NESN

Nomar Sounds Off on PED Testing, the List

Nomar Garciaparra was in town for a handful of momentous occasions this weekend — one of which was the New York Times report that David Ortiz tested positive for performance enhancing drugs in 2003.

NESN’s John Chandler caught up with the former Red Sox star for an exclusive interview after Boston’s 8-5 win over his A’s on Thursday, and Garciaparra had plenty to say about the infamous list of 104 players who tested positive for steroids.

“It’s just this list that was supposed to be anonymous,” Garciaparra said. “And if that was a mess and it’s not anonymous, then how much can you believe it? It was a joke, if you really know the way we went through it. It was supposed to be anonymous, and now it’s not? Then what is and what isn’t? It’s unfortunate.”

The infielder, who spent seven and a half years with the Red Sox between 1996 and 2004, expressed extreme dissatisfaction with the idea that names from the list are slowly but surely being leaked.

Garciaparra cast doubt on the method employed to obtain the 103 names on the list, suggesting that some players opted not to take the test in order to purposely fail the test. The players assumed that doing so would increase the number of positive tests and therefore require PED testing throughout baseball.

“There were literally guys who said, ‘I’m not taking it. Go ahead and put me positive because I want the number to be above [the requirement to warrant steroid testing in baseball],’ because they wanted steroid testing,” he said.

He said that now, those players will look like they tested positive for steroid when, in fact, they essentially lied in order to implement steroid testing where it was needed.

Garciaparra then admitted that he was one of the players who wanted steroid testing, but he did not indicate that he refused to take the test.

He also was critical of a court system that allowed allegedly confidential information to be released to the public.

“I think there’s a bigger issue when you have a grand jury and stuff is getting leaked like that,” he said. “When stuff like that that’s supposed to be sealed and confidential isn’t anymore — that kind of hurts. We have bigger things than steroids to worry about when stuff like that is coming out.”

You can watch Chandler’s entire interview with Nomar here: