Sox teammates pledge support for Ortiz despite 2003 allegations

(NECN: Boston, Mass.) – David Ortiz may find himself in the media spotlight over a New York Times report that he and Manny Ramirez were among the 100 baseball players who tested positive for performance enhancing drugs in 2003 – but for the rest of the clubhouse, the determination is to support him but keep the focus on business as usual. For Dustin Pedroia, 2003 is ancient history. “David’s our teammate, we love him, he’s done everything in the world for me, and we’re here to support him,” he said. “In 2003, I was back in college, hitting rockets there.” And for Mike Lowell, there’s not much new in allegations that players used to use drugs that the league is now trying to get out of the game. “I so want to get past this in the sense that every two months, what are we going to do, some lawyer’s going to find two names and we’re going to rehash this all the time, Lowell said. “I got enough problems to focus on.”