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Ortiz, Ramirez Allegedly on 2003 PED List; It’s Time To Just Release ‘The List’

Jul 30, 2009, 4:52 PM UTC

Counterpoint: Dan Levy argues against releasing the list
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â†µI know Moneyball is sort of out there in the world floating around as a movie that may or may not get made, but I’m proposing a different movie to studios. We’ll call it The List. It will be a franchise loosely based on The Ring, in that once your name appears on The List, you melt right where you stand.â†µâ†µThe latest names to appear on The List are Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz, according to the New York Times:â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥The information about Ramirez and Ortiz emerged through interviews with multiple lawyers and others connected to the pending litigation. The lawyers spoke anonymously because the testing information is under seal by a court order. The lawyers did not identify which drugs were detected.â†µâ†µâ†µOK, Ramirez is old news. He just served a 50-game suspension. Ortiz is one of those guys everyone has whispered about for a while just based on the precipitous drop in his production. The career narrative of marginal player to superstar of a World Series winner and back to marginal player usually sends up a red flag.â†µ

â†µâ†µSo fine. There’s that. Two more names from the list that was supposed to be anonymous. Does anyone feel different -- save a few incredibly naïve members of Red Sox nation -- than they did 24 hours ago, or has your life marched on? I’m going to propose a wild idea based on cooperation between MLB and its players union, which means it’s probably never going to work.â†µ

â†µâ†µRelease The List.â†µ

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â†µLook, it's time for this to happen. Remember how your mom always told you it's better to just rip the Band-Aid off rather than peel it slowly? Right now baseball isn't just getting the bandage removed slowly, it's also being skinned alive. The List is not just a giant ticking time bomb, it's like a Cold War-style stockpile of weapons just waiting to divert attention away from anything baseball-related back to steroids. Even if people don't care about the actual issue of steroids, they're still forced to hear about them.â†µ

â†µâ†µThe trading deadline is upon us. Where are Victor Martinez and Roy Halladay headed? That’d be neat to find out, but it’s time for wall-to-wall revisionist history of Boston’s World Series win, because that’s obviously something that matters now.â†µ

â†µâ†µWhat’s the absolute worst that could happen? Unless Henry Aaron himself is on that list right next to Babe Ruth through the power of time travel, there isn’t a name on that list that’s going to matter at this point. The media would marvel at it for a week, there’d be a end-of-year retrospective that would touch on it, and then you know what? It’d be over.â†µ

â†µâ†µI say all of this knowing that it will never happen because the union would never sell out the players like that for the good of MLB. So I’ll see everyone back here in another few months when the next round of names drops from the least anonymous drug test list of all time.â†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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