David Ortiz has finally broken his silence on the NY Times leak that he was on the list of 2003 players who tested positive for “banned substances” (presumeably steroids.) His defense was, basically, “I didn’t do anything wrong except to take some unknown supplements.” This, of course, has made front page of every paper in Boston because we love our Papi, and the sports shows will be analyzing it for months to come. But here are my own reactions:

1. How stupid would it be to stuff “over the counter supplements” into your body when you know that you’re going to be tested? What sort of moron would have that much hubris. Ortiz is defintely not a dumb, muscelbound jock and it’s hard to see him doing this.
2. Somehow this explanation doesn’t pass the sniff test. The steroid tests are now very good, and the rate of false positives is really low. All things considered, it’s more likely that he’s lying than that the results were in error.
3. But having said that, the testing was not done to clear or convict any individual player, but to get a statistical sample of doping across the sport. So maybe the tests weren’t handled as carefully as they usually are, especially if the analysts were under pressure to get a lot of tests done quickly.
4. MLB and the player’s union should just release the damn list, with apropriate caveats about what you can and can’t infer from it. You know it will leak out eventually, so just get it out of the way so we can get on with our lives.
5. The player’s union representative is a slimy little weasel.
6. And the Sox are desperate to forgive Ortiz, turn a blind eye, and get back to blowing the season.

And finally:

Hey Papi! Stop talking and start hitting!