Baseball Musings: More Tests for Ortiz

August 29, 2006

More Tests for Ortiz

David Ortiz is headed back to Boston for more tests on his heart.

Big Papi was a late scratch for Boston's game at Oakland at Monday night for what was first thought to be the flu. Ortiz, who on Sunday hit his major league-leading 47th home run at Seattle, already spent time in a Boston hospital earlier this month for the condition.
He said he thought it was caused by fatigue.

"He will get a clean bill of health before he plays again," manager Terry Francona said. "The games are important, but we have a responsibility to do what's right."

Ortiz is a big man. I wonder how much his size is contributing to any problem he's having? Let's wish him well. He has a shot at Maris if he can keep playing.

Update: I guess Mel Antonen wrote this before he heard about Ortiz's problems.

Update: Could this be side effects of ephedra?

Common side effects resulting from the stimulatory effects of ephedra include headache, irritability, restlessness of muscles, nausea, sleeplessness, increased heart rate, urinary disturbances and vomiting. Higher dosages may result in drastic increases in blood pressure and cardiac rhythm disorders.

Ephedra is banned by MLB, but do they actually test for it?

Update: Here's a summary of testing for stimulants. From this, I'd say it's likely they test for ephedra.

Posted by David Pinto at 03:35 AM | Illnesses | TrackBack (0)

Comments

Roids.

Posted by: Reno at August 29, 2006 07:09 AM

I guess it's the sad truth of today's game that a guy like Ortiz has a potentially serious health issues and people are falling all over themselves to blame banned substances.

I have a friend who experiences an occasional rapid heartbeat. I can assure you he is not on ephedra, steroids, or any other banned substances. David, is there any particular reason you didn't post the side effects of any of the thousands of other medications that can cause a rapid heartbeat?

I like to play the blame guy too, but I usually wait for at least some shred of evidence...

Posted by: Derek at August 29, 2006 09:01 AM

Derek, pretty much any upper can have this effect. But I know major league baseball tests for amphetamines. What I don't know is do they test for ephedra. If they do, you can rule that out. Didn't Steve Bechler suffer from dehydration due to ephedra? That's what Papi was treated for last week.

It's been a tough season. Ortiz and Ramirez are carrying the team. David doesn't even get days off against left-handers any more. It's not that far fetched to think he looked for a boost. Maybe he's just drinking too many Red Bulls, but instead of ignoring the issue like we did in the 1990s, let's get ahead of it and ask the tough questions. There's no reason to believe any baseball player is beyond reproach at this point.

Posted by: David Pinto at August 29, 2006 09:15 AM

David, asking tough questions isn't the same thing as idle speculation. If you want to do the reporting, great. Do it. But at this stage, where little is known about the nature of the problem or Ortiz's medical history as regards cardiovascular health, I think some caution is advised. Given the myriad of underlying physiological issues, heredity, or environmental factors that can contribute to a patient developing atrial fibrillation -- an all too common health problem -- I respectfully submit you wait for more concrete evidence, or unearth it.

Posted by: Tim at August 29, 2006 10:05 AM

It's too bad, no one in Boston wants to think Ortiz uses/used any illegal or banned substances. He's the "good guy" because he smiles a lot, and always seems to come through for us.

Wouldn't surprise me at all if he did take some kind of upper - remember he was quoted last week talking about how he didn't really sleep for a week due to stress and such. Probably hard to play baseball if you're practically napping on the bench, so maybe he did what he felt he needed to do in order to be able to keep playing. Doesn't make it right, and doesn't even make it likely - just a plausible explanation. could also simply be a condition he's always had that's only come to the attention to the medical staff and himself in a time of stress like this.

Posted by: Mike at August 29, 2006 10:10 AM

You know what else causes dehydration? The Flu. Youkilis and reportedly Ortiz both had the flew within the last couple of weeks.

I enjoy the blog, David, but as the commenter above said, if you'd like to loft accusations, then you owe it to your readers and your journalistic integrity to do some legwork. You're no longer just some guy with a blog. You want to know if ephedra is caught in MLB tests? Do the work. Find out before you publish.

Posted by: Derek at August 29, 2006 10:12 AM

Mike,

Yes, I am a Red Sox Fan but at this point, it wouldn't shock me to find that the any player was taking banned substances. Ortiz, Jeter, Howard... I don't know them and can't make any character judgements as to whether they're above such a thing. I would be disappointed and surprised if Ortiz was found to be on something, but not shocked or in disbelief. Those days are long gone.

Still, what are we going on here? The fact that he has an irregular heartbeat that could be caused by dehydration and stress? This isn't exactly a tie to some suspicious trainer, or being called to testify in front of a grand jury. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of possible explanations for this.

I expect commenters to throw out comments such as "Roids," seen above. I didn't expect to see it in the published post by David - especially without the legwork he essentially asked his readers to perform.

Posted by: Derek at August 29, 2006 10:25 AM

Having readers help out with leg work is the whole idea of the internet. There's lots of expertise out there that I don't have. Maybe there's someone out there who shoots down the idea. There's a lot of people who can add to the conversation.

But basically, in the 1990s, lots of people appeared to jump to conclusions about PEDs turned out to be right. From what I'm reading at Wikipedia, baseball only tests for drugs of abuse on probable cause. For some reason, I can't download the CBA from the MLBPA site. So I ask, if someone knows (because people have this knowledge) does baseball test for Ephedra. If they do, I'll drop the speculation. But it's perfectly reasonable speculation given the history of MLB drug use over the last 20 years.

Posted by: David Pinto at August 29, 2006 11:28 AM

Funny story, that crack about Red Bull? When I was in high school it actually did lead to a friend of mine taking a precautionary trip to the hospital with an irregular heartbeat. He was drinking a few a day before sports and probably not sleeping enough...bad idea.

Anyway, David, here's the updated drug policy for the CBA ending in 2006.

http://news.findlaw.com/usatoday/docs/sports/mlbdrugpolicy05.pdf

From what I understand, ephedra is not being tested for. Ephedra is not on that list, and I can't seem to find it anywhere in the document using CTL-F. It could be on there by another name, but I'm not exactly familar with the scientific names of every drug.

Are you sure ephedra has been banned by baseball? Wikipedia, admittedly not always the most reliable source on the web, mentions the NFL, FIFA, and NBA as having banned it, but not baseball...although in 2003 Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler did die because of it, so you'd think it'd be banned by now.

As for the probable cause thing, I do believe that that only applies to hard drugs. Steroid tests are supposed to be random all season, and it sounds like that's it.

As for whether Ortiz has done anything wrong, I'd like to think he hasn't but can't really say for sure. This isn't a tumor on a pituitary gland...but it is worrisome. That being said, irregular heartbeat can be caused by lots of different things ranging from stress to lack of sleep, poor diet, too much caffeine, undiagnosed heart conditions, electrolyte imbalances...lots of stuff. Idle speculation is all well and good, but I also think that simply leaping to the same conclusion whenever a player puts up big numbers is really taking the fun out of the game. If he gets caught or even accused by a semi-reliable source, fine, but so far this is the only thing Ortiz has ever done to suggest any wrongdoing...and it barely even qualifies as evidence.

Posted by: the other josh at August 29, 2006 12:28 PM

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