Alex Rodriguez didn’t need to use performance-enhancing drugs, and he knows it.
Major League Baseball suspended the former New York Yankees slugger for 211 games in 2013 for his ties to the Biogenesis clinic, but the suspension was reduced to 162 games — the entire 2014 season — after an expensive arbitration process.
Rodriguez, who was one of the most talented shortstops in the game long before he became the Yankees’ third baseman, opened up about his PED use on an episode of “Undeniable with Joe Buck.” And he gave a pretty sorry excuse for his actions.
“Obviously, it wasn’t (about) performance,” Rodriguez told Buck. “I had (seven) home runs (in 2013). I was awful, right? After having two hip surgeries, I just wanted to get back on the field and give the Yankees their money’s worth.
“I just needed to do anything … It was my responsibility to the fan base, to management, to ownership to get out there and play. I was in too much pain. I couldn’t play. That doesn’t give you an excuse to break the rules.”
That sounds like a 16-year-old saying he cheated on a test because he didn’t want to let his parents down. Give us a break.
But the former slugger, who hit 696 career home runs, knows it was a stupid decision.
“There’s so many frustrating things when you look back at that,” Rodriguez said. “Number one, you have a guaranteed contract for hundreds of millions of dollars. Literally, you can sit on the couch and get fat. How stupid can you be? … This thing cost me over $40 million, cost me my reputation, and it may have cost me the Hall of Fame and a number of other things
“I remember sitting there at night, at four or five o’clock in the morning — I probably did this 100 times — and I would look up with tears and say, ‘How the f— did I get myself in this position?’ I’m the only jackass that has pocket aces and figures out a way to lose the hand.
At least you got one thing right, Alex.
Thumbnail photo via Butch Dill/USA TODAY Sports Images
