Alex Rodriguez Holds First Press Conference Admitting Steroid Use

by Jarrett Martineau | February 17, 2009 at 11:24 am

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An ashamed Alex Rodriguez, one of the highest paid baseball players of all time, former Madonna love interest, and legendary New York Yankee, held his first press conference on Tuesday since admitting that he took steroids while playing for the Texas Rangers.

In a teary eyed confessional, 'A-Roid' made it known that he had taken performance enhancing drugs - by injection - from 2001 to 2003.

He stated that the banned substance was called "bole" and was acquired by his cousin in the Dominican Republic.

Rodriguez did not name the individual family member in question.

He stated that he was "young and curious" and admitted that it was a mistake. He acknowledged, after his neck injury that he was "being silly and irresponsible" and he "decided to stop". Rodriguez indicated that he is no longer taking any such drugs.

With respect to allegations that Rodriguez has "shamed the game", he failed to acknowledge or admit to this accusation, although he did apologize for his actions.

Rodriguez was also unable to answer questions regarding what impact the drugs had on his performance.

Asked what benefit he felt from the steroid, he said, "I'm not sure what the benefit was.... I certainly felt more energy, but it's hard to say."

He indicated that he wants "to get back to playing baseball" and asked the American people to "judge me from this day forward".

As of 02:18pm PST, the press conference is continuing live on CNN and it is being streamed live online via ESPN

Follow the real-time discussions of "A-Rod" on Twitter.

Alex Rodriguez will hold a news conference today at 1:30 p.m. EST at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Fla. A-Rod is due to appear under the tent behind the third-base stands to address his admission last week that he used banned drugs.
The Yankees still didn't know how many specifics of his drug use Rodriguez planned to divulge. "I don't think it's necessary in my eyes that he answer every detail," manager Joe Girardi said Monday.