Did David Ortiz take steroids?

In an article in the Boston Herald, David "Big Papi" Ortiz said that he isn't "100 percent sure that he’s never used them". "Them" being steroids, he also said he he did take steroids, it was when he was much younger and still in the Dominican.

“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, and I started realizing and getting to know a little bit about it,” Ortiz said Sunday. “You’ve got to be careful. . . . I used to buy a protein shake in my country. I don’t do that any more because they don’t have the approval for that here, so I know that, so I’m off of 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.” Ortiz joked about going the steroids route. “I should use steroids just to see what’s going on,” Ortiz said with a laugh. “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.”

I am in no way accusing Ortiz of taking steroids, but he has very interesting career numbers. Before coming to Boston in 2003, he never once hit more than 20 homeruns and since he's played with the Sox, he's averaged 43 homeruns a season and that includes the last two year's MVP like seasons in which he had 47 and 54 respectively. Now, I personally like Ortiz, I think he's a great hitter and a very likable guy, all i'm trying to say is, I wouldn't be surprised. But then again, and this is very sad, every time someone has a breakout season in which their power numbers increase rapidly the first thing in most peoples minds are "he's gotta be juicing".

See Louis Gonzalez, another great person on and off the field, who had one "breakout season" in which he hit 57 homeruns and before and after that he'd never been able to hit more than 30.

EDIT: Louis Gonzalez hit 31 homers before he exploded with 57.