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A-Rod admits to using steroids!!!
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| DJ Reese |
His voice shaking at times, Alex Rodriguez met head-on allegations that he tested positive for steroids six years ago, telling ESPN on Monday that he did take performance-enhancing drugs while playing for the Texas Rangers during a three-year period beginning in 2001.
Rodriguez
"When I arrived in Texas in 2001, I felt an enormous amount of pressure. I needed to perform, and perform at a high level every day," Rodriguez told ESPN's Peter Gammons in an interview in Miami Beach, Fla. "Back then, [baseball] was a different culture. It was very loose. I was young, I was stupid, I was naïve. I wanted to prove to everyone I was worth being one of the greatest players of all time.
"I did take a banned substance. For that, I'm very sorry and deeply regretful."
Rodriguez's admission comes 48 hours after Sports Illustrated reported that Rodriguez was on a list of 104 players who tested positive for banned substances in 2003, the year when Major League Baseball conducted survey tests to see if mandatory, random drug-testing was needed in the sport.
Sources who know about the testing results told SI that Rodriguez tested positive for testosterone and Primobolan, an anabolic steroid. In his ESPN interview, Rodriguez said he did not know exactly which substance or substances he had taken. In 2003, there were no penalties for a positive result.
"Overall, I felt a tremendous pressure to play, and play really well" in Texas, the New York Yankees third baseman said. "I had just signed this enormous contract I felt like I needed something, a push, without over-investigating what I was taking, to get me to the next level.
"I am sorry for my Texas years. I apologize to the fans of Texas."
Rodriguez, who joined the Yankees for the 2004 season after a trade from Texas, said "all my years in New York have been clean." He also described the recent turn of events as the biggest challenge of his life but added it felt good to be honest about what he's done in the past.
"It's been a rough 15 months here for me," Rodriguez said. "I was stupid for three years. I was very, very stupid. The more honest we can all be, the quicker we can get baseball [back] to where it needs to be."
Rodriguez said he stopped taking substances after injuring himself at spring training in 2003 with the Rangers.
"It wasn't a real dramatic day. I started experimenting with things that, today, are not legal," he said, "that today are not accepted ... ever since that incident happened, I realized that I don't need any of it."
He said the culture earlier this decade of taking performance-enhancing substances was "prevalent." "There were a lot of people doing a lot of different things," Rodriguez said, noting that he wasn't specifically pointing out the Rangers.
Rodriguez said he was told by Gene Orza, the chief operating officer of the MLB Players' Association, that he might, or might not, have tested positive in the 2003 survey. That conversation happened during the 2004 season. A source told ESPN on Saturday that Rodriguez knew he had failed the test.
"I had never heard anything since," he said. "Whatever I was experimenting with in Texas might have been OK."
Rodriguez also said of his 2007 interview with Katie Couric on "60 Minutes," when he denied ever using steroids, that "at the time, I wasn't being truthful with myself. How could I be truthful with Katie Couric or CBS?" |
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| bigperf |
| were they illegal in MLB at the time... |
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| DJ Reese |
| Most steroids weren't illegal at the time. It's not really the point anymore when this comes up. They know its still cheating. One was testosterone and the other was something that goes with it. The second one you can't even get in the US. This is a big, big, HUGE story. Best player in basebal, highest paid athelete in america (twice), and still 10 years to play with all the records he could brake. I'm not an A-Rod fan to begin with, but I have to say, I give him some credit for coming out. I hope he realizes that he just open the flood gates though. He's got a lot more questions to answer now. This is going to get very very interesting. |
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| skizzell |
| quote: | Originally posted by 72hrpartyanimal
*
?????? |
$250 Million*
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| DJ Reese |
| quote: | Originally posted by skizzell
$250 Million*
:) |
Don't forget...the Yankees gave him a new one for over 270 mil for 10 years. |
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| Brian Scott |
Look at anybody who hit 40+ home runs more than once in the "steroid era" and I bet almost all of them were using PEDs. Bonds? Soon to be busted, though already guilty in the court of public opinion. Giambi? Admitted it. A-Rod? Admitted it. Sosa? Please, who doesn't think he used PEDs? Griffey/Pujols? They're next...
The steroid era deserves a footnote in the MLB record books. Not an asterisk, but a footnote. Both pitchers and hitters have been caught or admitted to taking steroids. I think it's safe to assume cheating ran rampant on both sides of the ball and thus no records can be written off. |
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| Andrieux |
The only big debate now is whether to allow steroid using baseball players into the hall of fame. Mark McGwire should have been a first ballot hall of famer no doubt. But since he has been tied up with the use of performance enhancing drugs (whether they were legal at the time or not), the hall of fame voters have turned their back against him and have chosen not to elect him the last two years.
I see it as they either elect everyone or no one. We are talking about some of the biggest names in baseball for the last 10+ years that have admitted or been accussed of using steroids: Alex Rodriguez, Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Rafael Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa, Jason Giambi and the list goes on and on.
I would like to see who else is on the list with Rodriguez. They said there are over 100 people who tested positive. But the player's union says the names on the list are completely confidential. |
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| DJ Reese |
| quote: | Originally posted by Brian Scott
Look at anybody who hit 40+ home runs more than once in the "steroid era" and I bet almost all of them were using PEDs. Bonds? Soon to be busted, though already guilty in the court of public opinion. Giambi? Admitted it. A-Rod? Admitted it. Sosa? Please, who doesn't think he used PEDs? Griffey/Pujols? They're next...
The steroid era deserves a footnote in the MLB record books. Not an asterisk, but a footnote. Both pitchers and hitters have been caught or admitted to taking steroids. I think it's safe to assume cheating ran rampant on both sides of the ball and thus no records can be written off. |
Agreed. And I hate to be that cinical but you have to be. I think one of the big things to look at is what they took and how big it to it they were. I don't care too much about the HGH. Most didn't really know they were doing anything wrong (although that's just ignorance) and used it to recover from injuries they strugled with. What A-Rod took was to gain muscle and get a certain type of build. We don't really know that much about Clemens but more will come out. Bonds....read "Game of Shadows." Balco had strict programs and cycles using 4 or 5 different drugs designed to build the perfect athelete for their respective sports without testing postive. The problem is we will never know exactly how much the roids did for any individual.
The other issue is MLB from top to bottom. How did this list of positive tests get out? Why weren't these names in The Mitchell Report? How much did the league already know about people taking roids and why wasn't something done earlier? These are all questions that have been brought up before with Bonds, but this opens a whole new can of worms.
As an ESPN junkie, this makes my mouth water:whip: |
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| DJ Reese |
| quote: | Originally posted by Andrieux
The only big debate now is whether to allow steroid using baseball players into the hall of fame. Mark McGwire should have been a first ballot hall of famer no doubt. But since he has been tied up with the use of performance enhancing drugs (whether they were legal at the time or not), the hall of fame voters have turned their back against him and have chosen not to elect him the last two years.
I see it as they either elect everyone or no one. We are talking about some of the biggest names in baseball for the last 10+ years that have admitted or been accussed of using steroids: Alex Rodriguez, Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Rafael Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa, Jason Giambi and the list goes on and on.
I would like to see who else is on the list with Rodriguez. They said there are over 100 people who tested positive. But the player's union says the names on the list are completely confidential. |
I think A-Rod coming out early with 9 years left on his contract and the fact he still has a ways to go before breaking any records he'll get in. Don't know about the rest. This situation is very different than anything we've seen. Anyone else who has admitted has not been in the same class as A-Rod. |
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| Brian Scott |
The MLB players' union needs to release the other 100+ names. This is another example of how unions have helped ruin things in this country. But that's a rant for another time.
Nobody knows how A-rod's name got out by itself. There are leaks in the union and the MLB front offices.
I've read "Game of Shadows." Poorly written, but it definitely shed some light on many of the details of Bonds' (and others) doping regimens. |
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| Andrieux |
| quote: | Originally posted by Brian Scott
Nobody knows how A-rod's name got out by itself. There are leaks in the union and the MLB front offices.
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$ from SI prob. |
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