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After days of keeping quiet, Alex Rodriguez finally admitted to have used performance enhancing drugs from 2001 to 2003, when he was still with the Texas Rangers. This has been the long-awaited confession, making Rodriguez one of the few who have actually acknowledged their mistake. Of course, this doesn’t save him from public scrutiny. Now everyone is wondering if Rodriguez actually deserved the awards he had received that year or if he is even worth the player others used to believe him to be.

From The New York Times:

The admission also makes Rodriguez, who joined the Yankees in 2004 and has 553 career home runs, the most prominent baseball player to admit that he has knowingly used illegal substances. Three other equally famous players — Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Mark McGwire — are widely suspected of having used performance enhancers, and have become infamous for their denials. Rodriguez took the blame in a lengthy interview on ESPN.

“When I arrived at Texas in 2001, I felt an enormous amount of pressure,” Rodriguez told the interviewer, Peter Gammons. “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 it was a different culture. It was very loose. I was young. I was stupid. I was naïve. And I wanted to prove to everyone that I was worth being one of the greatest players of all time. I did take a banned substance, and for that I am very sorry and deeply regretful.”

Rodriguez says, however, that he didn’t know that he took Primobolan specifically. He says that he hasn’t used any performance enhancing drugs since he joined the New York Yankees. He admitted that his turning point was when he realized that using steroids would only hurt his career and that if he was found out, it would disappoint millions of fans. The next few days will determine if the positive test would produce the public effect that he had once contemplated and feared.

Category: Anabolic Steroids | Tags: Alex Rodriguez, Major League Baseball, New York Yankees, performance enhancing drugs, Primobolan, steroids, Texas Ranger