Thoughts on Ortiz, The Day After

I think it's pretty clear the Globe has ruled against David Ortiz, but that shouldn't surprise anyone. The Herald is a little more moderate; the Providence Journal remained neutral, choosing to publish the results of a informal poll they took of fans on the concourse after the news came out. None of the columnists commented on Ortiz's statement, or seemed inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt: to them, Big Papi is at best the latest heart breaker in the steroids crisis; at worse, a hypocrite worse than Rafael Palmeiro.

I can't claim any greater purity of motives than the commentators listed above, but I am willing to listen when Ortiz says he'll try and find out what happened and own up to any results. Maybe I'm motivated by the loyalty to his accomplishments, or won over by his general good guy demeanor, or maybe I'm just impressed that he was smart enough to go to the press the day it happened and promise to give us some real answers once he'd done some digging of his own, but I'd rather know something more of the truth before offering up my judgment - especially because it gives me some sort of hope for a bit longer.