New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez says he wants kids to learn from his mistake.
The all-star third baseman recently admitted to taking steroids between 2001 and 2003 and says it is the biggest regret he has in his life.
A-Rod says he was young stupid and naïve and that he wanted to prove he was worth the biggest contract in sports history.
"When I arrived in Texas in 2001, I felt an enormous amount of pressure, I felt that I had all the weight of the world on top of me to perform, and perform at a high level every day," Rodriguez told ESPN reporter Peter Gammons.
"Overall, I felt a tremendous pressure to play, and play really well. I had just signed this enormous contract [and] I felt like I needed something, a push, without over-investigating what I was taking, to get me to the next level."
Rodriguez is the youngest player in history to reach 500 homeruns and is widely considered the best player in the Major League Baseball. Many people hoped he would eventually pass Barry Bonds on the all-time homeruns list. This is because Bonds is believed to have used steroids in his career and Rodriguez could prove the record could be broken naturally. That will never happen now.
“This is no one [else's] fault,” Rodriguez says. "It's my fault. I'm deeply sorry for it.”
A-Rod says he hasn’t taken steroids since 2003 and that he has never played better since stopping.
“I have never played better since,” says A-Rod. “I have won two MVP’s since.”
Rodriguez says he hopes his admission of steroid use and apology will help finally clean up a game plagued by drug use.
“The more honest we can be the sooner we can get baseball back to where it needs to be.”
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