Putting aside criticism of the bizarre sports-world obsession with "purity," there's another angle to the Alex Rodriguez steroids "scandal." As I previously remarked:
(whoever they may be) told him to say. But why did they tell him to
admit to only those three years? He confessed to a lot, but won't even
gain credibility points because of the way he did it. So either he
should have said that he also took steroids before those three years in
Texas, or he should have just said "I took steroids; the report of a
positive test is accurate. I apologize to my fans" and left it at
that. I just think this is fascinating. Alex Rodriguez admitted much
more misconduct than any other professional athlete ever has, and yet
he's being attacked by columnists (who have praised those other
athletes for their own forced, incomplete disclosures) for not being
forthcoming enough. He admitted to more than the reporters had
evidence of in order to make his story believable, and as a result no
one believes his story. How does this happen?
Well, new reports indicate that A-Rod used performance enhancing drugs while in high school and while with the Yankees, i.e., both before and after the three years with the Texas Rangers that he admitted.
The moral of the story? Tell the truth.
Okay, just kidding. The real moral of the story is that if you're going to lie, lie well. No one is going to believe that you only used steroids in Dallas for three years in response to the pressure from the $252 million contract you juts signed, but did not use steroids in response to the greater pressure of (1) trying to get drafted (high school), (2) trying to make it in the big leagues (Seattle), (3) trying to get a quarter-billion dollar contract (late Seattle), or (4) playing for the most scrutinized team in the U.S. (New York Yankees). Further, even if people were inclined to believe your preposterous lies in the absence of proof, given that this was such a big story and people already found some evidence which prompted your first big confession, it's pretty likely that people are going to find more evidence about other times you used PEDs.
In sum: First, make it believable. Second, don't lie about something that is naturally going to be disproved.
Accidental Blogger 
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