Sports Illustrated journalist Selena Roberts claims to have “irrefutable” proof that Yankees Alex Rodriguez used anabolic steroids as a teenager baseball player at Westminster Christian High School in Miami. Roberts’ certainty is largely based on A-Rod’s self-reported weight gain and weight training progress during high school. The New York Daily News published excerpts from Roberts’ new book “A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez“
“He said as a sophomore he could barely bench press 100 pounds,” Roberts said. “Six months later he’s bulked up 20-25 pounds and he had increased his level from 100 pounds to 310 pounds. That’s a pretty shocking leap for six months. That, in conjuntion with the reporting that I did with [his high school] teammates would make it irrefutable to me, not a ‘may have.’”
Selena Roberts’ credibility has taken a major hit from these comments. Roberts inexplicably ignores the dramatic weight gain that normally occurs in boys during high school without the use of steroids. The CDC growth charts reveal teenage boys normally gain 35-45 lbs. during high school. Roberts also appears unfamiliar with the dramatic increases in strength and muscle mass that novice weightlifters experience when first engaging in a resistance training program particularly when accompanied by a bodybuilding-type diet. Any male that has started bodybuilding during puberty knows that a 20-25 weight gain is not unusual without the use of anabolic steroids.
