MLB Steroid Melodrama

[BC867]

BY MICHAEL O'KEEFFE
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Some Major League Baseball owners welcomed or condoned steroid use because they believed a power surge would bring back fans after the disastrous 1994-95 work stoppage.

The Players Association condoned steroid use because a home run barrage would mean bigger salaries for members and union leaders.

President Bush, who was the Rangers' general managing partner in the early '90s, must have known that some of his players were using steroids but chose not to address the issue.

The writer brings up a good point. Equally guilty with the players are the agents who lined their pockets (while their clients turned from 20 to 40 HR hitters -- such as Palmeiro -- and from 40 to 60 or 70 --namely McGuire and Sosa.

And the Managing General Partners who looked the other way and lined their pockets, while still charging outrageous prices for us to attend a game, grab a snack, etc.

I can't help but wonder if Barry Bonds will continue to pursue Aaron's and Ruth's lifetime HR stats.

Or if he'll have the integrity to retire where he's at and publicly apologize to his godfather Willie Mays, as well.

 

[Hordispack]

I never did like Canseco. But, I don't like anyone who makes money exposing "other peoples" private lives.

 

[Lefty]

The writer brings up a good point. Equally guilty with the players are the agents who lined their pockets (while their clients turned from 20 to 40 HR hitters -- such as Palmeiro -- and from 40 to 60 or 70 --namely McGuire and Sosa.

And the Managing General Partners who looked the other way and lined their pockets, while still charging outrageous prices for us to attend a game, grab a snack, etc.

I can't help but wonder if Barry Bonds will continue to pursue Aaron's and Ruth's lifetime HR stats.

Or if he'll have the integrity to retire where he's at and publicly apologize to his godfather Willie Mays, as well.

Bonds would never quit or apologize because his ego is too big. I believe mlb should put an asterick next to the records that were set during the past 20 years.

Maybe McGwire should apologize to the Maris family but I doubt that will happen either.

 

[cardsunsfan]

I never did like Canseco. But, I don't like anyone who makes money exposing "other peoples" private lives.

I for one am happy this came out..if you don't want to be exposed don't do something illegal and wrong... as for Madonna she probably wanted it to come out. She probably didn't even know him well she just wanted to makeout with a famous baseball player...

 

[AZZenny]

I heard Canseco planning his book on the Dan Patrick Show last year - couple things - this is all his off-the-top recollection - he had no notes or supportive evidence (unlike, say, Jim Bouton). Also, speaking professionally, he sounded very irrational and clinically paranoid at the time.

That said, I don't really doubt that Mac also used steroids. (Heck, I'm even willing to say maybe Gonzo did some 'Clear' or whatever, unwittingly - he gave credit for his HR success in 2001 to taking the Fall Japan tour with Bonds in 2000, whom he said was very helpful.)

Clean it up now, as best they can, and be liberal with the asterisks.

 

[cards 24-7-365]

The rumor in baseball circles is that the Oakland A's became the Bash Brothers because they didn't want to slap each other on the butt because they were too sore from steroid injections.

 

[devilalum]

I heard Canseco planning his book on the Dan Patrick Show last year - couple things - this is all his off-the-top recollection - he had no notes or supportive evidence (unlike, say, Jim Bouton). Also, speaking professionally, he sounded very irrational and clinically paranoid at the time.

That said, I don't really doubt that Mac also used steroids. (Heck, I'm even willing to say maybe Gonzo did some 'Clear' or whatever, unwittingly - he gave credit for his HR success in 2001 to taking the Fall Japan tour with Bonds in 2000, whom he said was very helpful.)

Clean it up now, as best they can, and be liberal with the asterisks.

I really like Gonzo but you have to wonder. 57 taters? From that little frame?

Seems pretty unbelievable that it was all natural now that the cat is out of the bag.

 

[moviegeekjn]

Tony LaRussa fires Canseco disclaimer in New York Times today.

La Russa said Canseco and McGwire were "not really close," and he strongly disputed the idea that McGwire used steroids, let alone allowed Canseco to administer them.

"We detailed Mark's workout routine - six days a week, 12 months a year - and you could see his size and weight gain come through really hard work, a disciplined regimen and the proteins he took - all legal," La Russa said.

"As opposed to the other guy, Jose, who would play around in the gym for 10 minutes, and all of a sudden he's bigger than anybody."

 

[Lefty]

Nomar is being mentioned in Canseco's book

From Rotoworld:

Nomar Garciaparra will be outed as a steroids user in Jose Canseco's book, a source told Boston Dirt Dogs.
Claims made my Canseco should hardly be taken as fact, but they are being treated as news. Here's one more name to add to the list. Feb. 10 - 9:04 pm et
Source: Boston Dirt Dogs

 

[aznando]

Thats such as BS statement. Jose was in the Gym just like everybody else. You dont just show up lift a little take steroids and get as monstorous as Jose got. Steroids arn't a magic potion, they are a steping stone to get over natural barriers. It seemed to take forever for this book to come out. I remember Jose pretty much starting this whole Steroid thing when he came out and said on one of those sports shows, maybe on Fox Sports that 80% of baseball was on Roids and he was going to come out with a book that named names. He also was claiming he was being blackballed from Baseball. That was either 2 or 3 years ago.

Aznando

 

[FORKTUNG]

I wanna know in the book what Jose's wife (the cuban chick) was on - she kicked his arse , heh.

 

[Lefty]

More names mentioned in Canseco's book

Canseco has burned every bridge he has with baseball but I guess he doesn't care. Checkout the names that are being mentioned now.


Canseco book takes swing at Clemens
By MICHAEL O'KEEFFE and T.J. QUINN
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITERS

Jose Canseco's stick-and-tell memoir continued to shock the baseball world today with revelations that implicate Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and several journeymen players, as steroid users.
The book hit bookstores today and is the subject of a "60 Minutes" segment that will be broadcast on Sunday.

Canseco says in his book that he has no direct knowledge of steroid use by those players, and he isn't as brazen when accusing them as he is in describing the alleged steroid use of Mark McGwire, Jason Giambi, Ivan Rodriguez, Rafael Palmeiro and Juan Gonzalez, which the Daily News first reported Sunday. But he points a meaty finger at the game's biggest names in "Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big." He also claims that George W. Bush, as general managing partner of the Texas Rangers in the early '90s, had to be aware of steroid use on his team.

Of Clemens, a seven-time Cy Young winner who has always denied using illegal performance enhancers, Canseco never says he knows for sure that the Rocket shot up. Canseco writes, "I've never seen Roger Clemens do steroids, and he never told me that he did."

But he then goes on for two pages about how Clemens said he used the term "B-12 shots" - clubhouse code for steroids, Canseco says - with respect to other players. He then says how he remembers "thinking" that Clemens showed "classic signs" of steroid use, like sudden improvement late in a career.

Randy Hendricks, one of Clemens' agents, responded angrily today, telling the Daily News: "Neither Roger nor I have seen the book, but any such suggestion is absurd on its face. It's a wonder Canseco didn't name the Pope, given he named President Bush. Roger has not taken any illegal drugs or substances. He has passed all tests and will continue to do so in 2005. In 2004, with stricter testing, he passed the tests and won a record 7th Cy Young Award."

Canseco is as vague when discussing Sosa as he is with Clemens, again saying that he has no first-hand knowledge that he was juicing.

"I don't know Sammy Sosa personally," he writes, "so I can't say for a fact that he ever took steroids."

But again, he writes, he remembers "thinking" that Sosa's body changed more dramatically that McGwire's did before the home run summer of 1998.

"It seemed so obvious, it was a joke," Canseco writes.

"No comment," Sosa agent Adam Katz said.

About Bonds, Canseco says flat-out, "the simple fact is Barry Bonds was definitely using steroids." But he also cites Bonds' testimony before the BALCO grand jury, which was overheard by the Daily News and later revealed in the San Francisco Chronicle, as proof.

About Baltimore Oriole Miguel Tejada, the 2002 AL MVP and a former Oakland teammate of Canseco's, Canseco writes, "I started giving him advice about steroids, and he seemed interested in what I was saying." Canseco says he "can't say for sure" that Tejada cheated, but then writes that he would have been justified in doing so.

He also says that Seattle's Bret Boone, who grew noticeably bigger before the 2001 season, hinted that he was using steroids. Once again, Canseco doesn't use the "S" word, but says when he asked Boone what he had been doing, Boone said "Shhh, Don't tell anybody," and Canseco took that to mean he was "part of the club."

He also says he injected pitcher Wilson Alvarez and outfielder Dave Martinez when they were teammates in Tampa. He says that Tampa pitcher Tony Saunders, who famously broke his arm while pitching in a game, abused steroids.

Clemens spoke to the Daily News about steroids and related subjects in June, denying at the time he had done anything illegal to develop his physique.

Many players have wondered how he remains able to touch 98 on a radar gun at his age, but Clemens said in June that he had no need to vindicate himself or explain his success.

"My motivation, my desire, how I treat people, the respect I have came a long time before I had anything to do with this game of baseball," he said in June. "My mother worked three jobs. She didn't take no for an answer."

 

[BC867]

But again, he writes, he remembers "thinking" that Sosa's body changed more dramatically that McGwire's did before the home run summer of 1998.

"It seemed so obvious, it was a joke," Canseco writes.

"No comment," Sosa agent Adam Katz said.

Hmmm, a "No comment" from Sosa's agent.

 

[AZZenny]

Guess a lot of us will be watching 60 Minutes tomorrow evening. I heard a snippet of the interview with Mike Wallace on ESPN - Canseco in his book said he 'often' injected McGwire, but in the interview says 'Oh, maybe a couple times....once for sure' that he recalls. Mike Wallace smells blood and tries to pin him down - well, 'at least one or two times.'

I would like someone to back Canseco up, even if indirectly, because the baseball powers clearly expect to brush this all aside and expect us to forget all about it.

Hmmm...I think when the Gnats come to BOB this year, we should all hold up big asterisk signs when Bonds is at the plate.

I did see an amusing comment - that at last, the White House has come out and said that President Bush was clueless, and never had any idea what the people around him did or didn't know/do. LOL

 

[BC867]

Hmmm...I think when the Gnats come to BOB this year, we should all hold up big asterisk signs when Bonds is at the plate.

Well, we need something to replace the Randy all-time strikeout list on the wall.

How about we put up the Top 10 all-time homerun list as the Top 6, and omit Bonds (703), McGwire (583), Sosa (574), and Palmiero (551) from it.

The new Top 10
Aaron (755)
Ruth (714)
Mays (660)
F. Robinson (586)
Killebrew (573)
Jackson (563)

That's all!

 

[black]

Ha Ha.

 

[black]

Anytime a person injects themselves to become something they're not, it's plain wrong. Jose's talk is just talk right now, we'll see. I'm a Card's fan but if Mark M. shot up, I'll never respect him anymore.

 

[FORKTUNG]

I remember taking the kids to an autograph signing back in '89 and Jose signed JCan
Whataschmuck.

 

[Southpaw]

Chicago Sun Times

By all accounts, Canseco book worth a look

February 13, 2005

BY CHRIS DE LUCA STAFF REPORTER

At least once a week during his half-season stint with the White Sox in 2001, Jose Canseco would raise his eyebrows and utter the same teasing phrase: "Read the book when I write it.''

The first few times he mentioned this book, it seemed he would be boasting about a fast-lane career that had seen its best days long before he arrived in Chicago. But toward the end of that 2001 season, when 76 games with the Sox closed out his wild major-league service, it was clear that if this book ever got written, it had bombshell potential.

Any time I asked Canseco about steroids, he would smile and say, ''Read the book.''

As details of Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits and How Baseball Got Big, whiCch hit stores this weekend and will get a major preview tonight on CBS' ''60 Minutes,'' leaked out last week, it seems as though Canseco delivered on his promise.

The breakthrough tell-all book Ball Four shocked the baseball world 35 years ago, and Canseco's memoir -- though likely far from being the literary success of Jim Bouton's diary -- should have the same effect during an era in which steroids have become the major issue that threatens the game.

With his off-the-field antics and notorious partying, Canseco universally was considered a poor teammate during most of his 17-season career. But by the time he joined the Sox in 2001 -- after Frank Thomas was lost with a biceps injury originally ridiculed by David Wells -- Canseco had mellowed and was a relatively low-key, amusing figure in a tense clubhouse.

''I've always been the type of guy who sold tickets,'' he said before a Sox game in July 2001, back when he wouldn't admit to using steroids. ''Guys want to see what I look like, to see if I'm a freak. A guy asked me once, 'What do you eat?' I eat food. I'm a human being. I have a daughter [Josie]. But I guess I'm still a freak.

''I don't know how I exactly got to this position in my life. ... Can anything else go wrong? Read the book when I write it.''

Can't wait.

Not that the claims about fellow sluggers Mark McGwire and Jason Giambi shooting steroids with Canseco are surprising. Or the finger-pointing at Sammy Sosa.

The reporting seems heavy on innuendo. But the book is meaningful mostly for its timing.

Baseball thought it had weathered the steroid storm by concocting a new testing policy with the players union this offseason. Then there was talk that the BALCO investigation -- the smoking gun that outed prominent steroid users such as Barry Bonds and Giambi through grand-jury leaks -- might end in a plea bargain by next month.

Case closed. Play ball.

Not so fast.

Just as camps are set to open this week, the issue returns with accusations staining players and teams from coast to coast. Miguel Tejada? Bret Boone? Wilson Alvarez?

Canseco provides plenty of names but much less proof in his book. Still, considering his star value and major-league resume, it will be hard to discount everything he writes.

Already, Giambi sat through a painful news conference at Yankee Stadium to address his steroid use. During the meeting with reporters Thursday, when Giambi was uttering a string of apologies -- without mentioning why he was apologizing -- he lashed out at Canseco and his book.

''I find that delusional,'' Giambi said of Canseco's claims, which include accusations that Ivan Rodriguez, Rafael Palmeiro and Juan Gonzalez used steroids when they were Texas Rangers teammates during George W. Bush's stint as the team's managing partner. ''I don't know where he would come up with anything like that.

''It's kind of sad that Jose is that desperate to make a dime that he would go and talk about President Bush and talk about a ton of people. I think when it comes out, there are going to be a lot of errors in that book. It's so far-fetched that it's not even funny.''

Far-fetched? Grand-jury leaks already have shown that Bonds, Giambi and Gary Sheffield were taking steroids.

When Ball Four was published in 1970 -- documenting the hard partying and womanizing of major-leaguers -- then-commissioner Bowie Kuhn reportedly tried to force Bouton into signing a statement saying the book wasn't true.

Expect the same kind of cover-up tactics to attack Canseco's book. Critics already have accused Canseco of writing the tell-all for money. Maybe, though reports of his new home in Southern California don't paint a picture of a man desperate for money.

Certainly, Canseco is bitter about what he perceives as a conspiracy to keep him out of baseball after the 2001 season. He finished 38 home runs shy of 500, a benchmark he thought was an automatic ticket to the Hall of Fame.

If he can't get to Cooperstown, Canseco seems determined to cast doubt on his former teammates -- most notably McGwire and Roger Clemens -- who already have their tickets stamped.

But Canseco, who stressed that he is an advocate for steroids when used properly, also points out that former teammate Ben Grieve refused his recommendations to take steroids.

This book might be Canseco's last chance to grab the spotlight. It might be a desperate act for attention. It might be full of fiction. It might be more revealing than Ball Four.

I'll take Canseco's advice on this issue and read the book.

 

[Mulli]

Wilson Alvarez and Dave Martinez???? Come on now.

Improvement late in your career is an indicator of steroid use? How does Jose explain his lack of improvement late in his career?

 

[Djaughe]

lol...every time I hear about clemens and 'roids' I think about the W.S. where he threw the broken bat and everyonw was like 'wtf?'..later on they saud he was just being 'competitive'...

 

[Russ Smith]

The reason I'm somewhat inclined to believe McGwire is during the time Canseco is saying McGwire was "juicing" and the A's were looking the other way, it's pretty much accepted as fact that McGwire had an alcohol problem and the team was watching him closely. There was one offseason in particular where McGwire conceded he sought counseling to deal with a personal problem. There had been rampant speculating the A's were following him in spring training to see if he was still drinking.

Just seems to me with all the innuendo going around then if he'd been doing steroids that guys watching him for the rumored drinking problem would have picked up on it? "well he wasn't drinking but he bought a large bag of stuff from some seedy gym."

Also with McGwire, look at him as a rookie until the end of his career and then do the same with Reggie Jackson, virtually identical changes in physiques. To be fair, I used that same analogy to convince myself Bonds was clean before the truth came out.

 

[Lefty]

McGwire, Bonds, Sosa, they all juiced in my opinion. Look at pictures of them when they first came in and then 5 years ago. I know you can gain weight by lifting but those guys blew up. Their heads are even bigger.

 

[cards 24-7-365]

Like Russ, I also tried to talk myself into believing these guys were clean. But if you remember the sudden changes in their bodies you really have to reconsider. Gaining 20-30 lbs of muscle in an what amounts to a 4 month off season is virtually impossible without some "assistance". It is even less possible for these guys who are in thier mid 30's to gain that much muscle in that short a time. Science shows us that gaining 1-2 lbs of muscle per month is about the natural limit.

As far as Big Mac is concerned. It is my oipinion that if a guy uses andro then he probably would be pretty open to trying other substances as well. Think of it as a "gateway drug". Some steroid users will use pro-hormones (andro) in their Post Cycle Therapy (PCT) along with drugs like Clomid and Nolvadex to urge their testicles to return to their normal rate of testosterone production and to minimize the muscle loss after going off steroids.

I think that Brady Anderson was the first guy to really start the rampant steroid use in baseball. Remeber that year (the only year) that he hit 50 HR's and then he never hit more than 30 ever again. the other guys that stick out are Mo Vaughn, Conseco, McGwire, Randy Velarde, Kevin Brown, Sosa, Bagwell, Giambi (who was a singles hitter in college with aluminum bats), etc.

I also believe that Nomar used, he left LSU weight 150 soaking wet. Then a few years ago he was on the cover of SI shirtless touting his workout regimen.

I also would not doubt that Clemens dabbled in steroids and growth hormone. GH is called the "Fountain of Youth" and is undectable in testing. It will aslo make bones grow including the skull. I do not know of any exercise in the world that is capable of making your skull grow? I have heard rumors that Bond's wears a size 8 hat.

When you hear about GH and the other stuff that is undectable it really makes you wonder. Has there ever been a time in sports when so many athletes are playing at such a high level in their late 30's and even into their ealy 40's?

At any rate, I think this stuff needs to come out. I think it is unfortunate that a guy with the credibility of Conseco is the guy who is outing everyone. I just wish someone with some credibility would come out and back his story up. I think steroid use is much worse than any of us can possibly imagine. Remember, until last year it may have been against the law, but it was not cheating in baseball.

 

[aznando]

Good post, I pretty much agree with everything you said. I'm not completly sold on Nomar though, his body type just seems more lean and ripped than massive and the type of work he does at API is more strength,speed and agility but I guess you never really know for sure. Oh yea and he came out of Georgia Tech, not LSU.

Aznando