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A-Rod Will Speak To Media About Drug Use

Associated Press file photo

Rodriguez told ESPN he had used banned substances from 2001 to 2003 while playing for Texas.

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The Associated Press

Published: February 17, 2009

Updated: 02/17/2009 05:00 am

TAMPA - Alex Rodriguez will have a thick pinstriped wall of New York Yankees looking on during his news conference today, with teammates coalescing around A-Rod following his admission that he used banned drugs.

The Yankees still didn't know how many specifics of his drug use Rodriguez planned to divulge when he speaks in the tent behind the third-base stands at Steinbrenner Field.

"I don't think it's necessary in my eyes that he answer every detail," Manager Joe Girardi said Monday.

While Andy Pettitte spoke from the heart during his news conference a year ago admitting use of human growth hormone, the image-conscious Rodriguez appears to be formulating his strategy surrounded by an entourage large enough to fill a television series.

Even before Sports Illustrated reported on its Web site Feb. 7 that Rodriguez tested positive for a pair of steroids during baseball's anonymous survey in 2003, Team A-Rod included agent Scott Boras and his staff, manager Guy Oseary and the William Morris Agency.

He has retained James E. Sharp, a lawyer who represented Pettitte and Sammy Sosa before Congress and then-President George W. Bush in front of a federal prosecutor. Rodriguez also brought in Outside Eyes, a media strategy and crisis management company based in Newport Beach, Calif., that includes communications specialists from Republican campaigns.

Girardi planned to speak with Rodriguez before the event "just to look him in the eyes and see how he's doing."

Ortiz Favors Yearlong Ban

FORT MYERS - David Ortiz wants players who test positive for steroids to be suspended from baseball for a year instead of the current 50-game penalty.

Taking players to court, though, for cases involving use of the substances before players were subject to penalty is not the way to clean up the game, the Red Sox designated hitter said Monday.

"I would suggest everybody get tested, not random, everybody," he said. "You go team by team. You test everybody three, four times a year and that's about it."

And if a player tests positive for steroids?

"Ban 'em for the whole year," the slugger said.

The current penalties are a 50-game suspension for a player who tests positive once, 100 games for a second positive test for the same player, and a lifetime ban for a third positive test.

"I think you clean up the game by the testing," Ortiz said Monday. "I know that if I test positive by using any kind of substance, I know that I'm going to disrespect my family, the game, the fans and everybody, and I don't want to be facing that situation."

WBC: St. Louis slugger Albert Pujols says he will not play for the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic because of insurance issues.

Pujols, who hit .357 with 37 home runs and 116 RBIs for the Cardinals, says he regrets not being able to represent his native country in this year's WBC.

ASTROS: Left-hander Mike Hampton is returning to Houston to get treatment for an irregular heartbeat.

Hampton, a former Crystal River High star, was to be examined by team physician Jim Muntz before undergoing a procedure to correct the heartbeat with an electrical current.

NATIONALS: Left-hander Odalis Perez missed the team's first official workout for pitchers and catchers at spring training, reportedly because he isn't happy with his contract.

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