A-Rod admits steroid use, blames youthful stupidity

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Alex Rodriguez, aka A-Rod, aka A-Fraud, has admitted that he took "a banned substance." However, he claims that he didn't know what it was: "I am guilty of being negligent, naïve, not asking all the right questions." He claims further that he hasn't taken it, or anything like it, since 2003, when he tested positive (see SI's story for more).

In other words, it wasn't his fault. He was a just a dupe -- "young," "stupid," and "naive," just trying to "perform at a high level every day."

Uh-huh. Sure.

Look, I've never disliked A-Rod as much as many others have, even as a Jays fan, largely because I've admired his incredible baseball talent (poor playoff performances notwithstanding).

But it is simply ridiculous to think that he didn't know what he was doing -- or what he was taking. This is one of baseball's mega-stars. His agent is Scott Boras. He has had his career carefully managed from early on. He took the "banned substance" -- Primobolan -- not when he was just breaking in with the Mariners, when he was trying to make it in the league -- or at least we don't know what if anything he took back then -- but when he was with the Rangers, after he had signed his massive 10-year, $252-million contract.

Is it possible that he only took steroids for a short time? Sure. Is it possible that he was feeling intense pressure at the time, worrying about living up to the huge contract? Sure. Is is possible that someone just gave him something to take, perhaps telling him that it was for pain or energy or something, and that he took it without looking into it? Sure. Could he really be that stupid? Sure.

As William Saletan notes at Slate, though, Primobolan wasn't just some random drug. Rather, it was "a drug on which players allegedly relied to fool the 2003 drug tests" -- private tests the results of which weren't supposed to be made public (A-Rod's inclusion on the list of 1004 players who tested positive was leaked). That is, he took a highly advanced drug. Furthermore, as Saletan documents, there is additional evidence that A-Rod took steroids: Canseco fingered him, for what that's worth (though, more and more, it looks like Canseco was right about a lot of this), and he was tipped off to the test by the players' union, which suggests that knowledge of his steroid use was, if not widespread, at least extended beyond his inner circle.

In terms of assumption of guilt, A-Rod is hurt by the fact that he's extremely unpopular, including with his former manager, Joe Torre, and perhaps with some of his current teammates, including Derek Jeter, not to mention with baseball fans generally. As Tim Marchman writes out at Slate, and he may be right, A-Rod "was the most hated figure in baseball" even before this story broke. And the fact that he took steroids, for however long, is hardly all that surprising: "There was always something inherently implausible about the idea of a 225-pound shortstop playing Gold Glove defense while popping 50 home runs a year."

The truth may come out eventually, but, for now, all we have is a fairly credible SI report, the far less credible but perhaps acutely accurate Canseco allegation, and A-Rod's admission. And it's an admission that seeks to accept blame by avoiding responsibility: I did it, but I was young and stupid, and I didn't really know what I was doing, and you can't really blame me for feeling pressure and wanting to play well, and I stopped doing it, and I haven't done it since, so can we all please move on, I have the career home run record to chase?

Sorry, but I don't buy it. And I suspect there's a lot more to A-Rod's steroid use, and to steroid use in general in America's (former) pastime, and, in time, maybe we'll know the full extent of A-Rod's cheating, or at least close to it. Until then, A-Rod will be playing under a cloud of doubt of his own making, with boos and heckles coming from far and wide. He deserves nothing less.