MLB: 10 questions A-Rod needs to answer
By A.J. PEREZ
USA TODAY
New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez is expected to address reporters Tuesday afternoon at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa. USA TODAY's A.J. Perez examines 10 questions that haven't been answered since Rodriguez admitted to using a banned substance between 2001and 2003 in an ESPN interview last week.
Question: Why did you not know what was being put into your body?
Answer:
Rodriguez said he was "not sure exactly what substance" he used. That's unusual for an elite athlete, most of whom are highly conscious about everything they put into their bodies.
Q: Would you be relieved if the other players who tested positive in 2003 were revealed?
A: Rodriguez was among 104 positive tests for steroids during survey testing of 2003. Others could be leaked or revealed in court documents.
Q: Who supplied the banned substance to you?
A: Rodriguez mentioned the health food chain GNC a handful of times during his interview last week. But the anabolic steroid Sports Illustrated reported that he tested positive for, Primobolan, is an expensive compound that's never been legal either as a supplement or even a prescription drug in the United States.
Q: How did the banned substance really affect you?
A: Rodriguez previously said an "incident" in Surprise, Ariz., during spring training in 2003 made him realize he needed to stop using the substance. He didn't specifically say how it harmed or helped him.
Q: What did you learn from the way Andy Pettitte handled steroids issues as opposed to Roger Clemens?
A: Pettitte came clean about his use of HGH the same time last year in a news conference, and the Yankees hurler has been texting A-Rod in recent days. Clemens still denies using performance-enhancing drugs, drawing the ire of much of the public and spawning a grand jury that's looking into whether he perjured himself in front of Congress.
Q: Would you have confessed had your positive test never became public?
A: Former major leaguers Jose Canseco and the late Ken Caminiti admitted to using steroids before any hard evidence linked them to it. They are the exception, not the rule. Others, like Pettitte, came forward only after news broke about their use of performance-enhancing drugs.
Q: Do you expect to get booed?
A: Barry Bonds, baseball's all-time home run champ, was always welcome in San Francisco even as steroid allegations swirled around him. That may not the case with Rodriguez. The New York tabloids have hammered A-Rod even before he was linked to steroids, and fans have grown impatient with his playoff failings. And that says nothing about how he may be received on the road.
Q: Had you not signed with the Rangers, do you think you would have turned to performance-enhancing drugs?
A: After Rodriguez arrived from Seattle, he joined a roster that included Rafael Palmeiro, Randy Velarde and Caminiti — players who appeared in the Mitchell Report. Rodriguez said, "It wasn't until then that I ever thought about a substance of any kind."
Q: Given your explanation that the pressure of producing in Texas led to using a banned substance, why would people believe you didn't use them when you joined the Yankees and entered perhaps the most pressure-packed environment in baseball?
A: Rodriguez said he felt "an enormous amount of pressure" and turned to the banned substance after he signed the richest contract in professional sports history. But he's still baseball's highest paid player — his current $275 million pact trumps the $252 million deal he signed with Texas — and has been playing in the fishbowl of New York since 2004.
Q: Do you feel you have become the face of steroid use in baseball the way Bonds was? If so, is it fair that you carry that burden?
A: Many of the big names that were linked to steroids use in the Mitchell Report or elsewhere — Mark McGwire, Palmeiro — have retired; Bonds is a free agent. There are only a handful still left in the game, but Rodriguez, a three-time MVP, now moves atop that list.