Tipsheet was shocked – SHOCKED – to read that both Manny Ramirez and David “Big Papi” Ortiz were among the players testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003.

This is the latest revelation in baseball’s slow-drip steroid scandal. A lot of folks are desensitized to this issue by now, but sportswriters are still professionally obligated to weigh in.

Here was some of the reaction:

Tony Massarotti, Boston Globe: “And so now we know, with 99.9 percent certainty, what we have long suspected and feared: Big Papi is a myth. The rags-to-riches story is truly a fairy tale. David Ortiz is a symbol of baseball now just as he was then, though this time he is playing the role of yet another damaged superstar who succumbed to the pressures during the most tainted era in baseball history.”

Steve Buckley, Boston Herald: “David Ortiz is a charming and engaging man, with a wide, gap-toothed smile and a penchant for throwing floppy, body-engulfing hugs on his many friends, a cast that would included pretty much everyone in baseball. That’s why, as the days and weeks of this 2009 baseball season have ticked away, there was always the hope that Big Papi would not wind up on The List. Everyone knows about The List — that is, the unpublished roll call of major-league players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003. It has been lurking in baseball’s shadows all season, like a threatening cloud, and, well, here we are: The legacy of David Ortiz as a member of the Red Sox is now being rained on.”

Gregg Doyel, CBSSports.com: “Why am I mad at me? Because I thought Ortiz was a steroids user for years. So did you. So did anyone with any common sense. He goes from being an average player with the Twins to being a Hall of Famer with the Red Sox, and he made that improvement in the Steroid Era, and yet he wasn’t on ‘roids? He wasn’t, not officially, until the New York Times outed him today. So now we can all talk about what we already sort of knew: Ortiz was a juicer. Great. But too late. Which is why I’m mad at me. I had no guts, or I would have called out Ortiz years ago as the cheater we all thought he was.”

David Whitley, FanHouse: “So it turns out the Red Sox Nation is a banana republic that used drugs to overthrow its enemies. It’s a jolt for Boston to learn David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez were the Medellin Cartel of the American League. I don’t think the rest of us have been so shocked since Courtney Love went into rehab. So cheer up, Red Sox fans. Don’t bury your faces in your 2004 caps. Don’t turn off the computer when rival fans start with the Tainted Title rap. The Red Sox championships are every bit as legit as the Cardinals’ title in ‘06 or the White Sox in ‘05 or the Marlins in ‘03 or that seventh degree black belt Elvis was awarded in ‘73.”

Tom Verducci, SI.com: “Twenty-three years after Jose Canseco, 19 years after Ken Caminiti, six years after Alex Rodriguez, there still exist people who would like to believe that somehow their team and their players avoided steroids. People actually broke down The Mitchell Report on a team-by-team basis, as if it were the official box score of the Steroid Era. For such people there is a day of reckoning with reality, the day that ends the charade of “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain with the syringe.” Thursday was such a day for Red Sox Nation.”

MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE

Questions to ponder while wondering if Mitchell Boggs can hold the fort as the Cards’ fifth starter:

• Is Kyle Lohse officially back to his old self?
• Why doesn’t Jeff George just give it up?
• Why do some folks take their disdain for Notre Dame way too far?
• Just how desperate is Evander Holyfield to make money these days?
• Who knew that playing quarterback for the Lions came with so many perks?

REMEMBERING STEVE BARTMAN

ESPN has commissioned a one-hour documentary on unlucky Cubs fan Steve Bartman, whose oblivious pursuit of a foul pop up gummed up Game 6 of the 2003 National League Championship Series. That gaffe became of symbol of Small Bears futility and forced Bartman into hiding.

Of course, this isn’t the first Bartman documentary. Tipsheet has always liked this one:

Here is what some of America’s leading sports pundits have been writing:

Mark Kriegel, FoxSports.com: “Penn State, which doesn’t play on the road until after hockey season starts, has home games against Akron, Syracuse, Eastern Illinois and Temple. What, Brown wasn’t available?”

Dan Daly, Washington Times: “Can you believe all the fascination with Tim Tebow’s (purported) virginity? If this is what it’s like now, imagine how it’ll be if he decides to go after A.C. Green’s all-time record for sports celibacy.”

Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle: “(Terrell) Owens‘ publicist Monique Jackson says of her deceivingly complex client, ‘There are all these layers that you don’t understand.’ Think of T.O. as a bad lasagna.”

MEGAPHONE

“When you tell me something I didn’t already know, I’ll be surprised. And I’ll tell you this, Major League Baseball is going to have a big, big problem on their hands when they find out they have a Hall of Famer who’s used.”

Canseco, reacting to the ManRam/Ortiz news.