Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Jose can you see that you're a fraud?

Jose Canseco’s new book Vindicated: Big Names, Big Liars, and The Battle to Save Baseball is set to be released on April 1. However, a sneak preview offered up by freelance writer Joe Lavin reveals some huge names of MLB present.


Lavin writes Canseco's book discusses A-Rod, Roger Clemens and Magglio Ordonez.

He says Canseco claimed he didn't inject Rodriguez but "introduced Alex to a known supplier of steroids." Lavin also says "Canseco claims that A-Rod was trying to sleep with Canseco's wife."



While Canseco appeared somewhat vindicated after initially blowing the whistle on rampant steroid use, his motives, in my opinion, had nothing to do with “saving baseball”.

In the Spring of ‘02, Canseco attempted to catch on with any team who would give him an opportunity to continue his quest towards 500 career home runs. Back then, such an HR milestone meant almost a sure ticket into the Baseball Hall of Fame. At the end of the 2001 season, Canseco stood at 462 career homers. However, no team was interested in a bloated egomaniac who struck out once approximately every three at-bats over the previous few seasons. So instead of acknowledging that his skills had diminished to virtually nothing, Canseco decided he wanted to make baseball pay.

So in 2005, when Canseco penned his first book Juiced…, he gave this aura of being some sort of humanitarian for shedding the light on steroid abuse by MLB players, even if it meant ratting himself out as an abuser. In truth, Canseco was nothing more than a bitter, washed-up ex-player who couldn’t get over the fact he’d never get into the Hall. As a result, he was hell-bent on bringing down Major League Baseball.

In the end, Canseco may have served a valuable purpose in MLB’s attempts to curb HGH and steroid use. But at best, he was a very unwitting accomplice.

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2 comments:

StarBittrune said...

Canseco's book comes out on April 1? Are you sure this isn't some elaborate April Fool's prank?

Brad Carlson said...

Nah. He's writing another book because he really needs the money. The other day he was invited on a Miami sports radio station to promote the book. He wouldn't do it unless he got paid $1,000. Again, he can act like some humaitarian for exposing baseball's steroid problem. In actuality, he saw a way to make some cash.