A-Rod Scored Steroids Like A High School Kid Scores Weed.

Or Red Bull...

From ESPN: 

Alex Rodriguez expanded on his admission last week that he used a banned substance years ago, saying a cousin injected him with a drug designed to give an "energy boost."

Facing a couple of hundred media members and with his Yankees teammates looking on, Rodriguez also said he faces a long road toward earning back the trust of those close to him.

Rodriguez, who first made the admission in a Feb. 9 interview with ESPN, said he was "a lot nervous" before reading from a prepared statement under a tent at the Yankees' spring training facility.

The third baseman said a cousin of his injected him with a banned substance in 2001, 2002 and 2003. He said his decision to use what he called an "energy boosting" drug was ignorant.

"We consulted no one. It was pretty evident we didn't know what we were doing," Rodriguez said.

Sports Illustrated broke the story on its Web site Feb. 7 that Rodriguez tested positive for a pair of steroids during baseball's anonymous survey in 2003.

Rodriguez said exactly what he was expected to say, and threw in the requisite pregnant pause, complete with the camera-ready blinking through tears as he looked toward his off-camera teammates. Scott Boras and Team A-Rod prepped their subject like the attorneys some of them are.

The Steroid Era has been a baseball reality for years. The blame starts with Bud Selig, extends to the Player's Association, and includes franchise owners, managers, coaches, trainers, staff and the guinea pigs in cleats.

Many loud, self-righteous fans bitch about it, but are often the same ones who buy into Home Run Derby year after year after year, so their moral indignation is a stretch as far as I'm concerned.   

It would be nice to cleanse the game of performance-enhancing drugs, but don't hold your breath. When guys can gain a high-dollar, competitive advantage at the business end of a needle, some undoubtedly will.  

Today in some suburban strip-mall lab, test-tubes full of the next generation of PED's--undetectable through urine or blood--are likely being concocted. And today in some minor-league camp or major league spring training complex there is a player on the bubble wondering how to get his hands on some.