what Showalter said, they brought my name up. Then one of the guys wanted to say that I got a free pass. And to be honest with you, in this country, nobody gets a free pass. He wants to make it sound like I got a free pass because nobody can point fingers at me directly. But the reason why I got that fake [expletive] free pass that he’s saying is because they pointed fingers at me with no proof. It’s easier to do it that way than having something that they can say, ‘Yes, you did this, you did that.’ My [expletive], I call straight up bull. Let me tell you. You don’t get no free pass here, especially a guy like me. I don’t get no free pass. That free pass B.S. that they want to talk about over there, they can shove it up their [expletive].
“That’s reality. You don’t use the words that I get a free pass. You don’t get a free pass on this. MLB don’t play that B.S. MLB don’t play that. There’s a reason why I’ve been drug-tested like eight times and we’re not even at the break. Is that a free pass? There’s a reason why I’ve been tested like 40 times since they approved the policy, the drug policy. Is that a free pass? They can get that free pass and shove it up their [expletive].”