Update: Alex Rodriguez answered questions (with no follow-up questions allowed, might I add) for 26 minutes. Before fielding questions, A-Rod read a statement, proclaiming he made a "stupid mistake" and telling the gathering that his cousin told him about an over-the-counter drug with a street name of "Bole," which he took twice a month for six-month periods in 2001, 2002 and 2003. He said he and his cousin "didn't know what we were doing," and that he stopped taking the drug in 2003 because of a scare he had with a neck injury and also because of baseball's new drug policy.

My thoughts? This was a well-orchestrated sham. First, his admission that he took "Bole" is not an admission at all. Do a google search for "Bole" and "steroids" and one learns Bole is urban slang for using steroids. So, we still have no idea what on earth A-Rod took (though speculation is that "bole" is Primobolan).

A-Rod kept going back to the fact that he was "young and stupid," but never went as far as calling what he did cheating. "It really was amateur hour," A-Rod said. "We probably didn't take it right." Again, it's as if he wants us to believe that this substance he took while he was young and naive had no effect on his game and that we should move on from this silly misunderstanding.

One of the best questions asked of A-Rod was when a reporter wanted to know how an athlete who monitors what he puts in his body very closely wouldn't know what it was he was putting in his body. A-Rod didn't really have an answer for this, except, like an athlete trained by a top-notch PR firm, to go back to saying he was young.

Then came maybe the best question of the afternoon, when A-Rod's own words were used against him. Rodriguez was asked if he didn't think he was doing anything wrong, then why was he so secretive about the process in the first place? After a long pause, A-Rod responded by saying, "good question." Then, he carefully admitted that he knew what he and his cousin were doing could be wrong. (Huh?)

The whole thing came off like a prepared PR circus. A-Rod showed only fake remorse (when giving his opening statement, he took a long, dramatic pause as if he was choking up before thanking his teammates for supporting him). When asked why he told Peter Gammons a week ago that he didn't know what substance he took but today was able to reveal details of his use, A-Rod eagerly answered that he "didn't want to speak from a position of non-factual" and that he "didn't really remember" at the time, the speed at which he answered making him look like a student who studied very hard for a test and wanted to prove he knew the correct answer to this question.

A-Rod even went as far as to claim his best years were before and after he used "bole," the drug which, as I said earlier, really could be any drug (again, how convenient). He even tried to play the sympathy card!

The news conference ended with A-Rod asking to be "judged from this day forward." Really? After this scripted performance, I don't buy a word this guy says. At least that's my judgement.


From earlier today ...


All eyes are on A-Rod's big spring training news conference today. What exactly
will this spectacle yield? While it's his first news conference since admitting to using steroids while with the Texas Rangers, will A-Rod really be truthful when answering question after question from the New York and national media? There's a great read in the Star-Ledger that says ... well ... probably not.


Meanwhile ... ho-hum ... the Mets (yeah, remember them?) are also doing that whole spring training thing. And -- gasp! -- the discussions in Port St. Lucie revolve around (drum roll please ...) baseball! You know, things like the pitching rotation and where Jose Reyes and David Wright will bat in the lineup this season.

Personally, I'm sick of the circus that is the Yankees. (Full disclosure: yes, I am a Mets fan.) Seriously. I'm ready to talk baseball, and it seems the only place a New York baseball fan can do that these days is in Port St. Lucie, not Tampa.