Alex Rodriguez tested positive for roids' in 2003

[billmac91]

During a 60 Minutes interview with Katie Couric in late 2007, he stated that he had never used steroids (or performance enhancing drugs). Thus, ipso facto, he did lie. I love that legalese.

cbsnews.60minutes

He still hasn't technically admitted to using roids'. He never said in his interview with Peter Gammons, "yes I took steroids." He admits to taking substances, and being neglegient and naive and loose about what he put in his body, but he also stated (paraphrasing) "before I talk about any substances I would like to see the test and what I tested positive for".

He kind of/sort of admitted steroid use, but pulled a Giambi in my book.

He most certainly did not come clean like Andy Pettite.

 

[Buckeyeskickbuttocks]

He still hasn't technically admitted to using roids'. He never said in his interview with Peter Gammons, "yes I took steroids." He admits to taking substances, and being neglegient and naive and loose about what he put in his body, but he also stated (paraphrasing) "before I talk about any substances I would like to see the test and what I tested positive for".

He kind of/sort of admitted steroid use, but pulled a Giambi in my book.

He most certainly did not come clean like Andy Pettite.

The local radio guys seem to think he "came clean" I didn't hear it myself, so I don't know.... just saying there are those in the media who seem to think his Gammons interview went quite well for him (A-Rod, that is).

 

[OH10]

Long thread... a couple of cents:

1. Whether by letter of the MLB rules, using an illegal drug for competitive advantage is unfair. I believe MLB had a rule in place broad enough to encompass the use of steroids, but even if it didn't, one player should not be permitted to break the law for an advantage without being correctly labelled a "cheater."

2. Steroids are a different kind of cheating that spit balls and corked bats. One is a health issue AND a competition issue. The others are just competition issues. But all cheating should be a knock on any HOF resume.

3. I don't buy the "even playing field" argument with respect to pitchers and hitters. If 8 guys on the field are juicing and one is not, the latter is being cheated. That's not an even playing field.

4. A-Rod's admission gets him little in my book. It was a planned admission after 48 hours of deciding what to do with the situation. After the Couric interview, how can we believe him now at all?

 

[Buckeyeskickbuttocks]

The "health and competition" angle strikes me as specious.... unless you're taking the Role Model angle, I suppose.

 

[OH10]

The "health and competition" angle strikes me as specious.... unless you're taking the Role Model angle, I suppose.

I'm not a scientist, doctor, pharmacist, etc... But I "believe" steroids have negative health effects. My belief, whether correct or not, is shared by many, including I assume, baseball players.

Players should not have to decide between health and career to compete on an even playing field. These cheaters forced this decision upon many.

 

[BB73]

fucking Sammy Sosa should be my fantasy. I just wanted to lick the taint of Sammy Sosa.

Some editing may have occurred during transcription.

 

[Mike80]

He still hasn't technically admitted to using roids'. He never said in his interview with Peter Gammons, "yes I took steroids." He admits to taking substances, and being neglegient and naive and loose about what he put in his body, but he also stated (paraphrasing) "before I talk about any substances I would like to see the test and what I tested positive for".

He kind of/sort of admitted steroid use, but pulled a Giambi in my book.

He most certainly did not come clean like Andy Pettite.

He didn't say Steroids because it's not PC to say Steroids.

The term is Performance Enhancing Drugs (all those extra words IN THIS ECONOMY!!!!!111!!111eleventyone11!!!!).

:p

 

[BB73]

I'm not a scientist, doctor, pharmacist, etc... But I "believe" steroids have negative health effects. My belief, whether correct or not, is shared by many, including I assume, baseball players.

Players should not have to decide between health and career to compete on an even playing field. These cheaters forced this decision upon many.

I agree. If the majority of the MLBPA were clean, they should demand that everybody is subjected to mandatory testing on a monthly basis year-round. That would eliminate most of the cheaters, and allow the guy that can hit 30 to 40 while clean to get the "big slugger" contract to which he's entitled. But when cheaters are hitting 45 homers and up, the cheaters are the ones getting the big money.

I will laugh if someday a group of clean baseball players files a lawsuit against MLB, stating that their turning a blind eye for years unjustly cost the clean players their fair share of the huge contracts.

 

[billmac91]

The local radio guys seem to think he "came clean" I didn't hear it myself, so I don't know.... just saying there are those in the media who seem to think his Gammons interview went quite well for him (A-Rod, that is).

I think most are in the local sports guy camp....but I didn't hear enough from him, IMO. I think he did an excellent job of avoiding questions by continually calling himself stupid and naive.

It was a circular conversation of Gammons asking specific questions, and A-Rod always coming back to, I don't know what I was putting in my body, there was a lot of grey area at the time, I was naive, I was stupid.

 

[billmac91]

An interesting foot note in all of this to me, is the fact that a lot of these MLB guys do off-season workouts on college campuses. It is a little scary to think A-Rod was approached by a reporter in the Miami workout facility about using roids'.

Obviously kids can find PED's pretty readily I would imagine. It's still bad that A-Rod admittedly took roids' for at least 3 years, is the best baseball player in the world, and is sharing equipment with easily influenced 18-22 year olds who want to play pro ball.

Which leads me to this...what is the current NCAA policy on PED's?? And what percentage of college atheltes do you think use HGH, which is still laregly untraceable I believe. Maybe that deserves its own thread...

 

[BuckeyeNation27]

That fucking Sammy Sosa.... I fucking hate that prick... look what he made A-Rod do.... Sosa should be molested by cows.

OK, so he's a liar and a cheat.... fucker can still hit, and he's on my fantasy team! :p

In any case, he's come clean now.... thus, he's removed the taint of his lie. (I just wanted to say taint)

Oh.... fuck Sammy fucking Sosa.

He said he doesn't even know what he took that caused the positive test....so he's still lying.

 

[Dryden]

I knew it all along. That bitch slap of Bronson Arroyo? Total 'roid rage!

 

[Steve19]

What I'm saying is, hate A-Rod all you want... hate Bonds.. whoever... but if you want to BLAME someone... blame Bud Selig.

I think we need look no further than Columbus, Ohio. That's right, since he died in December, I have no qualms about mentioning the former Columbus Jet (Pirates, Yankee, Rangers, and Mets) pitcher, Dock Ellis.

By the time that Bowie Kuhn wrote him, ordering that he desist from wearing curlers [now part of the Shrine of Eternals collection (link)] on the field as part of his "superfly" hairdo, the damage already was done to baseball.

Had Ellis not thrown a no-hitter in San Diego, while on an LSD trip (link), and made it to a start in the All-Star game the same way, who knows if drugs would not have overtaken the game.

There's nothing new about drugs in baseball, but I guess some folks just used to use them to give the batter a chance.

 

[Buckeyeskickbuttocks]

I'm not a scientist, doctor, pharmacist, etc... But I "believe" steroids have negative health effects. My belief, whether correct or not, is shared by many, including I assume, baseball players.

Players should not have to decide between health and career to compete on an even playing field. These cheaters forced this decision upon many.

Huh..... that's kinda exactly what A-Rod said. The decision to juice was "forced" on him.....

Anyway, I wasn't suggesting steroids were healthy.... I was suggesting you're not actually interested in the health of baseball players in the same way you're interested in competition (which was your other term).

What BB73 says makes sense, "If the majority of the MLBPA were clean, they should demand that everybody is subjected to mandatory testing on a monthly basis year-round. That would eliminate most of the cheaters, and allow the guy that can hit 30 to 40 while clean to get the "big slugger" contract to which he's entitled." and I certainly wouldn't demand we get roided out hulks back in to the game. But, at the same time, I'm not gonna freak out about another player testing positive... especially when he tested + 6 years ago... and especially since there was no penalty in place for testing + at the time.

That's BASEBALL's problem, not A-Rod's. I've laughed off Canseco several times, but his Selig - Fehrer conspiracy is starting to make a lot more sense to me.

 

[BB73]

He said he doesn't even know what he took that caused the positive test....so he's still lying.

Yeah, he said "I took a banned substance", but then later acts like he didn't know what he took. If you don't know what you took, A-Rod, how do you know it was a banned substance? During the interview, Gammons should have probed more deeply about what substance A-Rod was admitting to taking.