“Presumed innocent” may be the two most reassuring words in American culture, just as “falsely accused” may be the two most chilling.

For 20 years, assorted baseball players have vowed that they didn’t cheat by using performance-enhancing drugs. Many lied. But sooner or later, an innocent man was almost certain to be accused. There’s a good chance that man’s name is Ryan Zimmerman. If so, he has been put through hell.

In the dead of winter, a few weeks after he’d been accused in an Al Jazeera documentary of cheating by using PEDs, Zimmerman finally came to a halt. “At the beginning it almost consumed me because you’re so upset about it and you’re so worried about making it right,” he said Tuesday.

Zimmerman obeyed his wife’s plea to take it easier, to spend time with her and their young daughter. He had hired a lawyer to sue his accusers for defamation. He’d studied the law on “disclosure” and realized that he’d have to open up every corner of his private life — every email he’d ever written, every phone record — to defend his good name. Zimmerman sat with his wife, Heather, in their home and had a glass of wine. They fell silent.

“How is this happening?” Zimmerman asked.

1 of 18 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Ryan Zimmerman through the years View Photos The 29-year-old all-star has gone from fresh-faced kid to veteran leader in his nine years as the Nationals third baseman. Caption The 29-year-old all-star has gone from fresh-faced kid to veteran leader in his nine years as the Nationals third baseman. Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman, in the middle of spring training fielding drills in Viera. Entering the 2014 season, Zimmerman had played 1,137 games with 4,493 plate appearances in his nine seasons with Washington. Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.

[Zimmerman, Howard file suit against Al Jazeera]

Both were in tears or near them, tears of frustration that no matter how ethically you try to live and, in the Zimmermans’ case, no matter how many good works you try to do, some things are out of your control.

Zimmerman goes back and forth about what aspect troubles him most. Sometimes, he says, he thinks of “the 12-year-old boy who picked me as his hero, and now he’s in college and he reads this and he wonders about me,” said Zimmerman. “I’ve been so proud of all the parents who’ve come up to me in Washington and told me what a good example I was to their children.”

At other times, what burns harshest is that “my integrity and the person that I really am is questioned by someone who has never met me, doesn’t know what I’m about.”

Sometimes he thinks about his young daughter, Mackenzie: “What if she grows up and reads about this?” He is concerned that his defamation suit may never get to trial or, if it does, because he’s a public figure, the odds of him winning the case are poor. How will such complexity play in a kid’s mind? And why should an innocent man’s child have to deal with that?

“That’s [bleeped] up,” he said bleakly.

Zimmerman knows that others, including former MVP Ryan Howard and NFL quarterback Peyton Manning, were named by the same man — Charlie Sly — in the documentary “The Dark Side.” He knows that Sly has since recanted everything he said, claiming he was taped without his knowledge and was simply bragging — lying — about dealing drugs to famous athletes so he could drum up new business.

A baseball veteran who knows no other life than the grind of the sport, third baseman Ryan Zimmerman has been with the Nationals since they came to Washington. He takes a pause during spring training to talk about the mental and physical challenges of the game. (Whitney Leaming/The Washington Post)

Sly once had a brief connection — in a pharmaceutical business — with Zimmerman’s trainer. That’s the link. Zimmerman said Tuesday he has never seen or spoken to Sly and has never taken a PED. Officials with the NFL and MLB have said they will investigative Sly’s allegations. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency will assist the investigations.

[Manning’s PIs visited Charlie Sly’s parents]

“I’m not Peyton Manning [in terms of fame]. The percentage of people who heard about me being accused will be much bigger than the percent that will hear the end of the story,” Zimmerman said, contrasting the front-page and back-page news.

“Everyone that knows you knows that this stuff is not true, so they say, ‘Don’t worry about it.’ Which is true,” he added. “But a lot of people in the public, no matter what happens in the end, maybe some of them have already got their opinions made for them and won’t change their opinions, which, you know, sucks.”

Unlike many who have faced such accusations, Zimmerman has gone into full counterattack mode. What’s at stake, at least potentially, is a legally sanctioned examination of almost every aspect of his life and the need for him to testify under oath. It may not ultimately come to that. But Zimmerman has deliberately opened that door.

“I’m fortunate enough to have the resources to do it,” he said. “. . . I’ve never once had a lawyer, anything like that before this — never had a reason to. It’s really, really hard to win these suits, but I think it’s my responsibility not only to clear my name but if I do this and whether I win or lose on the defamation suit, even if it gets to a trial, I felt a responsibility because I am able to fight it. Maybe if this stops this from happening to just one person after me, then it’s worth it.

“Me filing suit and me opening myself up . . . I don’t really think there’s much of a stronger action for me to take than saying: ‘Here you go. Come look at me legally.’ . . . I’m basically letting them into all aspects of my life, unfortunately, that nobody should have access to but now they do.

“Privacy is really not privacy anymore for me.”

What’s up for grabs? “Anything. Every email you’ve ever sent. All of your phone records. Those are two pretty invasive” examples, Zimmerman said. “Anything that you think you wouldn’t want people to see, whether you’ve ever been involved in anything or not. Anything with your family. . . .

“A lot of people don’t want to do that. . . . Also, when the trial starts, obviously you state things under oath. If you don’t tell the truth — I didn’t go to law school, but the consequences are very big. I don’t think there is a stronger way to express myself in this country than that.”

[Just who is Charlie Sly?]

At a time when public debate barely deserves the name and willingness to see an opposing viewpoint is cast as weakness, Zimmerman volunteered that “we need investigations because I’m one of the biggest advocates for getting [PEDs] out of sports.”

“I know for public figures those cases are very hard to win,” he said. “I understand journalists have a job to do. The first amendment is put in place to protect them, [so they can] report the news the way they should be able to report it. But there’s got to be a line drawn somewhere.

“Unfortunately, a lot of people that are innocent, whether you want to fight for your innocence, has to do with whether you’re capable of paying for it. That isn’t really the way it should be. There’s got to be a way for innocent people to not basically be proven guilty in public opinion and then have to fight to be innocent.

“It’s supposed to be the other way around in this country.”

I may hold the record for being within 15 feet of the most ballplayers who’ve lied about PEDs while under oath, before microphones or privately. One star was in the middle of a denial news conference when a highly placed source called to tell me the specific drug he had, in fact, used.

But if Zimmerman can’t be presumed innocent until proven guilty, I don’t know what player can.

As he walked back up the tunnel to the Nats’ clubhouse after his marathon interview, Zimmerman said, “Just didn’t want to cry.”

But it makes you want to.

For more by Thomas Boswell, visit washingtonpost.com/boswell