Ortiz Downplays Association with Banned Trainer

By KC Downey in Featured, Red Sox ⋅ February 21, 2009 at 10:39am ⋅ Post a comment

David Ortiz answered questions Saturday morning about his relationship with trainer Angel Presinal, who was banned from all major league clubhouses following an incident in 2001. Presinal allegedly traveled with A-Rod and his infamous cousin Yuri Sucart during the entire 2007 season, with Presinal and Sucart staying in a separate hotel room from Rodrgiuez all season.

The New York Daily News reported Friday that Presinal has worked with the game’s biggest stars, including Pedro Martinez and Red Sox slugger David Ortiz. Ortiz told reporters that Presinal never pushed him toward steroid use. [Listen to full audio of the interview from Boston.com]

At the beginning of the interview, an older reporter asked Ortiz about “that trainer,” to which Ortiz replied, “What trainer?” After a clarification, Ortiz continued on about Presinal.

From the Globe:

Asked about his ties to Presinal, Ortiz said: “I gotta tell you, we had this facility, five minutes away from my house and he’s one of the guys that trains everybody. That’s what everybody does. It’s in the center of the city, right in the middle where everybody lives, like an Olympics place where everybody goes to workout, do hitting, running, and other stuff.”

Ortiz stressed he had worked with Presinal, but the trainer never pushed him toward steroids.

“I’ve known him for a long time,” said Ortiz. “All I know from him is how to keep our bodies ready; working out, teaching how to do the right exercises and things like that. He’s not just teaching baseball players, he has a guy who runs marathon, a volleyball player, basketball player, everybody. He’s been doing that for years. All I know is we all work out with him as a group of guys that want to be ready in spring training. And that’s about it.”

Reaction: So there you have it. Ortiz acknowledges the “ties” to Presinal, but one has to question how deep those ties run. I’d normally be willing to accept Ortiz’s explanation, but in this day and age, it may not be enough.

What would be enough for me is if Ortiz came up clean during the rounds and rounds of testing in 2003. If they release those 103 other names from the 2003 testing, and Papi’s name does not come up, then I will be satisfied with his explanation and cease from suspecting his ties to steroids.

About KC Downey

KC is the "head coach" of the Sports of Boston, LLC blog network. Follow him on Twitter: @kc_downey

Tags: Alex Rodriguez, Angel Presinal, David Ortiz, Steroids

Discussion

2 comments for “Ortiz Downplays Association with Banned Trainer”

Ortiz Downplays Association with Banned Trainer: David Ortiz answered questions Saturday morning about his relat.. http://tinyurl.com/cxa69n

Posted by Sports of Boston | February 21, 2009, 10:41 am
As lovers of this sport we need to know all the fact,don’t we?

Posted by MOE | February 21, 2009, 11:38 am