Ortiz repeatedly has said he does not use performance-enhancing substances.
The health risks, he said, are not worth it to him.
"People will say they'll get you big, they'll get you strong, they'll make you rich, but personally I think it's a terrible decision," he said, "because life continues after baseball. What if right after you retire, your body breaks down and you have to spend two years in bed and then die? How was everything you did to make money, how was it worth it? So your family could look at you as a superhero, and you left a ton of money for them?
"I was talking to my son [D'Angelo, 2 1/2] this morning. He kept saying, 'Daddy, I love you, I miss you, when are you coming home, Daddy?'
"You know what that tells you? They care more about me being with them than what I can give them. They're not asking me, 'Hey Daddy, are you going to bring me something? No, they're saying, 'Daddy, we love you, we miss you.' That's a quick example to me of why it's not worth it, man."
Ortiz said if he knew a friend was using steroids, "I'd kind of let them know I don't think it's the right thing to do."
Initially he said it wouldn't bother him to know that someone using illegal substances hit more home runs than him or won an MVP award instead of him, then he stopped.
"Let me rewind that," he said. "You ask me about cheating. If I know I'm doing everything natural and someone is cheating, of course it would bother me, because I'm all natural and this person is cheating. Cheating is not fair, OK?
"I'm telling you the competition when I first came up to the big leagues, it was not fair. You're an athlete, you're clean, and you see guys hitting home runs, guys that do not have the power you have."
Ortiz thought of the widespread use of performance-enhancers in his native Dominican Republic, young kids dreaming of becoming the next Sammy Sosa or David Ortiz. Some of those kids have used steroids that are used by veterinarians for horses; some of those kids have died.
"They're putting stuff in their bodies and they're not even 17 or 18 years old," Ortiz said. "They put something in their bodies without knowing what it is. That's [expletive]. It's [expletive]."
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