(AP Photo)
Several days ago I posted a short piece about Boston Globe’s sports’ columnist Dan Shaughnessy and his interview with David Ortiz about whether his (then) current hitting streak, etc. was a result of the use of steroids. “It’s preferable to question a man face-to-face than to tarnish him by whisper and innuendo,” Shaughnessy said.
Other than my indicating I have never particularly respected Shaugnessy, I refrained from commenting on the interview, preferring, instead, to let Ortiz’s responses be the answer to the ‘charges’.
Yesterday, after several days of controversy about this interview, Boston co-owner and Chairman of the Board Tom Werner published a column on the Red Sox website in response to the Globe column. (Werner has submitted this to the Globe. As of this posting, however, the Globe has not published it, tho it has defended Shaughnessy, saying, “The job of a journalist is to ask these hard questions, and then give a good airing and proper context to the answers.”)
See for yourself what Werner wrote: They had the right but was it right?
Cheryl Mawo said:
Hi Rick,
This is Cheryl’s husband Jim.
I have no idea if David Ortiz is telling the truth. Maybe he is. I hope he is.
Don’t you wish there were no steroids? If someone hit 73 home runs, OK, he hit 73 home runs. That would be it. Instead we have this nightmare where up is down and out is in and and you have no idea who legitimately did what. And worst of all, it’s hitting baseball at its most secure and now its most vulnerable point, the records.
If the Red Sox win every game from now on and my Yanks lose every game from now on, I’d stlll love baseball. And I’d be angry at anyone who dared harm the game––A-Rod or Barry Bonds or David Ortiz.
BTW, I really enjoy your blog.