Lobel's Question of the Week: Do You Believe Big Papi?

Every week, legendary sportscaster Bob Lobel wants to hear your opinion about a sports question he's been thinking about.

This week Bob has a simple question for you: Do you have believe David Ortiz when he says he never knowingly used performance enhancing drugs (PEDs)?

In a lengthy post on The Players' Tribune, the Red Sox slugger admitted that he did fail that drug test in 2003, but claims he didn't know about it until it became public knowledge in 2009.

Bob Lobel: Baseball Hoping David Ortiz is Clean This Time Around

By Bob Lobel  @boblobel

Editor's Note: Bob wanted it to be known that the point of his blog this week was not to assert that David Ortiz is using any type of performance enhancing drug, but rather to explain that Major League Baseball is hoping Ortiz is clean, given the backlash from the steroid era. The original blog title has been changed.

Remember when a Red Sox player interrupted manager Tito Francona’s press conference to complain about an official scorer’s ruling that took an RBI away from him, by calling a hit an error? 

It was rude, childish and selfish behavior, all done with no regard for public opinion.

David Ortiz wanted that RBI.  

The Appeal of Alex Rodriguez

 By Bob Lobel  @boblobel

A-Rod is appealing. 

He was appealing to the Seattle Mariners. He was appealing to the Texas Rangers. He was very appealing to the Boston Red Sox and, of course, was ultimately appealing to the New York Yankees. 

Now he is appealing to an arbitrator to cut down or eliminate his suspension handed down by the commissioner of baseball for 211 games. That suspension is for the rest of this season and all of next, but with an appeal comes a hold on suspensions. 

MLB Second-Half Storylines

This is Mariano Rivera's last season. But how will it end?

By Bennett Corcoran

As we leave the All Star-break behind, there are plenty of storylines to follow during the second half of baseball season. Plenty of teams are vying for playoff spots, and there have also been some outstanding individual performances of note so far; records could be broken by the end of September. Let’s look at a few situations worth monitoring as we approach the second half of the season.