There is a huge black eye on Major League Baseball right now. Steroids allegations have crippled America’s pasttime and put doubts in the minds of fans.
Some suspicions have proved true, while others are yet to be seen. Major League Baseball recently instated a new steroid policy that will hopefully clean up the game, but now its past is clouded. That cloud just got bigger and darker.
Jose Canseco has recently written a book about his baseball career. Canseco was the first Major League player to hit 40 homeruns and steal 40 bases in the same season.
He was a sensation in his first few years as a professional, but Canseco faltered into becoming the laughing stock of the league.
His numbers regressed every season as he bounced around from team to team. One of his most notable feats came when he was a member of the Texas Rangers.
Canseco was playing right field when a long fly ball came his way. Canseco darted back to the warning track and lifted his glove to catch the ball only to have the ball bounce off his head and over the fence for a home run.
Jose’s talent wasn’t God-given or earned through hard work and discipline; Jose used steroids to gain his success.
Canseco was drafted as 175- pound shortstop and wasn’t predicted to ever be a star at the big league level. But four years later Canseco was a muscular 240 lbs. and swatting home runs for the Oakland Athletics.
Canseco’s book allegedly names himself and some prominent others as steroid abusers. Canseco says he shot up former teammate and future member of the Hall of Fame Mark McGwire himself.
He also claims such superstars as Ivan Rodriguez and Mississippi State alumnus Rafael Palmeiro used steroids.
Canseco even goes so far as to say that former Texas Rangers owner and current United States President George W. Bush had to know what was happening in the clubhouse. All have denied the allegations.
If there is one person I trust less than Pete Rose, it is Jose Canseco. Canseco has become a money-hungry, jealous has-been who squandered a fortune and now wants an easy dollar.
Even his former manager Tony LaRussa has said that Jose is simply jealous. Don’t forget Jose was half of the Bash Brothers; the other half was future homerun king McGwire.
Not long ago Canseco was put on house arrest, and what did he do to pass the time? Why, he did what any has-been would have done. He started an auction named “spend the day with Jose.”
The lucky winner got to come to Jose’s house, seeing as how Jose couldn’t leave, and spend the day with him.
I tried my best to win this grandest of all prizes but The Reflector just doesn’t pay enough for me to afford a day with a legend.
A couple of years ago this might have been laughed at and then forgotten. But after the admitted use of steroids by Ken Caminiti and Jason Giambi and the Balco investigations that might taint the numbers of superstar Barry Bonds, any alleged steroid use will result in a thorough investigation. You can expect a full-blown witch-hunt all season long.
No doubt, steroids are a problem, and the problem needs to be solved. But the day people start trusting Jose Canseco should be the same day Ole Miss wins a national championship.
The only way I would have believed Canseco is if he would have privately told the commissioner.
I will not trust a man who has something to gain by telling me something sensational. Especially, when he gains something he needs like money. No way, Jose.