A-Rod blames cousin for injecting him with steroids when he was young, naove

Washington, Feb 18 (ANI): Major League Baseball star Alex Rodriguez has admitted that his cousin repeatedly injected him with a substance from the Dominican Republic.

The New York Yankees star blamed his 2003 positive test on being young and naive.

"I knew we weren't taking Tic Tacs," said Rodriguez, who was joined at the head table by Yankees general manager Brian Cashman and manager Joe Girardi.

Rodriguez began his press conference by reading a statement in which he again apologized for taking banned drugs from 2001-2003 while he was with the Texas Rangers.

He said his cousin introduced him to "boli," saying it was an over-the-counter substance in the Dominican. While with Texas, he said his cousin injected him about twice a month during six-month cycles to get an energy boost.

"I didn't think they were steroids. That's again part of being young and stupid. It was over the counter. It was pretty simple. All these years I never thought I did anything wrong," Rodriguez said.

But Rodriguez couldn't say why he was so secretive about the steroid use if he didn't think it was wrong.

His replied: "That's a good question - was typified the tightly controlled news conference that was long on hope and remorse but consistently short on details," CBS News reported.

Rodriguez acknowledged reaching out to CBS News anchor Katie Couric to apologize for lying to her during a 2007 "60 Minutes interview".

He said he wasn't sure how the drug use helped him, but admitted he had more energy. Rodriguez said he has not used human growth hormone or any other banned drug since then. He refused to identify his cousin.

The three-time AL MVP and baseball's highest-paid player spoke at the Yankees' spring training camp 10 days after Sports Illustrated reported that he tested positive in 2003. (ANI)