A-Roid

Thanks for showing up A-Rod, you pear-shaped loser. Rodriguez, of course, had his highly-anticipated news conference this afternoon, in which he came clean about his steroid use. In attendance to show support were a handful of teammates, including Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada and fellow drug user Andrew Pettitte. Former manager Joe Torre was unable to attend.

A-Rod’s admission was touching to say the least — he almost broke down in tears when telling his teammates how much he loved them — but isn’t likely to draw much support from the baseball world, much of which hates him already, because it contradicted what he told ESPN’s Peter Gammons in an interview last Monday. Last week he told Gammons he didn’t know what he was taking and that he wasn’t aware he’d tested positive — this afternoon he identified the drug as “Boli” and that he’d been told by Gene Orza that he may have failed the test in 2003. Also, am I the only one wanting to find out more about this mysterious cousin that he throws under the bus? I haven’t been this intrigued about an unseen supporting character since Wilson from Home Improvement.

The most telling part of the press conference, though, was Rodriguez’s response to the question “Do you think you cheated?” — “That’s not for me to determine.” Then again, that’s not a surprising answer from a guy that repeatedly called himself ignorant and immature in defence of his steroid use.