The Catalyst

By Lindsay Hyde, Reporter

Alex Rodriguez, one of the best players in baseball history, is now on record that he used performance enhancing drugs. On Monday Rodriguez admitted to taking an illegal substance from 2001 to 2003. In an interview with ESPN’s Peter Gammons, he said that he was tested positive for two illegal performance enhancing drugs in 2003. “When I arrived in Texas in 2001, I felt an enormous amount of pressure. I felt like I had all of the weight of the world on top of me," Rodriguez told Gammons. "And I needed to perform, and perform at a high level every day. Back then, it was a different culture. It was very loose. I was young. I was stupid. I was naive. And I wanted to prove to everyone that I was worth being ... one of the greatest players of all time. I did take a banned substance, and for that, I'm very sorry, and deeply regretful." Rodriguez danced around Gammons' questions concerning what he took, who helped him get the drugs and whether he even knew that he had failed his 2003 test. Rodriguez stopped using the substances, he said, after suffering a neck injury in spring training of 2003 that sidelined him for a few weeks. "It was at that point, in bed, that I realized, 'What am I doing? Not only am I going to hurt my baseball career, but I'm going to hurt my post-career,'" Rodriguez said. "It was time to grow up, stop being selfish, stop being stupid and take control for whatever you're ingesting." Rodriguez expressed confidence that fans would forgive him for his transgression.