Eddie Guardado walked into the Texas Rangers’ clubhouse Tuesday, paused to listen to Alex Rodriguez on television and quickly decided he had seen enough.
“We don’t need to watch this,” the reliever said, turning off the TV.
All across Florida and Arizona, it was hard to escape baseball’s highest-paid player holding his first news conference since admitting he took banned drugs from 2001-2003 while with Texas.
“I support Alex 100 percent,” said Rangers third baseman Michael Young, who played with Rodriguez in Texas and skipped the spectacle for some time in the batting cage. “He admitted he made a mistake. Obviously, I don’t condone anything like that, but as far as I’m concerned he’s still my friend. I’m going to show support in good times and bad.”
Supportive or not, many major leaguers were curious to hear what the New York Yankees star had to say.
About a half-dozen Washington Nationals players gathered in front of a TV in the home clubhouse at Space Coast Stadium to watch. By the end, only two players remained.
he’s coming out and talking about it,” said outfielder Ryan Langerhans, who watched part of the news conference. “Only he knows what he really did. It doesn’t change the fact that he’s a great player. Coming out and admitting it is a big step.”
AL Cy Young Award winner Cliff Lee was one of a dozen or so Indians players who watched Rodriguez talk as they ate lunch following Tuesday’s workout.
“I don’t feel any different than I felt before,” Lee said. “He came out and told what he did, that’s all you can ask for a guy.”
Rodriguez spoke at the Yankees’ spring training camp 10 days after Sports Illustrated reported he was on a list of 104 players who tested positive during baseball’s 2003 anonymous survey.
That list was a hot topic as players wondered how Rodriguez’s name got out and bemoaned the suspicion it cast on all of baseball.
“I wish they would just come out and say who the 104 players are because it’s not fair for the other players,” Phillies closer Brad Lidge told The Associated Press. “We’re all lumped in with them and people think most players did it during the steroid era. But all of us didn’t cheat.”
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