BOSTON - Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz told the Boston Herald on Monday that he doesn't think San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds has taken steroids during his assault on baseball's all-time home run record.

“To hit the frickin’ ball, the guy makes it look easy, but it ain’t. I don’t know how you can have that swing, consistently. I don’t know how steroids can do that,” Ortiz said. “There are supposed to be guys using steroids in the game, and there’s nobody close to Barry Bonds. What’s that mean? He was using the best (expletive)? Know what I’m saying?

“I don’t look at it like that. I look at it hitting-wise, because I don’t know what steroids can do to you as a baseball player. You’ve still got to swing the bat, man,” Ortiz said. “If I ever use steroids, and then I know what the difference can be and I’m using them, I’ll tell you, ‘Yeah, whatever,’ but I don’t know what the feelings are when you use the steroids. But I can tell you how it feels to pull yourself together to swing the bat.”

Bonds, who will play at Fenway Park on June 15, is 11 home runs from tying Henry Aaron's all-time mark of 755.

"He deserves respect,” Ortiz told the Herald. “People are not going to give it to him because of all the bad things running around, this and that, but people need to realize. I’ve heard a lot of different things about Barry Bonds, but people should just admit it — this guy’s a bad (expletive).”

Ortiz also told the Herald that, since he is not sure about Bonds and allegations of steroid use made against him, he'd rather not think about it.

“People come to me, talking about Barry Bonds using steroids and I’m like, ‘He’s the only one, or are people focused on him because of what he’s doing?’ So I don’t go there, I don’t even think about it,” Ortiz said. “I think about how he can be that perfect at the plate because I don’t think that steroids mentally get you perfect.”

Ortiz also told the Herald that commissioner Bud Selig should commit to watching Bonds hit the record-breaking home run, in person.

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“He’s the commissioner, there’s nothing you can do about it. You can’t be saying that. What are people going to think about the game? They’ll be like, ‘This game is a joke.’ He should come, even if he doesn’t want to.”

Ortiz: I may have taken steroids myself
Ortiz also told the Herald that he is not sure if he has taken steroids.

Ortiz told the Boston Herald that he could not say definitively if he had ever used performance-enhancing drugs in the past. The burly designated hitter also said that if he did, it happened when he was much younger.

“I tell you, I don’t know too much about steroids, but I started listening about steroids when they started to bring that (expletive) up,” Ortiz told the paper. “I started realizing and getting to know a little bit about it. You’ve got to be careful.

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“I used to buy a protein shake in my country. I don’t do that anymore because they don’t have the approval for that here, so I know that, so I’m off buying things at the GNC back in the Dominican (Republic). But it can happen anytime, it can happen. I don’t know. I don’t know if I drank something in my youth, not knowing it.”

However, Ortiz, who hit a club-record 54 home runs last season, made light of the situation, joking that he should try steroids just to see what all the fuss is about.

“I should use steroids just to see what’s going on,” Ortiz joked to the Herald. “Nah.  I have a good family. I want to see my kids learn and develop. I think I’m having an OK career. So, I take a lot of Advils, but I think I’m going to stop taking them. They say it (expletive) your liver.”

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Ortiz spent six non-descript seasons in Minnesota before signing with the Red Sox before the 2003 season. He has quickly become a Boston icon and one of the most popular players in baseball.

In 2004, Ortiz anchored a Red Sox squad which won the franchise’s first World Series in 86 years - highlighted by a shocking comeback against the rival New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series. 

The Red Sox became the first team in baseball history to come back from a three-games-to-none deficit to win a playoff series.

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