BREAKING NEWS: A-Rod comes clean

by NumberSeven on Feb 9, 2009 2:34 PM EST

From an interview with Peter Gammons:

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.

"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."

Let the lashing begin. The full interview is airing on the 6pm SportsCenter tonight.

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Comments

Good for him

I think we’re a very forgiving society when people are being honest with us….

by 3460kuri on Feb 9, 2009 2:40 PM EST reply actions

i hope you are right

we’ll see though… just reading comments on this site over the past few days makes me think otherwise.

by NumberSeven on Feb 9, 2009 2:45 PM EST up reply actions

case in point

(see below)

by NumberSeven on Feb 9, 2009 3:08 PM EST up reply actions

No more "allegedly"...

…and no more legacy. Bye-bye Hall of Fame, bye-bye greatest player ever. Bye-bye A-Roid. Will be off the Yanks by next off-season. Thank Gawd.

by BrianByron on Feb 9, 2009 3:00 PM EST reply actions

you are living on a different planet dude..

by NumberSeven on Feb 9, 2009 3:07 PM EST up reply actions

what the

f*** are you smoking?!

by tombradylikesdudes on Feb 9, 2009 3:58 PM EST up reply actions

awesome name

and yeah; agreed

by Cody K on Feb 9, 2009 3:59 PM EST up reply actions

I know it seems

weird now. But it’s gonna be a whole different world after A-Roid has another disappointing year in 09.

by BrianByron on Feb 9, 2009 6:59 PM EST up reply actions

so look at

this page: http://www.baseball-reference.com/r/rodrial01.shtml .

tell me which season has been disappointing?

and you said he will be “off the Yanks by next season.” okay, i’ll bite. do they trade him given the circus and his 27 million per year? do they kick him off the team and eat the the 270 mil remaining on his deal? they’re not voiding his contract. again, what are you smoking?!

by tombradylikesdudes on Feb 9, 2009 8:16 PM EST up reply actions

So

Your telling me that the Yankees would be a much better team without A-Rod (including his issues and personality) then with him? Considering he is a top 5 baseball player?

by MartyMcFly on Feb 9, 2009 9:03 PM EST up reply actions

just singed a monumental contract. theres no way the yankees will get rid of this stud. roids or not.

by mjmase11 on Feb 10, 2009 7:45 PM EST up reply actions

Yeah -

We all might has well get used to the fact that A-Rod, for better or worse, will absolutely be with us until 2018.

I have to say; I was wholeheartedly against re-signing A-Rod after he opted out in 2007. I’d be more than happy to fw. you all emails I wrote to friends at the time detailing why I thought re-signing him was a terrible idea – but for some reason Cashman & Hank didn’t listen to my rants (just kidding, I obviously didn’t speak to them).

But now, he’s not going anywhere. Contracts in MLB are GUARANTEED. That means that the Yanks can’t tear up the contract (unlike in the NFL when you can release players). So Alex is hear to stay. We’ll largely see what we’ve seen from as a Yank: He’ll keep putting up great numbers, doing the majority of his work in March-April-May and staying quiet in August-September.

Kudos to him for coming clean though. That’s more than you can say about a lot of these guys.

And this is whole story is reason #98,165 why A-Rod will NEVER, EVER, EVER be this guy:

by Cody K on Feb 9, 2009 3:58 PM EST reply actions

this is actually the best course Arod

could have taken.

we basically forgave Andy Pettitte and Jason Giambi bc they admitted to it and said they regretted it. i was relieved to read this. only now can we move forward – otherwise it would have always been a lingering doubt hanging over him. now at least he can say it’s in the past – and it makes it easier to root for him (unless he fails another one).

(i believe that if Bonds could go back, he would do the same and avoid all the investigations, trials and hardships that came with being a denier.)

by Travis G on Feb 9, 2009 4:30 PM EST reply actions

I just hope his lawyers checked out the statute of limitations

for this kind of stuff because otherwise you know that some DA in some backwater is going to want to make a name for himself by filing charges.

Everything looks nicer when you win. The girls are prettier. The cigars taste better. The trees are greener. --Billy Martin

by garp on Feb 9, 2009 4:36 PM EST reply actions

i'm sure Boras covered his bases...

he’s an asshole, but he’s a thorough asshole.

And I am sure the CBA covers him too – seeing as though these were supposed to be anonymous tests, I don’t see how this could stand up as evidence in a criminal trial.

by NumberSeven on Feb 9, 2009 4:48 PM EST up reply actions

Seems like the reason this came out is because they are using these

tests to go after Bonds in a criminal trial so I am not so sure. The CBA covers punishment from the league but it can in no way stop criminal prosecution.

Everything looks nicer when you win. The girls are prettier. The cigars taste better. The trees are greener. --Billy Martin

by garp on Feb 9, 2009 5:20 PM EST up reply actions

bonds is being charged with purgury though..

not using steroids..

by NumberSeven on Feb 9, 2009 5:29 PM EST up reply actions

purgatory?

it’s perjury. Sorry.

by 3460kuri on Feb 10, 2009 11:25 AM EST up reply actions

gimme a break dude...

it was monday! LOL..

i knew it looked wrong, but i just couldn’t put forth the effort..

Actually, Bonds is kind of in purgatory- baseball, life, and otherwise..

by NumberSeven on Feb 10, 2009 11:37 AM EST up reply actions

I forgive him

Anyone else who comes clean will be forgiven. It is those who lie that society keeps wondering and keeps not trusting. Moving on…

by Michael Uhlhorn on Feb 9, 2009 5:07 PM EST reply actions

Forgiven

Let’s move on. We moved on after Andy admitted it, we moved on after Giambi admitted it. Let’s forget it.

2008 - A New Era. The End of An Era.

by goyankees on Feb 9, 2009 5:33 PM EST reply actions

Except there are 103 more players to forgive, forget, and move on from

that will probably be leaked out through out the 2009 season.

Recipient of the 2008 "The Iron Man" award from scottnak of Halos Heaven!

by 44FAN on Feb 9, 2009 5:51 PM EST up reply actions

A-Roid-Who Cares

I really don’t are it just makes me mad that so far out of the the 104 players named only A-Roid is being blasted. Who are the other 103 this is just MLB and the rest of everyone trying to get back at the Yankees and create a mess. Anyway who care the whole time he did it he was a Texas Ranger and he didnt win shit! So let get this crap done and over with and focus on winning a championship.

by alireza317 on Feb 9, 2009 6:12 PM EST reply actions

who gives a rat's ass

play ball

by Frank Malzone on Feb 9, 2009 11:25 PM EST reply actions

Will this help people accept A-Rod

A-Rod always came across as trying to be perfect. The key word is trying. Most people, even if they admired him, never liked him because of that.

After this A-Rod will never ever be perfect, he can stop trying and be himself. Mentally 2009 could actually be less challenging than previous years. In that sense…

All other fans will abuse him, but I can easily see that NYY fans will support him more than in the past, I can see his team mates genuinly stand up for him in a way they haven’t before. It’s hard to stand up for someone who is trying to be perfect, trying to be better than everyone else, hell, better than anyone has ever been. At the very least it will have to be bloody annoying.

Drop the pretense that you are perfect and suddenly you might become likable… (at least to NYY fans and your team mates… Red Sox fans? Not so much…)

by TLVP on Feb 10, 2009 3:49 AM EST reply actions

Distractions...

Let the distractions begin around the Yankee clubhouse. The Yanks are welcoming three big free agents, but this story will steal their thunder. The Yanks are also kicking off a brand new stadium. That should be the lead story going into spring training. But, it probably will not be. A-Rod is in the second year of his new contract and has quite a ways to go. I hope everything eventually settles down with him so he can get back to just playing baseball. We’ll see how the clubhouse deals with this.

by cmmartin on Feb 10, 2009 7:16 AM EST reply actions

Its time to start boycotting SI !

I’m growing tired of "journalists" breaking ethical boundaries for their 60 seconds of fame.

They have responsibility for blowing the story—there were 104 players, not one that they were head hunting, A-Rod.

For me, the boundaries were broken when one of these bozo’s duped George Steinbrenner into an interview. Though the writer was with Conde Nast at the time, it is interesting to note that he was "trained" at SI!

The publishers, editors and senior managers bear responsibility for this head hunting as well.

Here are the best ways to get their attention as you stop financially supporting S.I. :

1-cancel your subscriptions or let them run out!
2-don’t buy their newsstand issues* and let them rot!

*OK-make one exception-the swimsuit issue :)

by NYYankeeRoadWarrior on Feb 11, 2009 8:14 AM EST reply actions