First off let me say how much I respect David Ortiz, not only as a ball player but also as a person. David does a lot to make this world a better place. With that being said I think his comments on Barry Bonds made today in the Boston Herald and also reported on ESPN and espn.com are a little misguided.

According to Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald:

“Ortiz has an almost willful naivete about both Bonds and steroids. He still does not believe in his heart or his head that Bonds took steroids. And even if it were proven to him, Ortiz still would not link it to what Bonds does with a baseball bat. “

David, David, David. C’mon all you got to do is look at him. He is practically a steroid poster child. Look at photos of Bonds in his playing days with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was sleek, thin, and svelte and he could run, hit and throw with the best of them. He looked the same in his first years with the San Francisco Giants as well. Then somewhere in late 1990’s Bonds’ got jealous. Jealous of all the attention that Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were getting for their incredible home run battle as they chased Roger Maris’s single season record of 61. It was around that time that Bonds body dramatically and drastically changed into what he is today. Look at the photos

.Bonds in 1998

(Left picture-Bonds in 1998, Right picture-Bonds in 2007)

More from David on Bonds and steroids:

“To hit the frickin’ ball, the guy makes it look easy, but it ain’t. I don’t know how you can have that swing, consistently. I don’t know how steroids can do that,” Ortiz said…….. I look at it hitting-wise, because I don’t know what steroids can do to you as a baseball player. You’ve still got to swing the bat, man”.

“People come to me, talking about Barry Bonds using steroids and I’m like, ‘He’s the only one, or are people focused on him because of what he’s doing?’ So I don’t go there, I don’t even think about it,” Ortiz said. “I think about how he can be that perfect at the plate because I don’t think that steroids mentally get you perfect.”

While I agree with David in that I don’t think steroids help you hit the ball. They do help you make it go farther and they do help you recover from injuries so you can play sooner and longer, they may eve give you better bat speed but you still need the ability to the bat on the ball. I just don’t understand why people, including other major leaguers are so naïve when it comes to Bonds and how he is doing this.

The saddest part of all is that Bonds was a sure fire Hall of Famer with out the juice, it’s too bad he decided he needed it to assault baseball’s record book.

Ian adds this about Big Papi and steroids.

Being from a foreign country, Big Papi isn’t sure if he ever took steroids.

“I tell you, I don’t know too much about steroids, but I started listening about steroids when they started to bring that (expletive) up, and I started realizing and getting to know a little bit about it,” Ortiz said Sunday. “You’ve got to be careful. . . . I used to buy a protein shake in my country. I don’t do that any more because they don’t have the approval for that here, so I know that, so I’m off of buying things at the GNC back in the Dominican (Republic). But it can happen anytime, it can happen. I don’t know. I don’t know if I drank something in my youth, not knowing it.”

“I should use steroids just to see what’s going on,” Ortiz said with a laugh. “Nah. I have a good family. I want to see my kids learn and develop. I think I’m having an OK career. So, I take a lot of Advils, but I think I’m going to stop taking them. They say it (expletive) your liver.”

Whatever you do Big Papi, don’t take them.