Does he or doesn’t he?

Dan Shaughnessy, Boston Globe sports writer since 1981, eight times sports writer of the year and seven times named to AP’s top 10 list of sports columnists, etc., clearly has questions about how Ortiz can be performing so well that this stage in his life.

(Personally, I have not be a fan of Shaugnessy, never put him in the category of say a Tom Boswell or a Joe Posnanski. In fact, I’ve often felt he tries to carry on a tradition of Boston baseball writers who take a certain pleasure in being hard (tough, oppositional, nasty, negative, spiteful, you choose the best word) on the Sox and their players. Plus, he doesn’t seem to have much humility. Just saying…)

Nevertheless, Shaugnessy has an interesting article in today’s Globe. As you will see when you read the article, he says, “This (use of steroids) is an uncomfortable topic, but it’s preferable to question a man face-to-face than to tarnish him by whisper and innuendo.” So he went to Ortiz yesterday, and you can read for yourself what Ortiz said:

Dan Shaughnessy’s Boston Globe column today.