Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
February 09, 2009
A-Rod Confesses

ESPN will air a Peter Gammons interview at 6 PM tonight in which Alex Rodriguez admits steroid use:

"When I arrived in Texas in 2001, I felt an enormous amount of pressure, felt all the weight of the world on top of me to perform, and perform at a high level every day," Rodriguez told ESPN's Peter Gammons in an interview in Miami Beach, Fla. The complete interview will air on SportsCenter at 6 p.m. ET.

"Back then, [baseball] was a different culture," Rodriguez said. "It was very loose. I was young, I was stupid, I was naïve. I wanted to prove to everyone that I was worth being one of the greatest players of all time.

"I did take a banned substance. For that, I am very sorry and deeply regretful."

I'll take some exception to the young, stupid statement. Alex was seasonal age 25 in 2001 and finished the six years in the majors required for free agency. Twenty five is plenty old enough to know the difference between right and wrong.

Alex isn't stupid, either. When I was at ESPN, I used to hear praise for Rodriguez's intelligence, that if he wasn't playing baseball he might have majored in math in college.

Tune in and make up your own mind.

Update: I guess my main question now is, if he lied about this before, why should we believe he only used while in Texas? His tests since are clean, as he hasn't been suspended. Canseco, however, says he introduced Alex to steroid suppliers in the late 1990s. At this point, I'm more inclined to believe Jose.


Posted by David Pinto at 03:10 PM | Cheating | TrackBack (0)
Comments

After consulting with his lawyers and PR people, conducting several focus group studies and memorizing his prepared responses, ARod speaks candidly about his steroid use.

Posted by: geb4000 at February 9, 2009 03:52 PM

I can see your point, but I think his main reason for takin' stuff was the big contract pressure. I think he just added that stuff about being young, because he knew people would want more than just a simple answer. Jose does have a good track record on this stuff, but...I don't know. The fact A-Rod's not failed a test since '03, speaks a lot to me with his apology. I forgive him. In fact, I think he's more of a man for how he's handling this, than a lot of other players are.

Whenever I think of big contract failures, Bobby Bonilla and Jeff Blauser immediately spring to mind.

Posted by: Devon Young at February 9, 2009 04:28 PM

I know it shouldn't be said that A-Rod admitting steroid use is benevolent, especially given what's happened to Bonds and Clemens after their denials, but at least he made the right decision immediately and didn't let it linger.

I'm more worried about his comment before the young and stupid crap: ""Back then, [baseball] was a different culture. It was very loose." Like David, I don't believe A-Rod is telling the full truth... But I'm kinda of worried that further investigation will open up a whole barrel of worms. How many names are on that list? 103, right? How many of those are big stars? Do we ever want to know?

Maybe I just choose to be naive, but at this point I'd rather not know right now. Baseball has received enough black eyes. Maybe it would be best just to let things rest for, say, a decade, then open up the classified records of the steroid era so we not only get a full scope of how prevalent steroid use was, but also use that to apply more scrutiny to the hall of fame candidates from this era.

This might be more fair for the long run of the sport. If, for example, it turns out that a bunch of big stars were juiced up and people like McGwire still rose to the up, then let them into the hall because, like it or not, they competed against the norms of the era. For people like Barry Bonds though, the case might be different. The guy walks to the plate wearing a suit of body armor, hangs over the plate so you can't pitch inside to him, and hits 73 home runs in a year that may be proven to be past of the waning years of the steroid era, therefore competition among juiced athletes isn't as high. So instead of rising to the top in a field of similar athletes, Bonds would stick out like a sore thumb.

We don't have a complete picture right now, though, so it's tough to make anything but guesses.

Posted by: tas at February 9, 2009 04:37 PM

Isn't it amazing that nearly everything Jose Canseco has put in his books seems to, eventually, turn out to be the truth? Whodathunkit?

Posted by: Zippercat at February 9, 2009 07:21 PM

Canseco has been vindicated. However, my guess is he is right on the general substance but not all the specifics. What I mean is he may have the names right but not the dates. Think of it like having beers with buddies. If someone asks you if you ever hung out with Dave or Bob you will likely remember downing a few brews. However, you may mix-up the dates or locations between the two.

Posted by: Largebill at February 9, 2009 11:01 PM
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