Spring Break
A-Rod's admission darkens baseball
Jared Jackson, Staff Writer
Issue date: 2/12/09 Section: Sports
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The supposed heir to the mythical all-time home run record announced on Monday that he too, like many of his peers, had used performance-enhancing drugs -- in his case, from 2001 to 2003.
After all, Rodriguez was supposed to be the hero to come along and break Barry Bonds' record and in effect, leave the legacy of Bonds' and the league's steroid era in the past.
A-Rod, baseball's most familiar name, was awarded a record $252 million contract in 2001 with the Texas Rangers. He says the pressures to produce led him to use PED's.
"When I arrived in Texas in 2001, I felt an enormous amount of pressure," Rodriguez told ESPN's Peter Gammons on Monday. "I felt like I had all the weight of the world on top of me and I needed to perform, and perform at a high level every day."
"Back then, [baseball] was a different culture," Rodriguez said. "It was very loose. I was young. I was stupid. I was naive. And I wanted to prove to everyone that I was worth being one of the greatest players of all time."
But with his steroid admission, the New York Yankees third baseman has effectively destroyed any shot of becoming one of the all-time greats and tarnished the deep-rooted history of the national pastime seemingly beyond repair.
Perhaps even worse, Rodriguez has lied numerous times when asked if he ever used PED's - most notably in a primetime interview with CBS journalist, Katie Couric--a little over a year ago.
While many will applaud Rodriguez for his admission, the fact of the matter is that if his positive test result hadn't been leaked to the media through Sports Illustrated, Rodriguez would continue to hide his past.
That means that the certain boos and negative media that he is sure to receive now as he rolls down the stretch of his career toward the all-time home run record wouldn't have been an issue. Rodriguez would have been treated like a king and considered most likely the best baseball player of his generation.
But it's not like Rodriguez was the only one to use these substances. However, he was anointed as baseball's savior and when his name was the only one leaked from 104 positive performance-enhancing drug tests that took place during the 2003 season, it left little doubt as to just how deep this problem runs in baseball.
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