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Shadow Of A Doubt Shadow Of A Doubt

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By JOE HENDERSON

jhenderson@tampatrib.com

Published: February 18, 2009

TAMPA - The foremost of many curiosities in the Alex Rodriguez mea culpa Tuesday is his assertion that his cousin made him do it. Let's explore that for a moment, shall we?

During a nearly 40-minute news conference at Steinbrenner Field, the first Rodriguez has spoken in such a setting since admitting to steroid use, he said he used a drug called "boli" - perhaps the anabolic steroid Primobolan - that a cousin obtained over the counter for him from the Dominican Republic.

A-Rod described boli as an over-the-counter substance designed to boost energy and that he received injections of the drug maybe three dozen times from 2001 to 2003. He said he didn't know it was a steroid, although he admitted, "I knew we weren't taking Tic Tacs."

First off, I don't know of any drug you can take by injection without a prescription, let alone one brought in from the Dominican in violation of who knows how many laws. Rodriguez sought to explain it all away by admitting to being "young and stupid." He was 25 years old when some of those injections took place - not so young.

He has earned this kind of cynicism, if not interaction with the feds on par with Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens. I don't say that because he got caught and tried to exercise damage control. I say that because he still dodged and weaved.

He was asked if the steroids tainted his records. He dodged the question.

He was asked if steroid use was cheating. He wouldn't say.

He did apologize, which puts him ahead of Bonds, Clemens and Mark McGwire. But you were left thinking that he is only sorry he got caught. Someone asked if he would have admitted to steroid use if Sports Illustrated hadn't reported his positive test. He said he hadn't thought about it.

That's a crock. Little more than a year ago, Katie Couric asked him point-blank if he had ever used steroids. He said no. He would have kept saying no until there was no other choice.

He is correct when he says there was a culture of casual steroid use in baseball dating to the late 1990s. The fact that Rodriguez was one of 104 positive tests for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003 speaks loudly to that fact. Players of that era either used drugs, or considered it, or at least had the opportunity to.

The big issue isn't whether A-Rod did something many other players did. The continued deception is the problem. Just, please, a little honesty and straight talk.

He hit 91 home runs and drove in 395 runs for the three years in question. He was the American League MVP in 2003. Wouldn't it have been refreshing to hear one of these guys say, "No doubt the drugs helped me. I knew I was cheating but I did it anyway. I took the risk because of money. Here, take my MVP trophy back. I earned it under false pretenses."

Maybe his cousin can talk him into it. He seems to have a lot of influence.

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