Young and stupid.

Like batting-practice pitches, Alex Rodriguez hit those points over and over again Tuesday. If you didn't walk away from his nationally televised news conference understanding that he had been young and stupid when he used a banned substance earlier in the decade, then you must have been asleep. In that case:

Hi, it's A-Rod and this is your wake-up call: I was young and stupid.

Unfortunately, being young and stupid (more about the validity of that characterization later) doesn't absolve one of bad behavior. It's why, no matter how sincere he was in apologizing for his past mistakes, Rodriguez shouldn't get to sit in the big-boy wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

As a nod to an era rife with abuse of performance-enhancing drugs, a separate wing devoted to cheaters needs to be set up—not as a modern-day "Scarlet Letter" but as an acknowledgment that much of what happened from the late 1980s on needs to be taken with a healthy dose of skepticism.

The Yankees' star was living proof Tuesday that no one can be trusted on this subject. Besides blaming age and a temporary decrease in brain cells, A-Rod said he began taking a substance in 2001 that his cousin obtained in the Dominican Republic. He said he didn't really know what he was taking at the time, doesn't know whether he used it correctly and doesn't know if it even helped his performance.

Translation: It's all good!

This was his way of mitigating the potential damage his confession might bring. It was his way of pleading, "Please don't keep me out of the Hall."

Saying he and his cousin bungled their way through injecting Rodriguez with a banned substance does not minimize what the superstar did. If anything, it leaves open the question of why anyone in his right mind would believe A-Rod stopped taking steroids in 2003 or, for that matter, whether he truly started using them in 2001 and not earlier.

He was very careful to point out that the best years of his career came when he was 20 and when he was 31. His aim was clear. He wanted it known that he was a force well before and well after he used the banned substance from 2001-03.

Again, how do we know he wasn't juicing when he was 20 and 31? The acute case of skepticism is his fault, not ours.

"I'm here to take my medicine," Rodriguez said at the news conference.

He already did, and that's why the question never will go away.

By the way, when does the statute of limitations run out on being able to say you were young and stupid? Rodriguez was 25 years old at the start of the 2001 season and 28 at the end of the 2003 season. Is that youth talking? And can we expect Rod Blagojevich to be using the "young and stupid" defense any time soon?

In his earlier interview with ESPN's Peter Gammons, Rodriguez said he didn't know what substance he had used. He also said he used the substance because he was trying to live up to his $252 million contract in Texas.

But Tuesday was a new day, and the story changed a bit with some of his teammates sitting nearby. He said his cousin injected him twice a month for six months out of each year with something called "boli." Sports Illustrated has reported that Rodriguez tested positive for Primobolan and testosterone, both steroids, in 2003.

"I knew we weren't taking Tic Tacs," he said.

Did we get at the truth? Who knows? A-Rod's apology very well could have been from the heart, but it's a heart that can't beat these days without being handed a list of talking points by advisers. He has hired a media strategy and crisis management team.

He said he wished he had gone to college, where he could have matured more before he started his big-league career. He also said he plans on teaming up with a foundation that fights steroid abuse among young athletes.

"I feel that this happened for a much bigger reason than baseball," he said. "I think God has put me in a forum where I can be heard and my voice can be heard, and I hope that kids would not make the mistake I made."

All players have that same forum. Wouldn't it be great if they all signed up to rail against the evils of steroids before they got in trouble?

A-Rod apologized for what he did, and that's a good thing. There are at least two former superstars who continue to profess their innocence in the face of a growing mountain of evidence that they were users.

"I screwed up big time, but the only thing I ask from this group today and the American people is to judge me from this day forward," Rodriguez said.

It never hurts to ask. Unfortunately, it's not the way life works. It's certainly not the way the Hall of Fame works.

Alex, save some room in Cooperstown for Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, who could be living with you in baseball infamy. Busts a head size or two bigger would be a nice touch. So would T-shirts that say, "I'm with Young and Stupid."