A baseball article, just this once.
Friends, don’t think I’m suddenly sweet on baseball now.
Can you believe what a shitstorm Jose Canseco has brewed up in the world of baseball? First, he comes out with a blistering expose of steroid use in Major League Baseball, a book that indicts everyone from media darling Mark McGwire to former teammate Jason Giambi, but fails to convincingly promote his book in a way that would make it credible in any way. Case in point: Canseco goes on 60 Minutes with Mike Wallace; Wallace brings up a quote on how Canseco injected McGwire “often.”
MIKE WALLACE: “What we did more times than I can count was go into a bathroom stall together, shoot up steroids”-that’s right. “After batting practice or right before the game, Mark and I would duck into a stall in the men’s room, load up our syringes and inject ourselves. I would often inject Mark.”
JOSE CANSECO: I injected him probably twice. But it wasn’t like-I mean we would just walk in and-a lot of times they were pill form. A lot of times, you know, you would just-a quick injection of whatever and that’s it. It was-
MIKE WALLACE: I’m just repeating what you say-
JOSE CANSECO: Right.
MIKE WALLACE: in the book. And if we’re to believe what you say in the book. I would often”-often. Not twice. “Inject Mark.”
JOSE CANSECO: Well I think it was more inject ourselves. I think I injected him-I mean this is a long time ago. Once or twice for sure. I didn’t keep track but…
Well, Jose, that certainly is convincing. No wonder most people are publicly blasting this book and your credibility. Now, while I think it’s positive that, in the wake of a leaked grand jury testimony by Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, and Gary Sheffield, steroids have finally become an issue in baseball, this book seems like nothing more than a way for Canseco to actually make money by revealing how he cheated throughout his entire career… to bring in some extra cash by admitting what he had done to fool all of his fans, and all of baseball’s fans, for 10 years.
Additionally, he comes off as someone who is spiteful and jealous of Mark McGwire, his former teammate, and the attention and accolades McGwire received while Canseco himself was busy jumping from team to team and, in the mean time, according to Wallace on 60 Minutes, being arrested for carrying a loaded semi-automatic pistol in his car, then charged with aggravated battery for ramming his then-wife’s BMW with his Porsche, then arrested again and jailed for allegedly smacking his estranged bride, and finally in 2001, arrested with his brother after a Halloween fight where they attacked two tourists, leaving one with a broken nose and the other with twenty stitches in his lip.
Well, the best is just showing its head. Now, Canseco, who reportedly is in a little bit of tax trouble, is selling his “treasured” MLB hardware – his 2000 World Series Ring (from his 37 games and one World Series at bat with the Yankees), his 1988 American League MVP Trophy (which runner-up one-year-wonder Mike Greenwell is clambering to have, now that Canseco has admitted cheating), and various signed items of importance, such as jerseys and copies of his book. Prove even more, according to former teammate Dave Stewart, that “he never really liked the game.”
Which really makes me wonder… is he doing this for the money? Is he doing this to get back at Mark McGwire? Or is he doing this to get back at a sport that has left him a laughing stock, a person who is incredibly unbelievable, a sad reminder of the era where drugs, booze, and juice made men legends, while at the same time bringing them crashing down when their baseball careers were over.
Maybe Canseco is just trying to get back at baseball.