THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK &ndash Alex Rodriguez admitted Monday to using banned drugs, the biggest name yet to acknowledge he couldn't resist the temptation to juice up during baseball's Steroids Era.
The All-Star third baseman said in an interview with ESPN that he used steroids with the Texas Rangers for three years, from 2001-03, in an attempt to justify his status as the game's highest-paid player after signing a 10-year, $252 million contract.
"Back then it was a different culture," Rodriguez said. "It was very loose. I was young. I was stupid. I was naive, and I wanted to prove to everyone that, you know, I was worth, you know - and being one of the greatest players of all time."
He said he quit after 2003, his first of three AL MVP seasons, because "I've proved to myself and to everyone that I don't need any of that." He was traded to the New York Yankees before the 2004 season.
The admission came two days after Sports Illustrated reported on its Web site that Rodriguez was among 104 names on a list of players who tested positive for steroids in 2003, when testing was intended to determine the extent of steroid use in baseball. The results weren't subject to discipline and were supposed to remain anonymous.
Rodriguez said he alone was to blame but then accused one of the Sports Illustrated reporters who broke the story of collecting "nonsense."
"When I arrived in Texas in 2001, I felt an enormous amount of pressure. I felt like I had all the weight of the world on top of me and I needed to perform, and perform at a high level every day," Rodriguez said.
"And I did take a banned substance, and, you know, for that I'm very sorry and deeply regretful. And although it was the culture back then and Major League Baseball overall was very - I just feel that - You know, I'm just sorry. I'm sorry for that time. I'm sorry to fans. I'm sorry for my fans in Texas. It wasn't until then that I ever thought about substance of any kind."
Rangers owner Tom Hicks said the admission caught him by surprise.
"I feel personally betrayed. I feel deceived by Alex," Hicks said in a conference call. "He assured me that he had far too much respect for his own body to ever do that to himself. … I certainly don't believe that if he's now admitting that he started using when he came to the Texas Rangers, why should I believe that it didn't start before he came to the Texas Rangers?"
During those three seasons, Rodriguez averaged 161.7 games, 52 homers, 131.7 RBIs and a .615 slugging percentage. In the other 10 full seasons of his career, he averaged 149.2 games, 39.2 homers, 119 RBIs and a .574 slugging percentage, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
"This is three years I'm not proud of," Rodriguez said.
The 33-year-old Rodriguez ranks 12th on the career list with 553 homers, including 52, 57 and 47 in his three seasons with the Rangers. He is 209 behind Barry Bonds' record 762.
Now, though, he's on top of another - the highest-profile player to confess to doping. Yankees teammates Jason Giambi and Andy Pettitte and former MVPs Ken Caminiti and Jose Canseco admitted to steroid use earlier.
