Margaret BauerWhether he intended to or not, Jose Canseco’s book entitled “Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big,” released on Mon., Feb. 14, has greatly helped the game of baseball. In his book the former major league slugger claims that 80 percent of major league players have taken steroids and calls out former teammates, including Ivan Rodriguez, Rafael Palmeiro, Juan Gonzalez and St. Louis’s own Mark McGwire. While there is no way to know if all of his claims are in fact truth, (he also strongly believes that Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds and Bret Boone, among others, are steroids users) these allegations bring further attention to the issue that threatens the credibility of the sport, while forcing major league baseball owners and the players’ union to lay down strict rules for the future.
In the past two weeks, Canseco has been interviewed by Mike Wallace on CBS’s popular news magazine “60 Minutes,” his allegations have been featured on ESPN’s “Sportscenter,” and the book itself finished third on Amazon.com’s best-seller’s list on its first day. The book and its accusations are adding to the negative image already overshadowing the Major League. This offseason, Major League Baseball has been hit hard by the BALCO investigations, which revealed separate testimonies from Jason Giambi and Barry Bonds in which they admitted to taking forms of anabolic steroids. Subsequently, the owners and players’ union agreed to a more stringent steroid policy, suspending all first-time offenders for ten days and implementing year-round random testing. Despite these marginal improvements, more can be done.
Thus far, baseball commissioner Bud Selig has refused to comment publicly on the accounts contained in the book and all of the players implicated by Canseco have either vehemently denied the accusations or declined to speak. Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, who was not mentioned by Canseco in the book, thinks the public finger pointing is unfair. He has been quoted as saying, “This is a time, obviously, [when] baseball is in a negative light and Jose is not helping out. In terms of his accusations, the only people that know are him and whoever he is accusing. The unfortunate thing is, if it’s not true, you’re looking at guys having to defend themselves over something they haven’t done.”
Can Jose Canseco be trusted? These steroid indictments, while almost all plausible, have no hard proof to back them up. Furthermore, early reviews of his book have revealed some factual inaccuracies in many of his claims. For example, he recounts an instance during a spring training game in 2000 while playing for the Anaheim Angels when he had a conversation with Mariners All-Star second baseman Bret Boone, who admitted at the time to taking steroids. But this situation never happened according to baseball record books, which indicate that Canseco never reached second base in any of the five exhibition games between the two teams. Canseco also alleges in his book that he struck out pinch-hitting in a crucial situation in game six of the 2000 World Series while playing for the Yankees (the Yankees actually won the World Series in four games), and vividly describes a monster home run that he hit during his rookie season against Detroit in Tiger Stadium, though records show that this also never occurred.
Therefore, can we believe anything that he’s saying? Some of his most outrageous assertions include providing Sammy Sosa with his first corked bat, roughing up Kevin Costner because he was making a pass at Cal Ripken’s wife and maintaining that Major League Baseball allowed Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Orel Hershiser to scuff the baseball during the 1988 World Series because they did not want the Latin and black players on Canseco’s Athletics to win.
If this book is, in fact, a web of lies and personal attacks on former acquaintances, what are his motives? Many people, including his former manager, Tony La Russa, argue that this book is simply a means for Canseco to earn cash quick, and, judging by the book’s early success, this goal most likely will be attained. Or maybe Canseco realizes that his career was not Hall-of-Fame-worthy and, in anger, wants to take down many other superstar sluggers with him?
But either way, it does not matter. Whether his stories and recollections are true or not, the book is quickly gaining enough publicity to become something which Major League Baseball has to tackle. If his steroid accusations continue to pick up steam in the press, Selig will no longer be able to ignore them. Jose Canseco may have been the most significant contributor to the introduction of steroids to baseball players but also may end up playing a substantial role in eliminating them as well.