A Foot is About 15 Inches

Here is a link to A-Roid's weasily and rather stunning admission that he used illegal performance enhancing drugs. This is nothing but excuses piled upon excuses. He refuses to say what he used, or where he got it...and he tries to imply that it was merely something you could get at GNC...
All the while claiming that he was clean before and after the three years for which he was caught.
I straight out do not believe that. There is no reason to.

I love the reason he gave for using PED's, that he was under tremendous pressure to perform in Texas. he was under that pressure because he signed with the absolute greediest agent and and held a one team bidding war. He insisted on becoming not just the highest paid athlete in league history, but in the 8 seasons since that contract was signed, no player has earned more in a year than him. That is a ceiling of earnings un-heard of in professional sports. He may very well have been under tremendous pressure (I choose to believe he was already cheating and had been since high school...his claim that he never heard of Steroids or any PED while a young player seems ridiculous. As a freshman in high school in 1987, there were athlete's in my homeroom who took steroids...) But all of the pressure he was under he placed upon himself.

Maybe my favorite quote during the interview was, "I would be really pissed of, I want to change, I want to do things to influence children."

I am not a reporter and I don't care to track down all of A-Roid's false claims and lie's...but here is a nice one...from Gene Wojciechowski "Rodriguez said Monday he didn't definitively know whether he was one of the 104 players who had failed the 2003 drug test. But a source told ESPN on Saturday that A-Rod has been aware of the test results for nearly five years. The Mitchell report also said all 104 players were notified. Whom do you believe? Sorry, but Rodriguez no longer gets the benefit of the doubt" (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=wojciechowski_gene&id=3895129&sportCat=mlb).

Basically to me, if you are caught in a lie during your "apology" that nullifies the whole apology.

When asked, so you took PED's between 2001-2003 A-Roid said, "Thats about right." About is a niffty little word. A foot is about 15 inches. A-Roids whole conversation was intended to ensure his legacy. Was to state his claim that his numbers great "before" he took PED's and after he took PED's. But lets be very clear about this: We have no idea when he took them, and no way to know that he ever stoped taking them. We do know one thing with certainty, he has yet to stop lying about his envolvement with PED's

One final thing, Since baseball has become obsessed with PED's over the last 10 or so years, the topic has never been treated correctly. Initally (and largely still) only big boppers were considered potental cheaters. But looking at the list of identified users, around 50% have been pitchers, and a huge numbe have been little utility guys. PED's are not about adding bulk, they are about aiding recovery time, aiding healing time, enhancing concentration and performance. As a result every player no matter what he looks like is a possible user. It is impossible seperate the wheat from the chaff. But reporters and commentators continue to hold out the stick of a clean game, the ending to Wojcichowski's artical is no different, Referring to the 103 players who tested positive for PED's along with A-Roid, he writes,"Rodriguez won't be the last ballplayer to fall on his bat. A-Rod's admission makes it easier for other players to step forward. For this, and only this, Rodriguez deserves applause. One down, but 103 more names to go."

The inference is that there are only 103 names. But this test was negotiated and announced (and supposedly confidental), you had to be a braisin moron to fail the test. It tested only the players urine and looked only for previously identified substances. Balco had not yet been heard of. 104 players were lazy idiots who blindly put thier faith in confidentiality. Countless more would have cycled off their drugs and not tested positive, or used substances the leauge may still have never heard of.

To me it comes down to this: Any major league player from the last 20+ years is a likely user of performance enhancing drugs.