I'm getting kind of tired of writing about steriods, but this is really the biggest story in baseball for sometime, it warrants a great deal of press. Well it was a quick and seemingly from the heart response from A-Rod, within 48 hours of the report coming out, Alex came clean to ESPN's Peter Gammons, telling him that yes indeed he did take steroids from 2001 to 2003 while with the Texas Rangers.
After lying once already it is somewhat hard to believe anythign the man says, but I have to say he gave a convincing case. Saddled with the expectations of being the highest paid player ever while only the tender age of 25, Alex felt the pressure that came along with it. So in response he did something foolish, something he knew was illegal and wrong but he did it because he felt he needed to "prove" that he was every bit worth that 252 million dollar deal the rangers gave him. For sure, with a 13 percent increase of home runs and posting his highest career slugging percentages, it seems very plausible that
He said he has stopped since then which is of course kind of suspcious (after all wouldn't the added pressure of playing for the yankees give him all the more impetus to take steriods?) I am somewhat inclined to believe the man. I have not seen the interview in its entirety, but it seems geniune, from the heart and the words of a truly regretful man. There's a lot to not like about Alex, but I fould it hard to not feel a little bit for the guy, he fucked up and he realized this is no small error.
I hope that this takes the heat off a little bit and eventually fans and writers alike can forgive him a little bit over time. He gets enough bad press from people and as I have mentioned he's not exactly alone when it comes for the blame for this entire era in baseball, it was an epidemic that has left us very few stars who haven't been found out. Good move on A-Rod's part just coming straight out and fessing up, not that the new york tabloids will make it any easier on him.
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