Unlike many prodigious home run hitters, David Ortiz has avoided any accusations of steroid use. On the one hand that's surprising since he underwent an overnight transformation from oft-injured bench jockey with the Twins to slugger extraordinaire and regional hero with the Red Sox. On the other hand he has the physique more akin to The King of Queens than The King of Boston so he probably has built his strength with a steady diet of creamy clam chowder than with the cream or the clear. Either way, he thinks Barry Bonds should get your respect.
"People are not going to give it to him because of all the bad things running around, this and that, but people need to realize. I’ve heard a lot of different things about Barry Bonds, but people should just admit it - this guy’s a bad (expletive)."
His comments are a bit more ambiguous about whether he thinks Bonds actually used steroids.
"There are supposed to be guys using steroids in the game, and there’s nobody close to Barry Bonds. What’s that mean? He was using the best (expletive)? Know what I’m saying?"
Ortiz is Dominican, a group that wasn't included in the recent survey that polled black and white Americans on their feelings about Bonds and his race for the all-time home run record. Yet his feelings are actually in line with the overall findings. While 73% of all those involved in the poll believe that Bonds used steroids and 67% of them believe that makes him a cheater, 58% of the subjects reported that he should still go to the Hall of Fame. Ortiz seems to have tapped into this zeitgeist with his answer which is if we are asked to accept that steroid use is/was rampant in baseball doesn't that still mean that Bonds was head and shoulders above every other player?
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