Alex Rodriguez once ardently prayed to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame despite his PED-tainted past

Back in 2018, Alex Rodriguez accepted in an interview that he prayed that he somehow gets accepted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Due to his tainted reputation resulting from his admission of using PEDs during his playing career, A-Rod and his fans always knew it would be tough for him to be welcomed in Cooperstown.

Alex Rodriguez was one of the superstars to emerge from the MLB in the late 1990s. He would start his career at the Seattle Mariners where he delivered MVP-caliber performances season after season. He then signed with the Texas Rangers for a three-year spell. He would finally join the New York Yankees where he won the World Series in 2009.

But it was during his time at the Yankees that he would face immense backlash for his name appearing on the Michelle Report list, wherein players who had positive PED tests were named as part of an MLB survey.

Rodriguez came out in public and admitted he had cheated. Since then, it was quite obvious that Alex Rodriguez would have a very minimal chance of making it to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

In the interview with Cigar Aficionado, A-Rod said he was still hopeful of making it.

"There's rules, and you have to follow the rules. I made those mistakes, and at the end of the day I have to live by those mistakes. Whether I get in or not -- and let's be clear, I want to get in, I hope I get in, I pray I get in -- if I don't, I think I have a bigger opportunity yet again."

He continued:

"And the platform of my mistakes, the good the bad and the ugly, has allowed me to have a loud voice to the next generation, to say when in doubt, just look at my career ... The other message is, maybe I'm not a Hall of Fame player, but I get a chance to be a Hall of Fame dad, a Hall of Fame friend."

Alex Rodriguez said he was "in a mess" when he was suspended for the entire 2014 season

During the 2013 season, Alex Rodriguez was a central figure in the Biogenesis scandal where more than 13 players were accused of taking PEDs from the US Biogenesis clinic. Rodriguez was suspended for 211 games, which was later reduced to 162 games which constituted the entire 2014 season.

In the 2018 interview, Rodriguez said he was "in a mess" and that all his decisions were silly and irrational in order to keep up with the standards he had set for himself at a very early stage.