Katie Couric: For the record, have you ever used a performance enhancing substance?
A-Rod: No.
Katie Couric: Have you ever been tempted to use any of those things?
More »Katie Couric: For the record, have you ever used a performance enhancing substance?
A-Rod: No.
Katie Couric: Have you ever been tempted to use any of those things?
A-Rod: No
Katie Couric: You never felt like, "this guy's doing it, maybe I should look into this too. He's getting better numbers, playing better ball?"
A-Rod: I've never felt over-matched on the baseball field. I've always been in a very strong, dominant position and I felt if I did my work since I've done since I was a rookie back in Seattle, I didn't have a problem competing at any level. So, no.
Katie Couric: What's your reaction to this investigation?
A-Rod: Katie, you're putting me in a tough spot. I mean, these are guys that I play with, they're my teammates, my friends. If anything comes of this, it would be extremely disappointing and would be a huge black eye on the game of baseball.
Katie Couric: It sounds like this is rampant. According to the Mitchell report, every single club has a player using banned substances. Did you ever witness or hear about or even suspect that this was going on?
A-Rod: You hear a lot of things. I mean I came in the game in 1993 and you heard whispers from the 80s and 90s, but I never saw anything, I never had raw evidence and quite frankly, I was probably a little too naive when I first came up to understand the magnitude of all this.
Katie Couric: Given this controversy, Alex, who do you think has the real home run record? Barry Bonds at 762 or Hank Aaron at 755.
A-Rod: Well I think Barry Bonds - he has 762.
Katie Couric: But he has an asterisk next to his name.
A-Rod: Does he? Not yet.
Katie Couric: Well, in the minds of many, he does.
A-Rod: Well the federal government is going to make up their decision on that. Barry has had a phenomenal career. I've really enjoyed watching him play, but he's innocent til proven guilty.
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