TAMPA – Insisting he has never used performance-enhancing drugs, Derek Jeter is miffed at those who suggest all players have or are using during the “Steroid Era.”
And the Yankees captain is disappointed at the players – including Alex Rodriguez – who have tainted baseball’s image by using PEDs.
“One thing that irritates and upsets me a lot is when you hear everybody say it was the ‘Steroid Era’ and everybody is doing it and that’s not true,” Jeter said yesterday after the first full-squad Yankees workout at George M. Steinbrenner Field.
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“Everybody wasn’t doing it. Everybody is making a big deal of the list, 104 players. How many players are in the major leagues? (There are 1,200 on 40-man rosters). Everybody wasn’t doing it. That’s the thing that is irritating. It sends the wrong message to the fans and the kids that everybody is doing it and that’s not the truth. I understand there are a lot of big-name players who allegedly have done this and done that, but everybody wasn’t doing it.”
With Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds seriously linked to steroids, Rodriguez admitting it and the 2007 Mitchell Report, baseball’s biggest names have been smothered by the toxic topic.
Jeter has played with Clemens and Rodriguez, and the Mitchell Report was loaded with former Jeter teammates. Together they are the reasons for the “Steroid Era.”
“Disappointed is the best way to put it,” Jeter said. “It really has given the game a bad name.”
Asked specifically if he was disappointed that Rodriguez used steroids from 2001 to 2003, Jeter admitted he was.
“Everyone is disappointed, he is disappointed in himself,” Jeter said of his morning partner in a game of catch. “That was one of the things he stressed yesterday. Every one is disappointed. We are going to support him and get him through it. People make mistakes and you move on from those mistakes, but I would say everybody is disappointed.”
Jeter pointed at Rodriguez shorting himself when asked if he believed Rodriguez was a cheater.
“I think he cheated himself,” Jeter said.
Jeter said last week he had nothing to worry about in regard to his name being among the players who failed survey drug tests in 2003. Yesterday, Jeter reinforced that he is clean.
“I never took performance enhancers and never took steroids,” Jeter said.
One day after raising more questions than he answered at a press conference, Rodriguez zipped his lips yesterday.
“I will talk [today],” Rodriguez said on the way out of the clubhouse.
Though Rodriguez understands he will be required to talk about steroids across the season, Jeter said yesterday was the final time he would address the issue.
Watching other players hit 500-foot homers or hike their velocity from 88 to 95 mph gave Jeter an indication there was more going on in baseball than intense weight training.
“I would be lying if I said I never said this guy or that guy was doing that,” Jeter said. “Sometimes after a long home run, you would say it jokingly, not that it was a joking matter.”
Jeter had a front-row seat for Rodriguez’s Tuesday press conference and said Rodriguez was believable.
“I believed him,” Jeter said. “I always give people the benefit of the doubt. He spoke about and gave details he didn’t have to share.”