It is interesting what is remembered as time pushes events further and further away.
On March 4, 1933, Franklin Roosevelt delivered his first inaugural address. It was 1,880 words, but 1,870 have been mainly lost to time and we recall just 10 that, strangely, neither began nor ended a sentence:
“… the only thing we have to fear is fear itself …”
Rodriguez’s words, obviously, were not as meaningful or
poetic. He was not trying to inspire a country during the Great Depression, merely attempting to save as much of his reputation as possible when he held a press conference at the Yankees’ spring training complex more than four years ago.
His words about judging him from this day forward concluded a give-and-take that lasted 28 minutes, 30 seconds. And they have been invoked quite a lot recently as a tsk-tsk to A-Rod, if indeed he became a serial user of banned substances again as MLB is claiming in its Biogenesis-related suspension of Rodriguez.
But I went back and watched the other 28-plus minutes, the stuff generally lost to time. And, in many ways, Rodriguez damages the credibility of his story today with his own actions and words then.
Just a quick refresher: In December 2007, Rodriguez told Katie Couric on “60 Minutes” that he never had used illegal performance enhancers and was not even tempted to do so. Just more than a year later, Selena Roberts revealed in Sports Illustrated that Rodriguez had failed a test for two anabolic steroids in 2003 in what was then just survey testing to determine the extent of MLB’s PED problem.
In a Feb. 9 interview with ESPN, he attacked the credibility of the reporter, among other items claiming Roberts was stalking him. He eventually recanted on that. In that ESPN interview he also admitted the steroid use, but said he didn’t know the names of the drugs he was taking. Eight days later, at the big press conference in Tampa, he did. Notice how his story changes with time, new information and the need to spin further.
But the bigger issues that arise from the press conference go beyond admitting taking what he called “boli” — slang for the steroid Primobolan.
Rodriguez had a different army of lawyers and p.r. handlers then — the firm Outside Eyes was offering just the right words in 2009 to explain what A-Rod claimed was just steroid use from 2001-03. The alibi he returns to over and over is being stupid due to youth and immaturity.
He tried to excuse himself by noting he was 23, 24 and 25. But even that was a dodge. Rodriguez finished those seasons at ages 26-28. It is believed he failed his drug test in spring 2003, when he was 27, the same age, for example, Evan Longoria, Chris Davis and Phil Hughes are right now.
Rodriguez depicted himself at that press conference as someone who had the naivete knocked out of him with these revelations and his need for public contrition. So exactly how will the matured version of Rodriguez explain if he indeed used from at least 2010-12, as MLB contends it has evidence to verify — a period when he finished seasons at ages 35-37?
Then there was this: A-Rod at that press conference — using the young/dumb excuse — said he had his non-doctor gofer cousin, Yuri Sucart, inject him with drugs that Rodriguez claims he wasn’t even sure were working, yet he nevertheless took twice a month during the baseball seasons from 2001-03.
It led me to ask this at the press conference: “Alex, if I understand the story you’re telling today, it’s that you didn’t know what it did, you weren’t sure you were administering it right, and you’re not sure what the effects were, if it was having a positive effect. But you said you took it two times a month for three years. Basic math would make that 36 times. Why would someone inject something into their body a minimum of 36 times, who is a professional athlete, wants to have a long career, if you don’t know what it does, if you’re doing it right? I just wonder if you could explain that?”
Rodriguez initially tried to answer by talking about the math, that maybe it wasn’t twice a month. I interjected to say I was more curious about why a player who treated his body like a temple would expect people to believe that he would have that level of disinterest in who was injecting him, what it was, etc.
Once more he returned to the script, “Yeah, again, it goes back to being young, and being curious …” But not so curious to know more about how the drugs worked and if they were working.
Here is the thing: I would find it hard to believe that any player in any sport educates himself on nutrition and workout regimens and tries to stay on the cutting edge more than Rodriguez. He is obsessed with the subject.
As an example, he went to Germany to have the creator of the orthokine knee surgery actually do his procedure in December 2011.
Are we to believe now that a player who will spare no expense to be on the cutting edge, actually sought out a non-doctor named Tony Bosch, operating out of a strip mall in Miami, for non-steroidal nutrition advice for year upon year upon year?
That is not what Bosch has told MLB. It is not what the evidence he has supplied indicates. No, that evidence, from what I have heard, reveals rather detailed back-and-forth communications that show a sophisticated use of PEDs designed not only to boost performance, but timed just so to provide negative urine samples.
If this is all true, young and dumb left long ago, and Rodriguez is going to have a lot more to fear than fear itself.