I'm going to do something I rarely do on this blog -- defend the Boston Red Sox, a team I despise.
David Ortiz (left) and Manny Ramirez flunked steroids tests in 2003, and I was reading this morning where Bill Plaschke from the Los Angeles Times wrote, "With Thursday's news that both men flunked steroid tests in 2003, the 2004 and 2007 World Series championships won by the Boston Red Sox must be considered fraudulent."
Plaschke is taking it a little far with that statement. Ortiz and Ramirez deserve every ounce of criticism they receive, but I'm reluctant to discredit entire teams because certain individuals on those teams failed drug tests.
Let's take the 2004 Red Sox, for example. They beat the Yankees in the ALCS that year, erasing a 3-games-to-none deficit. Guess who was in the Yankee dugout during that series? Alex Rodriguez, Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield -- three men who have also been tied to performance-enhancing drugs.
If players on both teams are using PEDs, does one team or the other really have an advantage? I don't think so. If we're being honest with ourselves, you have to figure that every team from this steroid era had a few guys who were on the juice.
The 2004 Red Sox had steroid cheats on their roster, but they beat a bunch of teams that also had steroid cheats. Personally, I'm willing to call it even and just move on.
Major League Baseball has been tainted for most of the 90s and now. It's hard to enjoy baseball anymore. I don't care for it liked I used to anymore.
I think many teams in that era of winning championships are tainted. Not just Boston and New York.
What baseball needs to do is clean up the problem. Naming names are easy.