Enough people have shared their opinions on whether or not A-Rod told the truth during his press conference, so I'm going to focus on some other aspects of this never-ending story...

•    Watching Derek Jeter address the media today further illustrated how and why A-Rod will never, and could never be like Jeter. The Yankees captain answered questions in a thoughtful manner (although we know he couldn't say what he TRULY felt on everything), and I'm pretty sure he made the Yankees organization proud to know he's worn its uniform his entire career. With that said, I would like to discuss one thing in particular from Jeter's "meet the press."

He continually tried to make the point that the time period of the mid-90s-2003 or so should not be referred to as the "steroid era," since there were roughly 1,100 players who did not test positive in 2003. While that may very well be true, what about the years when the players knew there would NOT be testing? The time period Jeter was discussing was 2003 and since, but the time period many refer to as the "steroid era" is more like 1993-2003, and unfortunately the evidence speaks for itself.

•    Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News asked a very good question during the press conference. He essentially asked A-Rod if he thinks he deserved the monetary rewards that are in his contract for passing different home run milestones. A-Rod really didn't answer the question, I know, shocking. You were probably expecting him to say something like, "I was young and stupid, yada, yada, yada..."

But if I were on A-Rod's team of advisers, I would make absolute sure that A-Rod takes that money and donates it to charity. Whether it's to the Taylor Hooton Foundation, the RBI program, or something else, people have to know that he's not pocketing that money for his own good. If he does in fact break the all-time home run record, that's a total of $30 million in bonuses. I'm pretty sure that can go a long way to helping one or more different charitable organizations...

•    Many people "understand" why a fringe player may have taken steroids, but it's very hard to grasp why superstars such as Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and Alex Rodriguez did so (and yes, I'm drawing the conclusion that Bonds and Clemens are guilty).

For Bonds, it was said that he did it out of jealousy. Jealous that Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were getting all of the attention for hitting 70 and 66 home runs respectively in 1998, and yet he was the better all-around player. To me, I always thought it was because he was jealous of Ken Griffey, Jr. Junior was a member of the All-Century Team, the Player of the Decade (90s), and truly a fan-favorite, while Bonds, well, was not.

For Clemens the motivation may have been to prolong his career. It's been well documented how the then GM of the Boston Red Sox, Dan Duquette, said Clemens was in the twilight of his career following the 1996 season. Boston let him leave via free agency, and Clemens went on to win back-to-back CY Young Awards with the Blue Jays.

But what was A-Rod's motivation? We've heard him say it was the pressure he felt in trying to live up to his $252 million contract, but like Bonds, I believe there was a jealousy factor. And that jealousy was of Jeter.

Everyone knows about the Esquire Magazine article from 2001 that all but ended their friendship. The jealousy was apparent then, and I believe it's apparent now. Maybe A-Rod's motivation was to improve his statistics so much that there would be no way for people to compare the two. What Rodriguez failed to realize though, was that they were two totally different players, and stats don't always make the player.  

•    Speaking of this, remember that topic/debate in the late 90s about the Holy Trinity of shortstops (A-Rod, Jeter, and Nomar Garciaparra), and then when people began including Miguel Tejada in that discussion? For a while most people would've said that Jeter was third or fourth in that discussion based on statistics. Yet in hindsight, two of those players have been related to steroids, and a there has been much under-the-table discussion about a third. In other words, Jeter is looking pretty good in all of this.

•    You know who else is looking pretty good throughout this entire process? Griffey. People tend to forget that Griffey was on track to hit at least 700 home runs, and possibly break Hank Aaron's record. This guy was awesome (check out his stats from essentially 1990-2000), and there was never any suspicion about him. Had it not been for all of his injuries, maybe we would actually have a new clean home run king after all.

•    Undoubtedly all of this talk will bring up the conversation of which is worse, taking steroids like the aforementioned players (and several others that have not yet been named), or betting on the game like Pete Rose? Some may disagree with me, but I see it as a no-brainer...steroids.

Had Pete Rose bet on the game as a player, that would be an entirely different case. While both affect the integrity of the game, I believe that the altering of stats due to steroids is much more harmful to the history of the game than Rose's betting while a manager. That entire era (1993-2003, give or take a few years) is skewed in relation to the rest of the sport's history, and there is no way to account for those inconsistencies.

Alex Rodriguez

With A-Rod's press conference quickly approaching, it dawned on me why people are going to have a hard time believing what he says yet again...because he has a staff of about five different groups helping him prepare for this. He's got his player agent, Scott Boras, his manager, Guy Oseary, the William Morris Agency, another lawyer, and a media crisis agency! I don't know about you, but if I'm telling the truth, I don't need 10,000 people coaching me on how to do so. You speak from the heart, answer each question in a forthright manner, and don't rehearse everything.

That's been the problem with A-Rod his entire career. People believe everything he says is scripted, and this is only further illustrating that point. If Rodriguez were going to use this opportunity to truly turn a corner and become a better person, these other advisers would not be involved. It's pretty sad to think that someone so talented is so insecure.

Tennis Channel

Kudos to the Tennis Channel for pulling the plug on broadcasting the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships this week. For those of you who don't know, the United Arab Emirates refused to grant Israeli tennis player, Shahar Peer, a visa. The real reason for this refusal is unknown, however many believe it's because of the recent events in Gaza. It's nice to know that some people will still take the moral high ground in situations like these...

College Basketball

Here are some recent observations from around college basketball:

Duke's Gerald Henderson reminds me a ton of Vince Carter, and no it's not because he wears #15. Henderson, like Carter, has tremendous athletic ability, but it doesn't seem like has fully taken advantage of that ability. They both are right-handed dominant with the dribble, will go left but only for a dribble or two, and get a little too comfortable with the jump shot (this could stem from their lack of ball-handling skills).  While Henderson has improved immensely in this season alone, I hope he continues to work on all areas of his game, and become the stud player that he can be because Carter certainly has not.

UCONN's Hasheem Thabeet is a very good defensive player, but as we saw tonight in his game against Pitt, his offensive skills have a long way to go. I'm not trying to knock the guy, I'm just trying to say that maybe everyone should be a bit more cautious in jumping on the bandwagon. There's no doubt that he can be an impact player (at this level and the next) based on his defense alone, but with Jerome Dyson now out for the season, the Huskies may need Thabeet to step up offensively, and I'm not sure he can do that if he's not able to dunk. It's too bad because I would've picked a healthy UCONN team over a healthy UNC team to win the National Title...

First off, did anyone else notice that he was wearing a royal blue sweater with a white shirt? Just so happens to be the Texas Rangers team colors as opposed to the Yankees. Interesting choice by Alex...
Now, to the actual confession...I commend A-Rod for coming forth and admitting that he did in fact use steroids. It was absolutely the right thing to do, and whoever advised him to do so deserves some credit. But for some reason, something still doesn't sit well with me.

After watching the interview a couple of times, A-Rod contradicts himself time and time again making me once again question his honesty.

He tells Peter Gammons that he didn't know he was taking something illegal because at the time, there were things you could buy at GNC that would give a positive test now. Well if that's the case, why was he feeling guilty? Why did he decide to stop in 2003 if he didn't know he was doing anything illegal? And what exactly was he stopping?

Second, Gammons brought up the now infamous interview with Katie Couric. In that, as we all know, Couric asked A-Rod if he had ever taken steroids, human growth hormone, or performance-enhancing drugs, and if he'd ever been tempted to. Again, A-Rod said no. He said he wasn't being honest with himself, so how could he be honest with Couric and CBS? But if he knew he was doing something wrong in 2003, then didn't he know at the very least that he had been tempted?

Third, Gammons asked him about the comments written by Joe Torre and Tom Verducci in the book, The Yankee Years. He asked Rodriguez if he'd ever heard the nickname "A-Fraud" mentioned in the clubhouse, and A-Rod said no. A few minutes later though he said he did hear it. So which one is it?

And lastly, he made a terrible move in trying to discredit Selena Roberts. Going on past history, who do you think people will believe, a journalist like Roberts who takes diligent notes, and keeps records of everything, or Alex Rodriguez, a player with a questionable past?

Now with all this said, A-Rod needs to continue to follow the path his teammate, Andy Pettitte, took last year. Pettitte held a press conference at spring training where he answered all of the media's questions in an honest and forthright manner. I can remember vividly when the Yankees Director of Media Relations, Jason Zillo, said, "a couple more questions," and Pettitte essentially told him it's ok, he'll take as many as there are. Alex needs to hold a similar press conference, and remember this bit of information: if you're going to tell the truth, tell the whole truth otherwise you're only going to get caught in a lie.

Why is this such a big deal?

After watching different networks throughout the entire day, the folks at the MLB Network mentioned something that struck a chord with me. They said how baseball seems to be held to a higher standard when it comes to performance-enhancing drugs, and that it's essentially a double standard compared to football, basketball, and hockey. That may very well be, but there are a couple of reasons for that.

The first is it's much easier to notice statistical discrepancies in baseball than it is in the three other major sports. If there were only 17 50+ home run seasons from 1920-1977, and 23 from 1995-2007, well you know something is wrong. The same is true for the number of members in the 500-home run club.

Baseball has magical numbers that allow fans to compare players from generations past to the current ones. There are certain numbers that have been automatic qualifiers for the Hall of Fame: 500 home runs, 3,000 hits, 300 wins. No other sport has numbers like that. In basketball, is it 30,000 points? 10,000 rebounds? Who knows. What about football? 200 touchdowns? 10,000 rushing yards? Again, no magical numbers that stand out.

The reason why there are no magical numbers is because the sports have changed in such dramatic fashion. It's impossible to compare football players from the 1950s and 60s, to the ones who play today. A defensive player who was viewed as intimidating, or downright scary, may have been 5'8, 190 pounds. Oh yeah, and he was probably a linebacker. Today, that player would be lucky to be on the field, and it definitely would not be as a linebacker.

In basketball, a guy who was 6'4 was considered tall, maybe even a power forward. Now, that's considered somewhat small...for a guard! Basketball was a game played below the room with little to no defense. Now it's played a foot or more above the rim with rules having been instated to change the defense because it got too good.

Baseball though, has remained consistent. Sure, pitchers are more specialized than they've ever been, but the game itself is still the same, the rules haven't changed. And that's the reason why this is such a big deal. People want to be able to continue holding conversations about who's a better player, Willie Mays or Ken Griffey Jr. Who had the better run, Sandy Koufax or Pedro Martinez?

Baseball has been a game that has withstood the test of time, that is until now. Hopefully with A-Rod's admission, and maybe more to follow, it can return to once again pass that test.

The New York Yankees won three straight World Series from 1998-2000, and not one of them was as much fun to celebrate as their championship in 1996.  In `98, they were chasing history (125-50), in `99, once they went up 3-0 against the Braves, you knew the championship was a foregone conclusion, and in `00 there was so much pressure to beat the Mets that just winning it was a relief. Yet in `96, after an 18-year drought, the feeling after the Yankees won was pure euphoria. Well, after today's news, you can say goodbye to experiencing that feeling again.

The New York Yankees missed the playoffs for the first time in 13 years, and how do they respond? By going out and signing the top three free agents on the market for a combined total of more than $400 million!!!! Now I know people are going to make the argument that even by signing CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, and now Mark Teixeira, they still are spending less than they spent on last year's team because over $80 million came off the books. But you know what, I don't care.

There comes a time when enough is enough. Just because the Yankees spent $220 million on their payroll in 2008 doesn't mean they were correct to do that. And frankly, the thought of lowering the payroll by a good $40 million was intriguing to me. Instead, the team is back to where they were in 2004, having an All-Star at nearly every position, and for those of you who forgot, that 2004 team had the worst playoff collapse in the history of the sport.

Obviously the rotation is better now than it was in 2004, but problems still exist with the rest of the team. Can they run? Can they play defense? Can they pick each other up and not go into team slumps? Can they overcome A-Rod being A-Rod? No matter how much money they spend, they still have not addressed some major issues, team defense, team speed, and team athleticism.

Yes, Teixeira is a MAJOR upgrade over Jason Giambi at first base, but will he be a gold-glove caliber first baseman for 8 years? Was it worth $180 million to have him play first over Nick Swisher? Did they have to include a full no-trade clause when seemingly every other big-market team bailed out of the negotiations? I mean honestly, do you think Teixeira would've taken the Nationals offer over the Yankees if they had offered a full no-trade?

Joel Sherman brought up a very good point in the New York Post saying that this was a move as much for 2010 as it was for 2009 because the team would be looking to potentially replace Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui, and Xavier Nady. While that is all fair, it doesn't address the fact that the contract is for 8 years! I like Teixeira as a player, and as a person, but 8 years is a HUGE commitment for someone, and I highly doubt they'll be basking in the glory six years from now when they have A-Rod on the books for $27.5 million at the age of 39, and Teixeira on the books for $22.5 million at the age of 34, not to mention Sabathia for $23 million also at 34.

Short-term the move makes sense, but you don't build winning organizations by thinking short-term. Furthermore, the New York Yankees could go on to win the World Series this year (which I don't think they'll do), and they could go on to win the World Series the next three years (which again I don't think they'll do), and you know what everyone will say? "Well of course they won the World Series, look who they bought." And if they don't win the World Series, you know what everyone will say? "How could they not win with that payroll?"

People sometimes utter the phrase, "win at all cost." Well, the Yankees may win, but it will be a lose-lose situation.

When all is said and done, the 2008 offseason will resemble the 2000 offseason, and for that I say shame on baseball, its owners, and its general managers. There's a saying that goes something like this, "History repeats itself." So with that said, why didn't all of these people learn from the mistakes of 2000?

Mark Teixeira is about to sign one of the top five richest contracts in the history of baseball. There are terms being thrown out there such as 8 years and $184 million! In 2000, Alex Rodriguez signed his now infamous 10 year/$252 million deal. At the time, A-Rod was 24 years old, and the Rangers thought he was the centerpiece to their franchise. Three years later, they felt it was best to pay $9 million a year to get rid of him. Teixeira is currently 28. If any team that signs him now feels they will not have an inkling to trade him before his contract is up, well they're crazy.

In 2000, the Colorado Rockies handed out the richest ever contract to a pitcher, 8 years/$121 million, to lure Mike Hampton to the high altitude of Denver. At the time, he was 27 years old, and coming off a season in which he helped pitch the New York Mets to their first World Series since 1986. By the time Hampton played out his contract, THREE teams were paying his salary, including a team he never suited up for, the Florida Marlins! Well, fast-forward to 2008, and the New York Yankees just signed CC Sabathia to the richest contract ever given to a pitcher, 7 years/$161 million. Sabathia, 28, just finished an incredible run in helping lead the Milwaukee Brewers to their first postseason berth since 1982...

In 2000, the LA Dodgers inked Darren Dreifort, a pitcher who had a history of arm trouble, and whose lowest ERA as a starting pitcher was 4.00, to a 5 year/$55 million deal. Dreifort missed the entire 2002 season, and was out of baseball after 2004. Move ahead to 2008, and the New York Yankees just signed A.J. Burnett, a pitcher who has a history of arm trouble, and is coming off his best overall season despite a 4.07 ERA, to a 5 year/$82.5 million deal...

People look back upon that 2000 offseason and cringe, and that was during a pretty good economic time. I can't imagine what people are going to say about this offseason. I, for one, am disgusted by it.