Posted by Matt Sisson on Thursday, July 30, 2009 at 1:57 pm

According to the NY Times, Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz are both said to be on the 2003 doping list. Back in 2003, Baseball first tested for steroids and the results from that season were supposed to remain anonymous but some results have been leaked. As part of the drug agreement between the union and MLB, the results of the testing of 1,198 players also were meant to be anonymous but that has not been the case.  Five others have been tied to positive tests from that year: Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Sammy Sosa, Jason Grimsley and David Segui.

From the NY Times:

For reasons that have never been made clear, the results were never destroyed and the first batch of positives has come to be known among fans and people in baseball as “the list.” The information was later seized by federal agents investigating the distribution of performance-enhancing drugs to professional athletes, and the test results remain the subject of litigation between the baseball players union and the government.

And later in the article regarding the source:

The information about Ramirez and Ortiz emerged through interviews with multiple lawyers and others connected to the pending litigation. The lawyers spoke anonymously because the testing information is under seal by a court order. The lawyers did not identify which drugs were detected.

Unlike Ramirez, who recently served a 50-game suspension for violating baseball’s drug policy, Ortiz had not previously been linked to performance-enhancing substances.

And in closing:

The union has argued that the government illegally seized the 2003 test results, and judges at various levels of the federal court system have weighed whether the government can keep them. The government hopes to question every player on the list to determine where the drugs came from. An appeals court is deliberating the matter, and the losing side is likely to appeal to the United States Supreme Court.

A spokesman for the United States attorney’s office for the Northern District of California, which seized the tests, declined to comment on Thursday. Michael Weiner, the general counsel for the players union, also declined to comment.

One by one, the names of elite players tied to performance-enhancing drugs have surfaced this year. In February, it was Rodriguez and Bonds. In May, it was Ramirez — for the first time. In June, it was Sosa.

Being a life long Red Sox fan, its tough to read a story like this and not think that what those teams with Manny and Ortiz did is now tainted.  It doesn’t surprise me…I don’t think that any name would after what us baseball fans have gone through over the last few years. I don’t seen an end to this witch hunt, at least not in the near future.  Before you know it, a star  player on your favorite team’s name will be released. If you’ve been  following baseball for the last 10 years or so, it’s only a matter of time.