Alex Rodriguez has admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs from 2001-2003, ESPN is reporting.
Those were the first three seasons of Rodriguez's then-record 10-year, $252 million contract with the Texas Rangers. Rodriguez won his first AL MVP award in '03, his last year with the Rangers, before being traded to the Yankees prior to the start of the 2004 season.
On Saturday, Sports Illustrated broke the news that Rodriguez had tested positive for two anabolic steroids in 2003. When reached for comment at a Miami gym last Thursday, Rodriguez told an SI reporter "You'll have to talk to the union" and "I'm not saying anything."


During the interview with ESPN's Peter Gammons, Rodriguez said, "When I arrived in Texas in 2001, I felt an enormous amount of pressure, felt all the weight of the world on top of me to perform and perform at a high level every day. It was a different culture. I was young, I was stupid and I wanted to prove to everyone that I was worth being one of the greatest players of all time and I did take a banned substance. For that, I'm very sorry and deeply regretful, although it was the culture back then in major league baseball overall, it was very ... I just feel that ... I'm just sorry. I'm sorry for that time, I'm sorry to the fans I'm sorry to the fans in Texas. It wasn't until then that I thought about substance of any kind, and since then I've proved to myself and to anyone that I don't need any of that."
When asked if his usage took place from 2001-2003, Rodriguez said, "That's pretty accurate."


Gammons then asked, "What substances were you taking?" Rodriguez responded, in part, "I'm guilty for being negligent, naïve, not asking the right questions. To be quite honest, I don't know exactly what substance I was guilty of using."


Rodriguez tested positive for testosterone and Primobolan, an injected or orally administered drug. According to SI's report, Primobolan "is detectable for a shorter period of time than the steroid previously favored by players, Deca-Durabolin."


Steroids have been banned in baseball since 2001, but there was no testing for it until 2003, when survey testing was done to determine if the game needed to adopt a permanent testing policy. Rodriguez's name was on a list of 104 players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003. There were no penalties for players who tested positive and the names of those players were supposed to remain anonymous, but federal agents, using search warrants, seized those test results from one of the two labs MLB had used in connection with the '03 testing as part of the government's BALCO investigation.


In 2000, his last year in Seattle, Rodriguez batted .316 with 41 home runs and 132 RBIs. In 2001, his first season in Texas, Rodriguez set a career high with 52 home runs while batting .318 with a .622 slugging percentage, the second-highest number of his career. The following season, he established a new career high with 57 home runs, adding 142 RBIs and a .623 slugging percentage. In 2003, he dropped to .298 with 47 home runs and 118 RBIs and a .600 slugging percentage. In 2004, when Rodriguez says he was not taking any performance-enhancing drugs, he hit .286 with 36 homers, 106 RBIs and a .512 slugging percentage and .375 on-base percentage. The latter two numbers were his lowest single-season marks since 1999.