Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz says he “never knowingly took any steroids” and he’s definitely a Hall of Famer.
The remarks by the 39-year-old designated hitter come in a column Thursday for The Players’ Tribune, a website founded by Derek Jeter that gives professional athletes a platform.
Ortiz also voiced his displeasure that he will “always be considered a cheater” to his detractors. Ortiz contends nobody in baseball has been tested more for performance-enhancing drugs than he has – more than 80 times since 2004.
Ortiz writes: “I have never failed a single one of those tests and I never will.”
In 2009, Ortiz was on a list of 104 players who allegedly tested positive during Major League Baseball’s 2003 survey of steroid use – results that were supposed to be anonymous. Ortiz later said he wound up on the list because he used nutritional supplements and was careless about their contents.
“Say whatever you want about me — love me, hate me. But I’m no (expletive). I never knowingly took any steroids. If I tested positive for anything, it was for something in pills I bought at the damn mall. If you think that ruins everything I have done in this game, there is nothing I can say to convince you different.”
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