Yankees Star Rodriguez Sorry About Drug Use

Rodriguez said he was there to `tell the truth and apologize to my teammates and baseball fans everywhere`.

Ten days after the allegations about a failed 2003 drug test came out in Sports Illustrated, Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez faced reporters in a nationally televised news conference that competed with the scheduled signing by President Barack Obama of the stimulus bill.

Rodriguez said he was there to "tell the truth and apologize to my teammates and baseball fans everywhere" and to talk about what he took and where he got it.

The news conference was carried live on cable news. Because everything's Yankees-related in New York City, all but one of the city's major TV stations carried the news conference live.

He also said that he had called Sports Illustrated writer Selena Roberts, who broke the story, having earlier told ESPN that "Sports Illustrated pays this lady, Selena Roberts, to stalk me."

He stopped short of apologizing o Roberts, but said they had a "very good" conversation.

"It was a misunderstanding of the facts, it went well, and we both decided to put it behind us," Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez was asked about the "60 Minutes" interview in December 2007 where he denied to Katie Couric that he had taken performance enhancing drugs. He said he had also called Couric recently.

"I reached out to her about 10 days ago. When you're in denial, when you're not being honest with yourself, it's hard to be honest with Katie," Rodriguez said.