Current Events

TOPICS:

Previous

PAGE: 

1 ... 

252 | 253 | 254

 ... 460

Next

Attack_Macaque

Attack_Macaque

Mesquite, TX
September 2004

FEB 07, 2005 01:49 PM

The New York Daily News is reporting that an upcoming book by former Oakland A's outfielder Jose Canseco will allege widespread steroid abuse in Major League Baseball involving a number of current and former players. The book, titled Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big, doesn't hit the stands until February 21, but it already has a lot of people nervous:



Players, agents, union officials and Major League Baseball executives have been burning up the phone lines over the past several days trying to find information about the book's contents.



"Hoo boy," one top major league executive said. "This is going to be bad."



Canseco reportedly attempts to present steroid use in a positive light: while conceding that children shouldn't use them, he says that all players should use steroids and "practically offers a how-to guide to steroids and human growth hormone" in his book. Among his more incendiary allegations, he claims to have personally introduced steroids to Major League Baseball and administered them several times to teammate Mark McGwire, who once held the MLB single-season home run record.



Canseco also says that both owners and the MLB Players Association were deeply involved in the spread of steroids during the 1990s. He claims to have introduced former Texas Rangers Pudge Rodriguez, Rafael Palmeiro and Juan Gonzalez to steroids during a brief stint with the team in the early 1990's and alleges that President Bush, who at the time was the team's managing general partner, knew about steroid use on the team and did nothing to address it. When asked about the allegations, White House spokesman Ken Lisaius declined to comment.



The book and its author have both already been angrily condemned by St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa (see here and here), who had Canseco on his team when he was with the Oakland A's and also managed McGwire during the slugger's stints with the A's and Cards:



"I just hope that the paper that made a big deal of Jose's accusations gives the same attention to those of us who know Mark," La Russa said. "I couldn't disagree more. I categorically refuse to accept anything that Jose says about Mark."



[...] "The biggest key for McGwire is that all of his strength and size gains came from five or six days a week of hitting the gym with a very disciplined workout, his protein intake and careful dieting," La Russa said. "He was probably in the gym 10 times more than Jose, and Jose was bigger."



LaRussa questioned the motivations of Canseco, who has been in legal and financial trouble on and off since he left the game in 2001:



"He's hurting for money and he needs to make a score," La Russa said. "What's a more sensational thing to say, and who's a more sensational target to pick than Mark?"

"The more sensational the actions, obviously the better chance he has to recover some of his money. My guess is that he's in dire straits for finances," La Russa said. "And it's almost a human condition that he's probably jealous as hell of Mark--that Mark's kept his life together instead of what Jose did to himself. I think it's a matter of needing money and being jealous."



True or not, the implications in Canseco's book are sure to generate a great deal of controversy as they become public, coming as they do in the wake of the BALCO scandal. And Canseco's remarks about Bush could be politically damaging, especially in light of Bush's remarks during the 2004 State of the Union address when he called on MLB players and owners to rid the sport of steroids.

stockula

stockula

Anchorage, AK
May 2003

FEB 07, 2005 03:01 PM

"I did steroids, and it's Bush's fault!"

Sometimes I think about becoming a Bush-bashing hack, just to make money.

jake_lex

jake_lex

Lexington, KY
February 2003

FEB 07, 2005 03:05 PM

stockula said:
"I did steroids, and it's Bush's fault!"

Sometimes I think about becoming a Bush-bashing hack, just to make money.



I think you see these posts, and your knee jerks, and what's on the screen after it hits the keyboard is what you post.

I don't see it being that damaging for Dubya, because he hasn't really done more about this issue than tossing out a throwaway line in the 2004 State of the Union address. But the larger problem is for MLB. Anyone who watched baseball in the '90s knew that they were basing their resurgence on the longball, on home runs. This threatens to cheapen and ruin the season that really put MLB back on the map, the 1998 race between McGwire and Sosa. If what got people back into baseball turns out to be a couple of 'roid heads juiced out of their minds, that's not good.

SomethingStupid

SomethingStupid

North Hollywood, CA
March 2004

FEB 07, 2005 03:15 PM

stockula said:
"I did steroids, and it's Bush's fault!"

Sometimes I think about becoming a Bush-bashing hack, just to make money.


Jesus Christ. This has nothing to do with the president and everything to do with baseball. The only reason to even bring him up is because it's sensational, but I seriously doubt that Bush will deal with any sort of fallout about this. All that was said was that he knew that players were doing steroids. The main point is that people on all levels of management were/are aware of the steroid abuse.

monkeybutt

monkeybutt

I'm lost
May 2004

FEB 07, 2005 03:25 PM

i told a friend here once that i was juicing every day and he was like "really, you didn't seem like the type" and i said "Oh, yeah, beets and carrots and celery and apples and shit every single day" and he was like "dude, juicing is slang for using steroids" and i said "like, pssfhaw, man, no fucking WAY!"

contrast

contrast

Minneapolis, MN
January 2004

FEB 07, 2005 03:37 PM

well, if you consider how much interest, entertainment, excitement, business, etc. were generated by the mcguire/sosa/bonds home run seasons... then steriods are obviously a good thing for the game.

Cash

Cash

I'm lost
OLD SKOOL

FEB 07, 2005 03:48 PM

If any of you ever followed baseball...you'd know that Jose Canseco has just about zero credibility. While I haven't read the book, and probably won't...I think you have to question the motives of a guy releasing a book about steroids in baseball right when steroids in baseball is a hot issue.

Cash

Cash

I'm lost
OLD SKOOL

FEB 07, 2005 03:51 PM

just as a post-script...Jose isn't naming anybody who wasn't already widely rumored to be using steroids.

You want to shock people, Jose? Accuse Mark Lemke and Otis Nixon of taking steroids.

[Edited on Feb 07, 2005 by Cash]

jake_lex

jake_lex

Lexington, KY
February 2003

FEB 07, 2005 04:25 PM

Cash said:
If any of you ever followed baseball...you'd know that Jose Canseco has just about zero credibility. While I haven't read the book, and probably won't...I think you have to question the motives of a guy releasing a book about steroids in baseball right when steroids in baseball is a hot issue.



Yeah, I think that's going to help keep this from going too far too.

I do want some corraboration on this.

bpatrick

bpatrick

Tampa, FL
March 2004

FEB 07, 2005 05:55 PM

I would say Canseco is a has-
been but that implies he was important
at some point. This guy never could stay
on a team after he left the A's (he was
even so desperate he played for the
Devil Rays). He also has history of
financial trouble.. about 2 years ago
he was offering to hang out with people
for a few days for 3000.00 in Miami, and
some people actually did it. Zero credibility, even if some of his allegations are true.

Cash

Cash

I'm lost
OLD SKOOL

FEB 07, 2005 06:18 PM

cjensen said:
I would say Canseco is a has-been but that implies he was important at some point.



I'd say inventing the 40-40 club qualifies him as important at some point. I don't care for him...but you can't erase history because someone's an asshole.

PeetyMcGee

PeetyMcGee

New York, NY
November 2003

FEB 07, 2005 06:21 PM

Bad things happen when you take the juice


[Edited on Feb 07, 2005 by gavanv]

Brinstar

Brinstar

Chicago, IL
September 2002

FEB 07, 2005 06:29 PM

So lots of baseball players use steroids and lots of people look the other way?

Wow.


I am so... very... very...


shocked!

joydivisior

joydivisior

West Warwick, RI
June 2004

FEB 07, 2005 07:03 PM

hasn't canseco embarassed himself and baseball enough?

purged

purged

Aruba
September 2003

FEB 07, 2005 07:08 PM

If you ask anyone in north texas they would say the worst thing by a long shot that Bush did as an owner was not overlooking steroid use but trading Sammy Sosa for a washed up Harold Baines. For that alone he should of never been elected president, he is obviously an idiot.

Brinstar

Brinstar

Chicago, IL
September 2002

FEB 07, 2005 07:16 PM

I don't really follow professional sports but how much input do the owners of teams generally have in trading? I figure they would hire people to do that stuff for them.

Hopey

Hopey

Corvallis, OR
January 2004

FEB 07, 2005 07:20 PM

stockula said:
"I did steroids, and it's Bush's fault!"

Sometimes I think about becoming a Bush-bashing hack, just to make money.



who said that? I didn't see anything about anyone saying that.

You're a lot like the sherriff of Malibu sometimes, Stock.

theseeman

theseeman

Asheville, NC
December 2002

FEB 07, 2005 07:39 PM

"You're a lot like the sherriff of Malibu sometimes, Stock."
from the big Labowski?

I justed wanted to say Jose Canseco's baseball card was the first one I got that made me feel cool, like I had something. Of course they're all in a box somewhere but still.

Jeff_Fries

Jeff_Fries

Humptulips, WA
September 2003

FEB 07, 2005 07:52 PM

hopey said:

stockula said:
"I did steroids, and it's Bush's fault!"

Sometimes I think about becoming a Bush-bashing hack, just to make money.



who said that? I didn't see anything about anyone saying that.

You're a lot like the sherriff of Malibu sometimes, Stock.


I don't know, I was going to post something along those lines. However tangentially, Canseco's implicating Bush as part of the scandal as well because, hey, people hate Bush, right? Can't hurt.

SomethingStupid

SomethingStupid

North Hollywood, CA
March 2004

FEB 07, 2005 10:27 PM

Jeff_Fries said:
I don't know, I was going to post something along those lines. However tangentially, Canseco's implicating Bush as part of the scandal as well because, hey, people hate Bush, right? Can't hurt.


Oh come on, like if another owner of his baseball team became president, he wouldn't have named them. It's sensational, not Bush-bashing. Besides, it says Canseco is arguing that steroid use is okay, so I doubt he's condemning Bush for not doing more to stop things. Not that there really would have been anything he could have done anyway. He more than likely was dimly aware of it and didn't bother to look closer, same as everyone else involved in baseball. Same as the way things are today in just about every professional league. The people who run with "bush is such a jerk because he was giving players steroids and he was trying to ruin baseball just like he ruins everything frown frown frown mad " are morons. For most of us who dislike Bush, this doesn't even register. It's supposed to be a big shocking thing and it's not.

[Edited on Feb 07, 2005 by TedKoppel]

lytdrifter

lytdrifter

Alhambra, CA
June 2003

FEB 09, 2005 01:10 AM

I don't get it.

Canseco was one of the FIRST people to come out several years ago and say that most major league baseball hitters were on steroids. I don't see how people can say he is jumping the bandwagon when he was the one of the early people who blew the whistle.

Further, I don't get why everybody is trying to say Canseco is full of it because he isn't credible. Two years ago or so on Jim Rome he came out and said most of baseball was on the juice, and everybody laughed. Since then, we've found out that Ken Caminiti used steroids during his MVP season, Bonds used them, and Jason Giambi admitted to using them. When a random drug test was administered, no less than 5% of major leaguers were found to have performance enhancing drugs and this was when they KNEW they would be tested.

If anything, all these recent discoveries vindicate Canseco.

Isn't it a fallacy to automatically discount somebody's assertions by attacking their credibility?