AP file
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| Our foremost steroids expert?
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The comments were made casually, and once again, the world smirked. That silly Jose Canseco. He just doesn't know how to quit while he's ahead.
It was a month ago, and someone asked Canseco about Manny Ramirez. Was the newly re-signed Dodgers' slugger on his radar as a suspected steroid user?
Yes, Canseco responded, because you can't be sure of anyone.
He offered no first-hand knowledge. No smoking gun. No sketchy rumors or overheard conversations. Simply an interesting theory.
Why didn't Ramirez get a long-term deal? Canseco asks. Why were owners gun-shy about signing arguably the game's best hitter? … To Canseco, the drawn-out negotiation, the lack of a long-term deal, the lack of interest all raise red flags, and so he tells the Bovard crowd that Ramirez's "name is most likely, 90%," on the list.
On Thursday, Canseco was asked once again about Ramirez, and hardly blinked. Not only was he not surprised by the revelations, he offered insight into the drug HCG, which Ramirez was busted for using. Canseco is currently on probation for trying to carry the drug across the Mexican border.
Asked why the Dodgers star might've taken it, Canseco offered a general explanation.
"It could be that a player used it because he used steroids and went cold-turkey and needed HCG to get his levels back to normal," Canseco told The Associated Press by telephone.
"I had to use it when I quit steroids cold-turkey. I had to go to a doctor to get it and get my levels back. Yeah, they may not be taking steroids now, but they may have and now their testosterone level is not back to normal. HCG is one of those chemicals — it works but it takes time."
So Canseco, despite more doubts, eye-rolling, and muffled chuckles from doubters everywhere, earns himself yet more credibility. Through two tell-all books, Canseco has implicated several players as steroid users, including Jason Giambi, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, and Alex Rodriguez.
A month ago, he expressed doubts about Manny Ramirez.
Maybe it's time to stop doubting him. If he's not batting 1.000, he's got to be pretty close.
Canseco, meanwhile, said he planned to skip the splashy book on Rodriguez that was released this week.
"I'm not going to read what I already know. It's old news to me," he said.
Indeed.
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And the truth shall set you free!!!
And the truth shall set you free!!
The man is still a jerk in my book. If he was in the Mafia he'd be in witness protection right now or having his face shadowed when giving interviews. Does Canseco even have any friends left in baseball? The only way the man could make money is by snitching. Who likes a snitch?? He's pond scum.
Why is the idea of telling the truth called snitching? This has got to stop. People don't speak the truth anymore because society has deemed speaking the truth as something that is bad or dishonorable. Please, give me a break. Canseco is probably the games savior........ how ironic is that. The man baseball kicked out is now the one purging the system clean.
Hey, 116 Clique ----- Your observation is on the money. Canseco, jerk that he may well be, might just be the cleansing agent for MLB. His allegations and observations have proven time and again to have been pretty close, if not RIGHT ON THE MONEY. For "Little Nobody" or anyone else to call him out for snitching, it strikes of the attitude displayed in the ghettos (No Snitchin'). How ignorant of a comment. Apparently, for "Little Nobody" and others of that ilk, some sort of street code supercedes character. Clean players in MLB should rise up as individuals or as a group, and demand that Bud and his cronies, release all of the names on the list of users. Let baseball fans see who and what they are paying for. If that list ever comes to light, players will be scurrying for the dark recesses like cockroaches. What a sorry state MLB has become. Baseball needs MORE players like Canseco to speak out. The "dirty" players will not like it, but clean players and the fans nationwide would find it more than refreshing. Character DOES count. Major League Baseball needs it --- NOW.
He is not batting .1000. He struck out and missed on Roger Clemens, who he said was clean.
Say it aint so, Joe. Canseco a sympathetic figure? Baseball is beyond damaged; toss away all the records and (gasp) statistics of the modern era. The games brightest stars are all suspect and the nation's pastime is mortally wounded.
Basketball is americas past time sport!!! They are the best athletes in the World and they do it all without steroids like baseball and football
You sure about that? Have you looked at Lebron's physique lately?
Basketball? That's a joke.
Football is America's pastime (By the way, it is not written America's past time. Pastime, one word.
Basketball players are hardly the best athletes in the world. Not when a fat guy like Charles Barkley could play it for so long. The hardest thing to do in sports is hit a baseball.
My ranking of America's pastimes is: and these are my favorite sports – football, baseball, ice hockey
As for cheating in baseball, it has been going on since the game was invented. Shine balls, spit balls, corked bats, betting on games. Steroids is just the latest. And it won't stop until something severe is done such as throwing the guys out of the game, as Commissioner Landis did with the 1919 White Sox, or Pete Rose. When players realize they will lose millions of dollars when they get caught, they will stop using steroids and other drugs.
Then they'll just look for another way to cheat.
Interesting that you say that there should be extreme penalties for baseball yet your favorite sport is one in which nearly everyone, if not all, players take steroids. So is taking steroids only cheating in baseball but not in football? And if so, I'd love to here your reasoning why.
Jose has paid for his mistakes. The poor guy is broke for Pete's sake (Rose that is)...get the hell off him! Why shouldn't he tell what he knows? I despise people that stay silent just because their peers say "don't be a snitch". MLB should help the guy financially for bringing a wide-spread cheating scandal to light. The damn cheaters should be exposed for the pieces of crap they are. Those are the people that are wrong here NOT Canseco. For all of you dorks critisizing him...you have no skeletons in your closets hypocrites? You've never done anything you regret? Shut the hell up liars! Jose deserves another chance in my book. He's just a person like the rest of us.
Hey, John ----- Well stated. Many people likely feel that way, but not enough get up and demand to be heard. That includes the "clean" players. Keep some of your ire for the "owners" as well. They knew, or certainly should have known. about the drug problems in baseball. Not just the "stars", but when you have banjo hitters who bat .250 are suddenly hiting .290 and hitting 40 + home runs a year, well, there should be more ringing in the heads of owners besides the cash registers. Clean up baseball --- NOW !!! Users should get LIFETIME BANS.
Is there any way that we really know what sport is clean when athletes from sports like Fencing and Swimming have been suspended and had their medals taken away for using banned substances. In our country, most of us think of sports as being one of the big three or four. Not so around the world. Soccer as we know it, is bigger around the world than all of ours put together. My point is that regardless of the sport, regardless of where the sport is played, there seems to be cheating. It probably differs with each sport and I don't know what percentage of players are cheating, but one would think that it's a significant amount based on the numbers being caught. Money and fame gained through success I'm sure is a big factor in explaining why this is happening. How do we fix it, I don't know but I wish that the clean athletes in all sports would stand up and take the attitude that they themselves would rid their sport of the cheaters. Until the clean athletes' attitude changes, I fear that this will continue. We live in a time of greed and stupidity and we as fans and the sport itself are being cheated.