&&000 SI, Feb 2009 Yankees want A-Rod to come cleaner when he arrives at camp Story Highlights Yankees execs want A-Rod to follow in Andy Pettitte's footsteps A-Rod's repeated shots at SI writer Selena Roberts were completely unnecessary A-Rod has been way too nice to the union, which unquestionably dropped the ball &&111 Yankees executives saw =AndyPettitte hit a home run with a beautifully handled, seemingly sincere HGH admission last spring and would like to see an encore from their biggest star and best player. While pleased that =AlexRodriguez told some or even a lot of his steroid story to =ESPN's =PeterGammons on Monday, some Yankees insiders would like to see =Rodriguez come even cleaner when he meets the press upon his arrival in spring training early next week. =Pettitte resurrected his image in large part with a terrific performance a year ago, and even though he didn't tell all, he generally satisfied folks with his responses and demeanor and remains a mostly beloved figure in =NewYork. =Rodriguez's task is a lot more difficult, as the =SportsIllustrated report and his subsequent confession painted a picture of performance-enhancement, whereas =Pettitte was able to claim that he took HGH for injury-recovery purposes. Plus, =Rodriguez is a far bigger star with many more years to play and a more controversial public image. Making things trickier for Rodriguez: Nobody was checking to make sure everything =Pettitte said checked out. =A-Rod doesn't figure to have that luxury. While =Rodriguez easily separated himself from the likes of =RogerClemens, =BarryBonds, =RafaelPalmeiro and =MarkMcGwire by admitting PEDs usage and apologizing for his misdeeds in his interview with =Gammons following =SI's story that =A-Rod tested positive for steroids in =2003, several key questions were left unanswered and created the impression that he was holding back. Yankees people would love him to do whatever he can to improve his image, and some believe better answers to some key questions could help immensely. General manager =BrianCashman already said on Day 1 at Yankees camp that he couldn't be absolutely sure that =A-Rod was =100 percent clean as a Yankee, as =Rodriguez claimed in the TV interview. So there's work to do. Here are three areas in which =Rodriguez needs to explain and improve: 1 What steroid banned substance did he take? In =A-Rod's =ESPN interview he claimed not to know what it was. Yet he still somehow knew that, whatever it was, it was banned. He also speculated several times on TV about how banned substances might be available at GNC, which was nothing more than a diversionary tactic, since =SI already reported he tested positive for =Primobolan, a hardcore steroid. Besides, since he admitted to taking a "banned substance," as he put it (he didn't say steroid), he clearly knew it wasn't accidentally ingested through a supplement. 2 How often did he taken the banned substance? This key question was missed in the =ESPN interview. 3 Where did he get the banned substance? First, he needs to stop knocking GNC. Of course, if he's merely trying to protect a teammate or friend, it would be understandable not to say. =MLB never forced =JasonGiambi to give up teammates when he was called into the commissioner's office, and most folks are generally reasonable about allowing players to protect teammates and friends. But GNC doesn't deserve this kind of unfair, unfounded pub. More issues with =A-Rod's interview. Beyond these obvious omissions, I'd also like to know when =Rodriguez really found out about his positive test. Because there's no way in heck it didn't happen until "that lady from =SportsIllustrated" (as he characterized =SelenaRoberts, who broke the story) approached him two days before the story ran. His many references to "that lady" in the TV interview were troubling. His blame - the - messenger rant was not only wrong, it was a bad strategy. His mea culpas need to be about only him, since he is the one who screwed up. All =Roberts did was do her job extremely well. Then, to concoct some story about how she tried to break into his house only damaged his credibility further. Of course, she did no such thing, as the =NewYork =DailyNews, among other media, confirmed. That wild story does nothing to mitigate the damages. Rather, it only makes folks wonder about his other claims, such as his statement that he did not use steroids in =Seattle and =NewYork. =A-Rod too nice to union. =Rodriguez made nice comments about the union, which had six days to destroy, expunge or otherwise do away with the test results but "screwed up royally" (as one agent put it to =SI this week). And that's after wasting weeks trying to find false positives, rather than just accepting the fact that more than five percent of players failed, which was the threshold number to trigger ramped-up testing (with penalties) in =2004. =Rodriguez has a great amount of respect for union guru =GeneOrza, who helped guide him through the =2003-04 trade discussions involving him and disallowed him from taking less money from =Boston before he went to the Yankees at full price. Regardless, the union undoubtedly failed the players in this instance. The union issued a denial to the charges in the =SI piece of tipping players and also to failing to dispose of test results and paperwork, first to =TheNewYorkTimes and then to other media. =MLB is now questioning the union about the tipping allegation, and the union is in major damage-control mode. In the union's version, they are total innocents who behaved impeccably and handled the steroid issue wonderfully. Of course, the reality is that the union completely miscalculated the importance of this issue from the beginning, fought like crazy against any sort of testing, wasted weeks looking for false positives, then let the paperwork exist for six days before =BALCO struck. And then, even after =BALCO struck, all the union had to do was give up the 10 =BALCO - linked players. When they refused, the feds grabbed the whole list. But agreeing to ramp up testing, or handing over the =BALCO names would have meant giving an inch, cutting their losses and admitting an error, a triple-play that some union bigs absolutely will never do. With no new info, =A-Rod won't be suspended. Barring any new bombshell, =Rodriguez won't be suspended by =MLB. The only real difference between him and the other =103 failures is that he was exposed (and remember, the survey testing was supposed to be a punishment-free exercise). While he also admitted to taking a banned substance in =2001 and =02 in addition to the protected year of =03, that was before baseball had any penalties in place. None of the =Mitchell wrongdoers were ever suspended, so based on what's known now, commissioner =BudSelig will presumably not levy a suspension in this case. Something was made of =Selig telling =USAToday, regarding the possibility of suspending =Rodriguez, "It was against the law, so I would have to think about it." That quote comes about because =Selig considers everything that crosses his desk. He considered punishing the =Mitchell boys, too, but ultimately didn't. Of course, if more evidence comes out, or more admissions are made, then =Rodriguez could be at risk.