... At least as much as I can respect someone who's coming clean only after getting caught, and someone who lied repeatedly when being confronted with the question of whether they'd ever tried or thought of trying performance-enhancing drugs. But in all honesty, A-Rod handled this thing the right way and probably won over some haters in the process. Me, for one.

I've never been a fan of Alex Rodriguez. When I was growing up, the Mariners were my team. I know, I know... a devout member of Red Sox Nation (albeit a non-card-carrying member) starting off as the fan of a team from Seattle? Honestly, I can't explain it either. Something about the slick way Griffey played the game and Jay Buhner's badass Oakley-clad look just drew me in. A-Rod was damn impressive back in the day, entering the league as an 18-year-old kid and second in MVP voting in his third season (his first full) in the league, but he still never captured my attention like Junior. After whoring his way to the richest contract in baseball history with the Rangers (10 years, $252 million), I took notice and began liking him even less. Back then, and now, no player is worth $25 million per year in my opinion. When he pouted his way out of Texas (amid other contributing factors), with all the hoopla surrounding the situation, and the near-trade to Boston, I basically had written him off as a prima donna, a diva, a whiny bitch, a purple-lipped, possibly homosexual, out-of-touch multi-millionaire... you name it, it was said about A-Rod at the BSB headquarters. And after he began buying into the Sox-Yanks rivalry just a bit too much, taking those games a bit too seriously in what seemed to be a pretty phony way, he was dead to me. After Tek made him eat the webbing of his well-broken-in All-Star mitt, I became as much of an anti-A-Rod Sox fan as anyone else in the area.

But surprisingly, I respect him more today, on what he will likely remember as his worst day as a professional athlete.

A-Rod is not the first and certainly won't be the last player to use steroids. (And aside from steroids, players have frequently abused the league's broader drug abuse policy by using things like greenies and uppers for energy, as well as the occasional use and abuse of alcohol and drugs.) But as far as I can recall, he's the first to actually come out immediately after the report surfaced and admit his wrongdoing. Pettitte came close, apologizing to the Yankees and Astors and their fans in spite of drastically underestimating the number of times he used it (in all likelihood), and Giambi almost hit the mark in a surprisingly honest moment without ever expressly stating what he did wrong, but neither actually came out and said "Yeah, this is what I did and I'm sorry for it." And of course we've seen examples of guys severely underestimating the intelligence of the American public - I'm talking to you, Bonds and Clemens! - and claiming they'd been wrongly accused. Apparently A-Rod must have a damn good publicist, because this was the perfect course of action.

A-Rod cheated and no doubt benefited from it. He probably used steroids for longer than that 2001-03 time period he admitted to, and I'd be shocked to learn if he actually only used the two banned PEDs he was accused of taking, But the bottom line is that he took ownership of his shortcoming in the first place. Like Bonds and Clemens and a lot of the players soon to be implicated, he was an excellent athlete prior to using steroids and will continue to be after all this settles. He's still one of the best all-around players in the game, and if I had a Hall-of-Fame vote (I'm working on it!), he'd certainly still be the recipient of it. And surprisingly, he's one of the most honest athletes in perhaps the most dishonest period in sports history thus far.

Hate him for being a Yankee, despise him for being grossly overpaid, mock him for pronouncing all words ending in the letter "s" with an "sh" sound, and laugh at him for using phrases like "it was a loosey-goosey era" and "I like taking it... I am a good receiver" in his interview with Gammons, but respect him for having the foresight to know that the best way to handle this situation is to own up to your mistake, apologize, and ask for forgiveness.