February 10, 2009
12-7-07 60 Minutes interview denying it
2-9-09 Interview with Peter Gammons (text)
2-9-09 Interview with Gammons (video)
2-9-09 Calls SI writer a liar
2-17-09 Press conference (text)
2-17-09 Press conference (video)
This is Aroid's 12-17-2007 60 Minutes interview with Katie Couric where he denies unequivocally that he DID NOT use any performance-enhancing drugs. Couric didn't mention specifically amphetamines so he should be able to say it depends on what the meaning of is is. Aroid's *tell* are his lips, left cheek and his voice. He is not much of a blinker, which shows he is a pretty accomplished liar (as far as this) and has justified it in his mind that he has done nothing wrong. He has had plenty of years to do so and hundreds of millions of dollars as incentive to lie.
His denial is the first part. Following that is the transcript of the rest of the interview and videos of his batting cage and his trophy room. He showed her that knowing he cheated to get them.
CBS
KATIE COURIC: For the record, have you ever used steroids, human growth hormone or any other performance-enhancing substance?
AROID: No.
LIE
COURIC: Have you ever been tempted to use any of those things?
AROID: No.
LIE.
COURIC: You never felt like, 'This guy's doing it, maybe I should look into this, too? He's getting better numbers, playing better ball'.
AROID: I've never felt overmatched on the baseball field. I've always been in a very strong, dominant position. And I felt that if I did my work as I've done since I was, you know, a rookie back in Seattle, I didn't have a problem competing at any level. So, uh, no.
LIE. He did more than his work - he cheated.
COURIC: What is your reaction to this investigation?
AROID: Katie, you're putting me in a tough spot. I mean, these are guys that I play with. They're my teammates. If anything comes of this, I will be extremely disappointed. And it will be a huge black eye on the game of baseball.
HE is the black eye on the game of baseball. HE has disappointed his teammates, the game of baseball and the world. He was in a tought spot because he had to keep lying.
COURIC: It sounds like this is rampant. According to the Mitchell Report, every single club has a player using banned substances. Did you ever witness or hear about or even suspect this was going on?
AROID: You hear a lot of things. I mean, I came in 1993. And you heard whispers from the '80s and '90s. But I never saw anything. I never had raw evidence. And, quite frankly, I was probably a little bit too naïve when I first came up to understand the magnitude of all this.
The emphasis on *first* was his. It is what he is now using as the basis of his apology and excuse - he had it thought out even then. He is beyond a liar and a cheater - he is a pre-meditated liar about his cheating. All he had to do is look in the mirror.
COURIC: Given this controversy, Alex, who do you think has the real homerun record? Barry Bonds at 762 or Hank Aaron 755?
AROID: Well, I think Barry Bonds. He has 762.
Of course he is going to say that - it involves him - his records. Which in my opinion should be wiped out for the years he admits to using steroids. The years he used to extort his money.
COURIC: But, he has an asterisk next to his name.
AROID: Does he? Not yet.
Funny he used *yet*. I remember hearing this the first time I watched him say this and I was hoping Couric would have pressed him on it. Derek Lee also said the same thing. The players all know who is cheating and who isn't. And now that Aroid has admitted to it it will allow them to come forward - especially the ones whose jobs (and money) he took. It explains why Jeter was not moved from shortstop.
COURIC: In the minds of many, he does.
AROID: The federal government is going to make its decision on that. Barry's been a phenomenal player. And I've really enjoyed watching him play. But, he's innocent 'til proven guilty.
Again, he is speaking for himself. And he thought he would be able to slip by until he was found guilty.
FOLLOW LINK ABOVE TO SEE VIDEOS THAT DON'T EMBED HERE
He was asked why he thinks he gets so much grief over his salary.
AROID: Cuz I make a lot of money.
Based on cheating - that is what they are mad about. Money the ones who haven't cheated deserved and didn't get. The money fans had to play to get into the park.
COURIC: Your new contract is worth $300 million-plus. Are you worth it? Is any player worth that kind of salary?
AROID: I'm not sure. I mean, that's not my job to evaluate or appraise players. I love to play baseball.
But the game that got Alex Rodriguez the most attention this past season was one he wasn't even in. It was the fourth game of the World Series and the Red Sox were about to sweep the Colorado Rockies, when the announcer suddenly broke away from the game, saying that Rodriguez had decided to opt out of his Yankees contract. Opt-out, meaning he was leaving to become a free agent. That announcement upstaged one of the biggest nights in baseball.
COURIC: Can you understand why so many people found that so incredibly offensive?
AROID: Absolutely. A hundred percent. If I was a sports writer, if I was a fan, I would have been very, very upset. I was angry and upset. Shocked -- disbelief. I mean, I'm sitting in my living room.
COURIC: You were watching the game?
AROID: Yes. And that was very, very difficult.
What about the players he again upstaged? He knew what was going on or at least that it might happen. What more publicity could he have gotten?
COURIC: What did you do when you heard it?
AROID: Nightmare -- you know, I got white like a ghost. I just couldn't believe my eyes. I was under the impression that it would come out a day or two after the World Series concluded. And I would never do anything to harm the game [this is laughable]… to the Red Sox and the Rockies, my deepest apologies, and to all of Major League Baseball.
COURIC: You got hammered by the press. A number of respected sports writers called you, among other things, 'A gold plated phony.' 'Pay-Rod in Pinstripes.' They say you upstaged more World Series games than you actually played in. Were you surprised at the level of vitriol that came your way?
You want to know who uses steroids - look at their post season records - if they have any. Soriano is 0 for the post season as in no hits...not that I am saying he uses anything...I just find it curious - and disgusting - that he comes to the Cuns and makes this huge salary and then spends most of the time on the DL and sucks in the outfield and never gets on base and therefore cannot use this speed I've never seen evidence of. In othe words, since he got his deal, which cannot be broken, he has sucked. I haven't calculated how much he gets for each at bat but he doesn't even run to first base half the time and he stands at the plate after his homers like he just did something great when that is exactly what he is getting paid for. Jim Hendry made a HUGE mistake with him and made a UNBELIEVABLE mistake trading Mark DeRosa. That was wrong and ranks up there with what they did to Mark Grace. And getting rid of Kerry Wood who has been very active with Children's Memorial Hospital and kids said who said pay me whatever I'm worth? Wrong. The two bright lights of last season are now gone.
ROID: No. If I was a writer, I would have done the same thing, because it was unacceptable. And inappropriate. And, you know, when you do things the wrong way, that’s what you get.
The whole debacle started, he says, when his agent, Scott Boras, told him the Yankees didn’t want him anymore.
COURIC: But they were trying to reach out to you. It's kind of hard to believe that you were taking Scott Boras' word as gospel when you had all these other signs coming from Yankee management.
AROID: You're right.
COURIC: Why did you fall for that?
He didn't fall for anything he is using him as a fall guy.
AROID: Why wouldn't I trust my attorney. Most people trust their attorneys. I'm a baseball player. I'm not an attorney. I've never negotiated a contract. When I realized things were going haywire, at that point, I said, 'Wait a minute! I got to be accountable for my own life…this is not going the way I wanted to go and I got behind the wheel,' and I called Hank.
Hank, as in George Steinbrenner's son, who is now in charge of the Yankees. Taking the advice of his friend billionaire Warren Buffet, A-Rod says he negotiated directly and personally with the Yankees. Scott Boras, who told 60 Minutes he couldn't talk about his clients, was not welcome at the table, but he still stands to make about $15 million on the deal. A-Rod says he will pay him, and will keep him.
COURIC: What is your relationship like with him today? Why do you have to think about that so much?
AROID: Well, the whole situation saddens me a little bit.
Asked if he talks with him at all, Rodriguez said "No."
COURIC: Do you think that will change?
AROID: We’ll see.
He's still standing at his side. This guy lies about things that don't matter.
Asked if he was talking to Boras during the negotiation process.
AROID: No, I wasn't. I was talking with my wife.
COURIC to AROID's (then) wife: Cynthia, how do you think Alex changed as a result of this?
AROID: He wasn't used to having to take such initiative and such action, especially in this arena….and he actually had to pick up the phone, make the calls, make some decisions and stand behind them…be confident and be sure…it was very difficult, but it was a huge growing experience.
COURIC: Is it all about the money for you?
AROID: No. But economics always play a part of it. I wanted the best deal the Yankees had for me. Whatever that number was.
Yes it is. He wanted to be the best ever and make the most ever and he cheated his way to it. He is a cheater. He should be treated as such. If he got caught using steroids even once without a prescription let alone smuggling them into the country he would be charged with a crime. Whether it stuck is another matter. And that number was based on his numbers in Texas where he admits to using "banned substances". He's a CHEATER, A LIAR and an overpaid criminal. This whole discussion on his grotesque salary shows what a truly dishonorable man he is. He was greedy and he was asking for more money based on his past cheating. Cheating is one thing, lying about it another, but extortion because he did both is beyond the pale.
COURIC: Some people say you overplayed your hand. That there wasn't that much interest in you among other teams.
AROID: I beg to differ.
COURIC: Why?
AROID: I thought there was a lot of interest out there.
COURIC: You thought or you knew?"
AROID: I knew.
By the time this contract is over, Rodriguez will have made nearly $500 million playing baseball. Life in Coral Gables, Fla., is a far cry from his childhood in Miami, which changed dramatically when he was only nine. His father abandoned his family, leaving his mother to support them.
$500M every penny of it tainted.
AROID: My mother's been a rock for a long time. And again, she's working two jobs, secretary in the morning. She was a waitress at night. And it's funny 'cause when she got home and she would pick me up at the Boys and Girls Club in her beat-up car that half the times couldn't start, we would go home. And I was so excited to kind of get all her money out of her pocket. And I would sit there and count, you know, 23, 24, 25, 38, 40. Mom, you did great.
COURIC: Why haven't you done better in the post-season
AROID: I've stunk. You know? I've done very poorly. And that's not acceptable.
Acceptable? And the drugs you injected and then lied about at this very minute to make you not stink.
Asked what it is like being booed by his own fans, Rodriguez told Couric, "Oh, that's awful. That's terrible."
Here's the cheater's spoils.
FOLLOW THE LINK ABOVE TO SEE THE VIDEOS
This year there was a lot less booing. He seemed more relaxed and says he was finally comfortable enough to laugh at himself.
A state-of-the-art batting cage he built near his home raised his game. Every day in the off-season, he blasts his music and gets to work.
COURIC: How much of getting a good hit is technical and how much of it really is psychological?
AROID: I think it really comes down to 90 percent mental and you know, once Yankee Stadium, the lights are on, you have 55,000 people there. It's all about your mind. You know you better than that guy on the mound, and you cannot let that guy beat you. It becomes a competitive battle, one on one.
But the lights are on Alex Rodriguez 24-7, and he’s gotten singed, routinely described in the press as arrogant and disingenuous, not a team player. Then there were the tabloid reports about an alleged extramarital affair.
AROID: It was a challenging time. And you know, we’ve learned from it, we’ve regrouped, we’ve stood up and now I think we’ve become much closer because of the whole situation.
AROID: These are the two MVP awards. And this right here is the Babe Ruth Award -- for most home runs in Major League Baseball. But I would like to yank all three of 'em and put World Championship there. That's my goal. That's my ultimate goal. I feel comfortable my team can expect me to be in the line up every day and at the end of the day, I get paid to be a Major League Baseball player, not anything else, and I do that pretty well.
Can you imagine what Babe Ruth would have done to these guys? They wouldn't even have their pea-sized nuts. There is a very simple way to tell if someone has used steroids for a while. I'll go into this in another post.
[Produced By Kyra Darnton, Michael Radutzky, and Lori Beecher]
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