Jose Canseco -- who, amazingly, was available to take a reporter's call -- had this to say in the wake of Manny and Papi:
And I'll tell you this, Major League Baseball is going to have a big, big problem on their hands when they find out they have a Hall of Famer who's used.
It may be fun to speculate about who that Hall of Famer might be, but I'm not going there because parlor games are for old ladies. Interesting, though, to think about the implications of a steroid guy already being in the Hall. That is assuming there aren't a bunch there, which there could be. Steroids weren't invented in 1989, you know.
But let's say it is one guy, and we find out who it is. What then? Well, one possibility is that everyone freaks out and the writers and the Hall try to see if they can drum the guy out or something. Not likely, in my opinion, because it's totally unprecedented and if you start drumming people out, there's nowhere to stop. More likely: People realize that the world didn't end to have a 'roider in the Hall, people start to look at Bonds, Clemens and everyone else in a more reasonable light, and life goes on.
Which would be neat. Because just as Jose Canseco's initial comments in 2002 set off the whole steroids furor, perhaps his comments about a PED user in the Hall will ultimately lead to the end of the furor.
Then we can award him a prize or something.
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The way I see it is, if it wasn't illegal to use steroids at the time, why all the complaining? I've never seen so many comlaints about someone who "Broke a rule" when it wasn't a rule. Why wasn't it a rule? Ask Bud Selig. This testing that was done in 2003 wasn't to see if players were breaking the rules (remember, you can't be breaking a rule if it's not a rule) it was to see if there was a problem with steroids in baseball. Again all anger should be at Selig, he's the one who allowed it.
I bet George Brett was a juicer. The guy was pure rage!
IDIOT! George best years was before steroids. Get a life.
ditto, justafanfrom stl! this will be probably the only time we will agree since stl and la might meet in the ps!
Before - Bud sold the Brewers for what 500 million ???
STEROIDS, WE TALKING ABOUT STEROIDS, NEVER HEARD OF IT.......
After the check cleared,,,,,,,,
WE HAVE A PROBLEM..........
AND DON'T FORGET BUSH, HE OWNED THE TEXAS Roid-gers.............
Pudge, Gonzalez,Palmiero.......
Wasn't it illegal to possess the stuff?
Yeah, aren't steroids a prescription drug, and using them without a prescription illegal?
They were NOT in the MLB rules, but guess what, they were against Federal Law. MLB was like the fat kid on the playground, last to pick it up and ban it. Both Hall of Fame inductees this weekend were on teams with known users. Henderson got bigger as he got older. Now i am not accusing them, but wouldn't surprise me if thats who he was talking about. Conseco has been right with almost every accusation concerning steroids. Don't doubt his validity now.
I also would like to have that little point about legality clarified - if it was illegal in 2003 to take a controlled substance without a doctor's prescription, it doesn't matter if it was against baseball's rules or not at the time! Since when are major league baseball players, even foreign nationals, immune to federal law?
There are lots of things that people do that are against federal (state) law that doesn't bring down the @!$%#storm that steroids do. DUI, Cocaine abuse (hello 80s), beating your wife, etc. Aren't amphetamines a controlled substance that was banned away ago? So how about those teams in the 60's/70's?
exactly. Baseball players break laws all the time. I guess that doesn't excuse it, but lots of law-breaking jerks are in the Hall. Ty Cobb might have killed a guy.
If Rickey were a user, there is no way he could've stolen all those bases well into his 40s, as his legs would've broken down. He would've stolen about 5-7 bases a year like Barry did in the 2000s.
I will guess Nolan Ryan, who threw his 7th no-hitter at age 44 in 1991 and was Canseco's teammate in 1992 and 1993, or Cal Ripken, who almost ended his streak prematurely in 1993 after a huge team brawl against Seattle. He told his wife his streak was done, and then miraculously came back the next day after severely twisting his ankle. He was also a teammate of Brady Anderson.
ooh, accusing Cal. That'll get people riled up.
I don't think steroids work like that. They don't make it all better overnight. More likely Cal took Lidocaine or some other fairly heavy painkiller(s). Which would make an interesting comparison with anabolic steroids, but I don't think this is particularly good circumstantial evidence that Cal used (even as circumstantial evidence goes its kinda lousy).
Ricky Absolutely could have stolen those bases in his 40s with steroids if he didnt use steroids until the his late 30s. And Bonds was stealing around 20 bases near he end. Cal Ripkens argument is poor. I made a similar post in another thread about Cal, and how he was teammates with multiple known steroid users. But technically, everyone was probably a teammate of a steroid user.
Who is to say these guys didn't have a "doctors" prescription.
For one, who writes a story with Jose Canseco as a source anymore? Jose Canseco is an idiot. Anyone who thinks Jose Canseco is a valuable source is an idiot.
For two, anyone who thinks there aren't steroid users in the hall of fame is an idiot as well. There are probably dozens of them. Not to mention crackheads, pot heads, meth users, spousal abusers, drunks, cheaters, liars and every other type of jerk and low life.
For three, and this last one is only a recent discovery. Craig Calcaterra is an idiot. God, what happened? We lost one of the better sports writers/bloggers. I think Calc has been spending too much time with that other idiot, Florio.
For one, so far most everything Canseco said has been true. So to say he is not a viable source is idiotic.
For b, beating your wife, smoking a doobie, or downing a fifth of alcohol, never gave any length to a players home run.
And 4, any article that can illicit 12 comments in 2 hours is okay by me. Keep up the good word Craig.
Canseco hasn't said anything... LOL. There is a user in the Hall? OMG! Breaking News!!! More "truth" from Jose...
If steroids only gave length to what was already a home run, why are we discussing it?
You have very low standards. Box scores get 12 comments in 2 hours.
but remember.....No matter what, lets keep Pete Rose out of baseball forever. Mr. Selig, this is your legacy. On your tombstone it will read "Ruined Baseball by being weak on drugs and hard on Pete Rose." This guy missed the boat and now many of our records are in question and can't be trusted. It's Bonds, McGuire, Sosa, and all the other CHEATERS that should be banned from baseball, not somebody who bet on his own team to win. Selig has no idea what integrity means. Clown.
Oh, Steve Howe called, he thinks he has the cocaine thing under control and wants to return for the 10th time.
Isn't he dead?
You heard it here first: "Football has hall of famers that used steroids".
People are so funny. They say it was not illegal but it was, because it was against the law. Do all sports need to re outline all laws? Is it ok to do something even thought it is illegal if you are playing in a sport that makes it legal? I dont get it. And to say well everyone does illegal stuff, speed, amphetamines, dope, spousal abuse. But those arguments are a mute point its apples and oranges. Ampetamines sure they might have added awareness and maybe you could consider that a PED but nothing else there is. Nothing else mentioned made people better. So to make it a solid statement, Baseball rules never prohibited anabolic steroids in use in its players, however it was illegal in the United states at the time. Although players may have broken the law in other areas, and suspended or fined for those acts, they were breaking the law in using PEDS to promote their strength and make them a better player.
It was illegal it was wrong, every single team had at least 1 player using them probably about 3 for team.
Today's baseball writers are the absolute worst in several generations. I can't stand their crapola. They know little or nothing about baseball, today or yesterday. I can't imagine the garbage coming out of Calcaterra's word processor. Yep, we are all glad cheaters are in the HOF and we really want a lot more of them. Stuck on stupid.
What about Gaylord Perry? He cheated and he's in. Where do you draw the line?
First you need to distinguish between PED's and Steroids. They are two different things. While Steroids may have been illegal by Federal Law, not all PED's were. Androstenedione and Androstenediol are perfect examples. During the mid to late 90's, it wasn't illegal to use these and they were sold in GNC stores and online, but today it is considered a performance enhancer now. During this so called steroid/PED era, athletes were using multiple things that are now federally banned, but weren't during those times. So to say, that all of them were cheaters because they were taking illegally banned substances is far from the truth. To say that players using Steroids shouldn't be Hall of Fame eligible is nonsense. There was no testing or rules against steroids in MLB, so how can you judge someone for breaking rules that didn't exist. To be convicted for breaking a federal steroid law, you have to test positive, caught with possession, or caught by distribution. Testing wasn't being conducted and no one was caught with possession, so all of this steroid/PEB is all based on heresay or after the fact.
It was Eckersley. Bet.
That story broke on yahoo about 40 minutes ago. Great guess though.
Dennis Eckersley... teammate of Canseco, McGwire, Giambi, and Parker... on a LaRussa team... using STEROIDS!?!? Next thing you'll tell me is that Dusty Baker's players in San Francisco and Chicago were using... what a shock!
Nothing's been (or is likely to BE) proven, so it will remain speculation.