Here is what Reid Cherner wrote from USA Today on August 11

Many say they accept Ortiz’s explanation

Eye-opener

Against all odds, it appears that David Ortiz just might beat this positive test thing.

The Boston Red Sox slugger has been adamant that over-the-counter supplements led to his being on the 2003 list of baseball players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs.

“I definitely was a little bit careless back in those days when I was buying supplements and vitamins over the counter — legal supplements, legal vitamins over the counter — but I never buy steroids or use steroids,” Ortiz said.

While prior claims from other athletes have brought howls of laughter, many find Ortiz’s explanation plausible and give the benefit of the doubt that they didn’t give Manny Ramirez, Sammy Sosa and Alex Rodriguez.

Patrick Arnold, a chemist sentenced to prison during the BALCO scandal, told the New York Daily News that “people back then did test positive because of supplements.”

Said Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland: “I could care less what anybody else thinks. If David Ortiz said he didn’t knowingly take anything, I believe him.”

However, when we asked Monday morning in Game On!, fans were more skeptical.

•45% of voters said they did not believe Ortiz and that everyone is guilty as charged.

•30% believed him and said he was one of the good guys.

•25% were not sure what to believe and were waiting for more information

I a sorry to say you are 100% correct. Very sad day for baseball and Redsox nation.

Merrill

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4366335

So do we scratch Big Papi’s name off this list?

Woods needs to clean up his act Tiger, please, where are your manners?By Rick Reilly

Tiger Woods has outgrown those Urkel glasses he had as a kid. Outgrown the crazy hair. Outgrown a body that was mostly neck.

When will he outgrow his temper?

The man is 33 years old, married, the father of two. He is paid nearly $100 million a year to be the representative for some monstrously huge companies, from Nike to Accenture. He is the world’s most famous and beloved athlete.

And yet he spent most of his two days at Turnberry last week doing the Turn and Bury. He’d hit a bad shot, turn and bury his club into the ground in a fit. It was two days of Tiger Tantrums — slamming his club, throwing his club and cursing his club. In front of a worldwide audience.

A whole lot of that worldwide audience is kids. They do what Tiger does. They swing like Tiger, read putts like Tiger and do the celebration biceps pump like Tiger. Do you think for two seconds they don’t think it’s cool to throw their clubs like Tiger, too?

He’s grown in every other way. He’s committed, responsible, smart, funny and the most talented golfer in history. I just thought we’d be over the conniptions by now.

If there were no six-second delay, Tiger Woods would be the reason to invent it. Every network has been burned by having the on-course microphone open when he blocks one right into the cabbage and starts with the F-bombs. Once, at Doral, he unleashed a string of swear words at a photographer that would’ve made Artie Lange blush, and then snarled, “‘The next time a photographer shoots a [expletive] picture, I’m going to break his [expletive] neck!”

He’s grown in every other way. He’s committed, responsible, smart, funny, and the most talented golfer in history. I just thought we’d be over the conniptions by now.

It’s disrespectful to the game, disrespectful to those he plays with and disrespectful to the great players who built the game before him. Ever remember Jack Nicklaus doing it? Arnold Palmer? When Tom Watson was getting guillotined in that playoff to Stewart Cink, did you see him so much as spit? Only one great player ever threw clubs as a pro — Bobby Jones — and he stopped in his 20s when he realized how spoiled he looked.

This isn’t new. Woods has been this way for years: swearing like a Hooters’ bouncer, trying to bury the bottom of his driver into the tee box, flipping his club end over end the second he realizes his shot is way offline.

I can still remember the 1997 Masters — arguably the most important golf tournament ever played. Woods, then 21, was playing the 15th hole on Sunday. He had just hit a fairway wood out of the rough and was watching it. A young boy came up from behind just to touch him — just to pat the back of this amazing new superhero. That’s when Tiger pulled the club way back over his head and slammed it down, nearly braining the kid he couldn’t see behind him. And this was with a huge lead.

Look, in every other case, I think Tiger Woods has been an A-plus role model. Never shows up in the back of a squad car with a black eye. Never gets busted in a sleazy motel with three “freelance models.” Never gets so much as a parking ticket. But this punk act on the golf course has got to stop. If it were my son, I’d tell him the same thing: “Either behave or get off the course.”

Come to think of it, if I were the president of Nike, I’d tell him the same thing.

Put it this way: Will Tiger let his own two kids carry on in public like that?

I know what you’re saying. We see more Tiger tantrums because TV shows every single shot he hits. And I’m telling you: You’re wrong. He is one of the few on Tour who do it. And I keep wondering when PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem is going to have the cojones to publicly upbraid him for it.

Golf is a gentlemen’s game. Stomping and swearing and carrying on like a Beverly Hills tennis brat might fly in the NBA or in baseball or in football, where less is expected, but golf demands manners. It’s your honor. Is my mark in your way? No, I had 6, not 5. Golfers call penalties on themselves. We are our own police. Tiger, police yourself.

Tiger does a boatload of work for kids. He raises millions for his Tiger Woods Learning Center, which has helped teach thousands. But teaching goes the wrong way, too. Tiger is teaching them that if he can be a hissy hothead on the course, they can, too.

I remember Tiger’s dad, Earl, telling a story. One day, when Tiger was just a kid, he was throwing his clubs around in a fuming fit when his dad said something like “Tiger, golf is supposed to be fun.” And Tiger said, “Daddy, I want to win. That’s how I have fun.”

Well, it’s not fun to watch.

Cleveland is in love with Grady. He is a very close #2 in that town behind the King.

Great stories. I never knew about Don Drysdales bar. Some good names on your list. Tomlinson, Nash, Urlacher. I think Sizemore has a way to go he hasn’t been playing long enough in my book.

Thanks for your comments.

Merrill

Totally agree – Tony does get a pass just not in Dallas but all over. I wonder if it is because we won 3 rings?

Merrill

That is a great choice. I should have included him on my original list.

He is a quality guy in a secondary market and in alot of ways untouchable.

Thanks for your comments.

Merrill