SAN FRANCISCO 02-09-09 4: 36 PM PST
A-ROD's 'Mea Culpa' Draws Plenty of Talk-Show/Internet Fodder...
The story broke early Saturday on SI.com: One of Baseball's most feared hitters, NY Yankees Slugger, Alex Rodriguez tested positive for using steroids in 2003.
Today, he confirmed the report, admitting to using the banned substances from 2001 until 2003, in an exclusive interview with ESPN's Peter Gammons.
Ho-hum. No surprise, big deal, was the general initial reaction amongst the sporting media from radio talk shows to Internet blogs to, yes, ESPN itself.
Compelling TV too, as Rodriguez' one-on-one December 2007 interview with "60 Minutes" Katie Couric was replayed over and over; an interview in which the 34 year-old MVP denied using, acquiring, or even testing for steroids use. (Couric's coup, a double-whopper; yesterday she got an exclu with the US Airways Pilot, Sully Sullenberger)
The "A-Rod" story drew a healthy dose of ammo for sports-talk radio, as both callers and hosts debated yet again, among other things, another bleak day for MLB and whether or not the latest revelation would affect the slugger's eventual election into the Hall of Fame, (yes) or whether or not anyone in the sports biz was even surprised, (no).
The best takes locally, was from KNBR's afternoon drive duo of the "Razor and Mr. T", (Ralph Barbieri and Tom Tolbert 3-7 PM) Tolbert, an ex-NBA player who has co-hosted the show for 12 years, had one of the best responses: "Why don't they all, ( 2003 players) just come out and come clean and 'get it over with? Just stop the lying." Most callers had the same feelings, and to no one's surprise, a general malaise was the overall feeling.
Barbieri had a funny line about A-Rod's comeuppance: "At least he can say that instead of lying before Congress or a Grand jury, he only lied to Katie Couric."
Another funny moment in the broadcast came at the start of the show when the duo interviewed a writer and book author from "ESPN, The Magazine", whose beat involves the steroids controversy, "looks as if I'm going to be employed for a bit longer".
In addition to Gammon's interviews, ESPN's entire franchise, including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN News and ESPN.com devoted their entire Monday presentations to the Rodriguez story. It also drew heavy play on almost all the radio/TV/cable networks, and even in spite of President Obama's prime-time news conference, the A-Rod/steroids story dominated the day's media content. CNN.com, Drudge Report, Yahoo and all Internet sites drew record hits on their respective cyber arenas. (The President, himself, was asked at the news conference for reaction to the A-Rod story)
The story drew heavy action on SFGATE.com, the Internet wing of the SF Chronicle, a paper whose reporters, Lance Williams and Mark Fainru-Wada, were the initial correspondents who broke the BALCO story that dealt with professional and amateur athletes use of steroids and other banned substances.
Rich Lieberman
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