Alex Rodriguez initially believed using performance-enhancing drugs would give him an energy boost, the scandal-scarred New York Yankees slugger said on Tuesday. Rodriguez, baseball's highest paid player, told a packed news conference of around 200 reporters at the Yankees training facility that he and his cousin began taking the drugs in 2001. “My cousin would administer it to me but neither of us knew how to use it properly, proving just how ignorant we both were,” Rodriguez said, sitting alongside Yankees manager Joe Girardi and general manager Brian Cashman. “It was at this point we decided to take it twice a month for about six months during the 2001, 2002 and 2003 seasons.” In an interview with ESPN last week, the 33-year-old third baseman created a firestorm when he admitted he had used performance-enhancing drugs from 2001-2003 when he played for the Texas Rangers. His comments came in response to a report in Sports Illustrated that he had been one of 104 players who had tested positive for the steroid Primobolan and for testosterone in a confidential doping survey in 2003 that led to mandatory testing of all players starting in 2004.
