A few hot links to start your day ...

• Worried about his surgically repaired knee, the Mets have asked their ace, Venezuela's Johan Santana, to avoid the WBC. So avoid it he will. [N.Y. Daily News]

• Voodoo statistical analysis of Braden Looper (a jock, a pro jock), who is now a Brewer. [BrewCrew Ball]

• It occurs to Pete Abe that A-Rod is going to have a monstrous statistical season, even for A-Rod. [LoHud]

• Because you can't get enough, a BoSox blog reviews A-Rod's ESPN interview. [Red Sox Monster]

• Don Fehr, or at least a piece of paper he signed, explains why the 2003 drug tests which caught A-Rod were not destroyed as originally planned. [Biz of Baseball]

• Chad Bradford, the Rays' side-winding crackercrawler, is out 3-4 months after elbow surgery. Drat! [The Heater]

• Rich E. Rich wonders if the Phillies didn't eat their Wheaties, and maybe that's why they're not on the box like most recent World Series winners. [Home Run Derby]

• Radio guys talk to Kevin Towers, who's on his

If you thought watching A-Rod bare his soul about steroids to Peter Gammons was fun, imagine how much enjoyment watching it over and over while writing down every word must have been. I don't have to imagine it, because I did it last night.

Makes a guy want to run out to GNC for some transcriber-enhancing supplements.

So, in case you didn't pay your cable bill and ESPN was blacked out, or if your interwebs Video Player isn't working on your Web Browsing Machine, all you need to do is read the rest of this post to learn all about A-Rod's true confessions.

In addition to the back and forth among G-Mon and A-Rod, I added comments in italics when appropriate. Or inappropriate. No matter, if you're a hard-core junkie for A-Rod (or Gammons, I suppose), this is your one-stop interview shop.

First, here's a quick count of A-Rod's key words and phrases:

• Mentions "God": three times.

• Says "honest": 13 times.

• "Truth": 12.

• "Steroid": three.

• Says "I": 324 times.

• "Me": 37.

•

They say everyone has a double. Sometimes, you look at a ballplayer's face and go, "I know I've seen that guy somewhere before." Such is the essence of DoubleHeader, which we plan to make a regular feature here at the Stew. Enjoy:

With the baseball world on A-Rod overload right now, perhaps we can take a break from that scandal and attend to other matters. After all, no matter what kind of serious trouble Rodriguez might be in, at least nobody died.

They're not so fortunate halfway 'round the world.

Three suspects were arrested in Austria on Sunday in the stabbing death of Marian Cozma, a Romanian handball star, who was killed earlier in the day at a Hungarian night club. Teammates Zarko Sesum and Ivan Pesic also were stabbed and sustained serious injuries.

Romania as a nation is mourning Cozma, who at 26 years old was called a "giant" of the sport on the European Handball Federation's Web site.

Cozma, coincidentally, also looked a lot like in-limbo Brewers right-hander Ben Sheets

Before allegations leaked that he used performance-enhancing drugs, Alex Rodriguez appeared to be bound for enshrinement into baseball's Hall of Fame. The electorate has shown what it collectively thinks of drugs in its treatment of Mark McGwire who, while not in A-Rod's class, was expected to make the Hall after hitting 583 career homers and obliterrating Roger Maris' single-season homer record in 1998.

Unlike A-Rod, McGwire never confessed to anything and he was caught with a lot less — a bottle of Andro — than what has been reported with Rodriguez. Big Mac can't get 30 percent of the vote.

Even with his admission to ESPN and apology to fans for using PEDs from 2001-2003, A-Rod faces forboding terrain as it relates to the Hall in the coming years. Whether the voters will believe, or care, that he "only" used when he says he did, or if they'll just skim a few homers off the top of his 600-, 700- or 800-plus career total, remains to be seen.

The story gets more complex from there. As

After consulting with his entourage, including agent Scott Boras, Alex Rodriguez (above, right) admitted to taking a banned substance from 2001 to 2003 while playing for the Rangers.

What do you think of his confirmation, Stewies?

Did he do the right thing by admitting he did the wrong thing?

Should he have kept quiet?

Denied, denied, denied?

Lied some more, like he did to America's Sweetheart, Katie Couric?

Do you forgive him?

Do you care?

Still going to Yankee Stadium this season?

Never turning on a baseball game again?

Sound off!

We'll have more on this story as it, sigh, comes in.

A few quick links to start your day ...

• Curt Schilling over the weekend re-appointed himself protector of baseball's integrity, saying he favors the names of all 104 players who tested positive in 2003 to be revealed, and not to stop at Alex Rodriguez. "In my opinion, if you don’t do that, then the other 600-700 players are going to be guilty by association, forever," Schilling writes in his blog. [38 Pitches]

• Not so fast! Before anyone gets all Woodward and Bernstein or, heaven forbid, Joe McCarthy and Roy Cohn (right) to procure a list of names, Yahoo! Sports' own Jonathan Littman reports that it probably was illegal to leak the A-Rod allegations to Sports Illustrated. [Y! Sports]

• If Selena Roberts reveals more names in her upcoming A-Rod book, she doesn't know them yet, she tells Bob Costas. [Boogiedown Baseball]

• Just legalize it, mon! In some parts, they just want to make what A-Rod allegedly did not against the rules. Probably not going to happen in this climate, but a boy

Swerving to avoid taking either of two Scott Boras clients with the first overall pick in the 2004 major league draft, the Padres instead grabbed Matt Bush and paid him a $3,150,000 signing bonus.

Nearly five years of failure, a position switch and several embarrassing off-the-field incidents later, consider it money well-wasted.

At the same time area police were looking for Bush in connection with allegations he drunkenly assaulted high schoolers, the Padres designated him for assignment on Thursday in order to make room on the 40-man roster for free-agent Cliff Floyd.

Bush, a witness alleges in the San Diego Union-Tribune, "Picked up and threw a freshman lacrosse player and hit another one. Bush also yelled 'I'm Matt (expletive) Bush, and '(expletive) East County.' "

Padres general manager Kevin Towers added, with humor probably unintended, "The Matt Bush era is probably over."

So, where does Bush rank on the all-time list of baseball busts? Somewhere between Morganna the Kissing

Whether you're waiting for it or not, the World Baseball Classic is fast approaching. The international shindig kicks off in Tokyo on March 5 and runs through the final at Dodger Stadium on March 23. In an attempt to get you quickly up to speed with what's going on, BLS will be running occasional team previews as the event nears.

Republic of South Africa

Pool: B, Mexico City

'06 WBC finish: Lost 17-0 against United States; went 0-3 in pool play

First game: Sunday, March 8

Five questions to ask about South Africa