Hey everyone...

Wow... it certainly has been a long time since I had any Jose news to share
with you, hasn't it? Well, that's all changed now, since Jose's book hit
the shelves yesterday:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060746408/ref=ase_talkingpoker-20\
/104-5171690-2109502?v=glance&s=books

I have yet to read the book (my copy is on it's way), but along with Jose's
life story, I'm told this book focuses a lot of steroid use in
baseball. Jose admits to not only using steroids, but apparently
considered himself a human guinea pig, mixing and matching the human growth
hormones so much that he became known as "The Chemist" throughout the
league. In the book, Jose does what he's promised he was going to do for
years - he names names of fellow users..... And we're talking big names
too: McGwire, Giambi, Palmeiro, Juan Gonzalez, and Ivan Rodriguez to name a
few...

This has of course caused a major backlash through the baseball community,
and I have to think Jose is a very unpopular man amongst his peers these
days. I feel sorry for him in that regard, but I do believe him. I don't
see what he has to gain out of lying here, other than slightly increased
book sales, and that certainly wouldn't be worth risking defamation of
character lawsuits, etc. I believe Jose speaks (writes) the truth, and I
think opening the public's eyes is going to be good for baseball in the
long run. MLB has had a major steroid problem for years now, and until
very recently, they have done nothing about it. If this book indirectly
leads to baseball cleaning up it's act, then I think it's a good thing in
that regard. What I fear though, is that Jose's strong support of steroid
use (you'll see what I mean in some quotes below) will lead to increased
steroid use in young people... And until I see proof otherwise, I am under
the impression that steroids are BAD for you. If Role Model X (any
celebrity, really) wants to smoke cigarettes and go on drinking binges
every day, for example, so be it, but going out of your way to make those
harmful activities look cool to the children who admire you - that's what I
have a problem with. Again, I have yet to read the book - this is my
opinion based on some of the excerpts I have seen.

As for how I feel about Jose these days (besides being disappointed in his
glorifying steroid use).... quite honestly, I'm not sure. I understand
what happened and how his steroid use made him the exciting player he was
on the field... but does that cheapen the memories I have of him and his
monster home runs? I don't know... it might. I also can't help but wonder
what Jose's career would have been had he not used these illegal
drugs. Would he have been able to get 40/40 without them? Did he have
enough raw talent, or was it the 'roids that put up those numbers? How
would Jose's career have turned out had he followed the rules? Would his
body have held up better over the years, extending his career, or would he
have literally been half the man he was? I guess we'll never know, and can
only wonder.

Anyway, that's just my opinion. I wrote it here because a lot of people
have asked me for it recently. And as you can see, I'm torn.

Enough of my rant. On to the news (mostly new stuff, but a few older
things as well).............

-Mark


==========
In case anyone is interested in meeting Jose and getting an autographed
copy of his book, here are a few dates I've heard about:

Jose Canseco, former major league slugger, signing copies of Juiced
2/22/05 7:00 PM at BookEnds - E. Ridgewood Ave. Ridgewood, NJ.
2/23/05 1:00 PM at Barnes & Noble ­ Rockefeller Center. New York, NY.
2/24/05 5:00 PM at Sam’s Club ­ North Dale Mabry Ave. Tampa, FL.
2/28/05 7:00 PM at Anderson’s Book Shop - West Jefferson. Naperville, IL.
3/7/05 7:00 PM at Barnes & Noble ­ Broadway. Oakland, CA.

==========
Here are so photos of Jose, Jessica, and Josie from last summer. He
certainly is tan. Looks like maybe he's had his teeth whitened too:
http://www.dailyceleb.com/production/?view=event&eid=2278&startRow=96&event_type\
=premieres

More of Jose and Josie:
http://www.dailyceleb.com/production/?view=event&eid=2236&cap=jose+canseco

==========
Jose and Josie deliver a message for NORAD pre-Christmas:
http://www.noradsanta.com/english/celebrity/index.html

==========
From the AP:
CANSECO'S NEW BOOK IS WELL TIMED
December 26, 2004

As he builds a new life in Southern California - thousands of miles from
where he grew up - Jose Canseco can laugh and say, "I told you so."

With baseball's steroid controversy raging, the timing couldn't be better
for the release of Canseco's book, Juiced, which is due out in mid- to
late-January ($24.95) and will be preceded by an interview with Mike
Wallace on CBS' 60 Minutes.

A secret preliminary copy, which agent Doug Ames said is not the final
version, accuses several big-name baseball players of using steroids.

Canseco, 40, said he's not surprised Barry Bonds used steroids and
estimates 75 percent of players take them. "Are they testing the guys they
know are using steroids? No," Canseco relayed to me through Ames.

Canseco's life after baseball remains bizarre.

Having sold his 1988 AL MVP plaque for $30,000 and his Rookie of the Year
ring for $5,100 on eBay, the Coral Park High grad is parting with
everything that meant anything in his career.

"Baseball is over," Canseco said through Ames. "I don't care. I'm doing my
new life, which is acting."

Ames insists Canseco "doesn't need the money" but is devoid of sentiment.
"We sold the MVP plaque because it was sitting around and the dogs were
eating it," Ames said.

==========
Blurb from the Miami Herald around the same time frame:

...He has sold at least 50 pieces, including All-Star Game rings and a
jersey that Roger Clemens gave him. Soon, Canseco will sell his possessions
from his 40/40 season in 1988: the 40th home run ball, the 40th stolen
base, a bat, his shoes and a jersey. Asking price: $150,000....

==========
From the San Francisco Chronicle:
Canseco swings away in 'Juiced'
Steroid accusations leave former teammates, La Russa livid
February 7, 2005

Jose Canseco says he personally injected Mark McGwire with steroids (a
needle to the buttocks) and that he, McGwire and Jason Giambi shot steroids
together while teammates with the A's, according to Canseco's new book,
"Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big."

The allegations were published in Saturday's New York Daily News, which
didn't provide excerpts. It reported that Canseco, in the book, claims he
wouldn't have become a big-leaguer, let alone the 1988 American League MVP,
if he hadn't used steroids.

The Daily News, citing the book, referred to the A's clubhouse as "an
abuser's paradise." According to the report, Canseco's book says A's
players candidly spoke about injecting steroids in bathroom stalls. Canseco
takes almost full responsibility for steroid use in baseball during the '90s.

Furthermore, according to the Daily News' account, the book says Canseco
personally injected steroids into three prominent Texas Rangers -- Rafael
Palmeiro, Juan Gonzalez and Ivan Rodriguez -- after he was traded to Texas
in August 1992, and Canseco says in the book that President Bush, who owned
the Rangers at the time, must have known about the steroid abuse but didn't
react.

The book is scheduled to be released on Feb. 21. The Associated Press
reported that the book's release might be moved up.

"I'm so pissed off at him," said St. Louis manager Tony La Russa, who
managed Canseco in Oakland. "First of all, I think he needs the money.
Secondly, I think he's jealous as hell. Jose had a head start over Mark and
screwed it up. The jealousy eats at him.

"Early, Mark was, 'See it and hit it,' " La Russa said Sunday. "From about
'93 to the end of his career, Mark became one of the smartest hitters in
the game. Jose signed his big deal and started half-stepping with the way
he played the game.

"Last but not least, Jose never took responsibility for anything. When the
Expos cut him (in spring 2002), Jose's line was, 'I'm being blackballed by
baseball.' When we traded him, it was, 'They weren't loyal to me.' It's
always someone else's fault, not his."

La Russa has said many times that McGwire used natural means, including
constant weight lifting and a solid diet, to strengthen his body. Former
teammates Terry Steinbach and Carney Lansford agreed, in other interviews
with The Chronicle on Sunday.

However, ex-A's pitcher Dave Stewart wouldn't say Canseco's accusations
weren't true.

"I could never say 'Josie' is a liar," Stewart said. "I don't like his work
ethic, and I don't like him as a teammate. But one thing I can't say about
him is he's a liar.

"As far as what Josie's saying, I can't deny it or verify it. I'm not going
to pretend it didn't happen because I don't know. We weren't in the same
circles, but I'd have to say he definitely knows what's going on in his
circle. Nobody I associated with on the team was a steroid user (among the
players Stewart mentioned: Lansford, Rickey Henderson, Dave Henderson and
Dennis Eckersley).

"If this is all made up, he'll suffer some serious damages. But if you're
an admitted steroid user, believe me, you'd know who uses them."

McGwire said in a statement published in the Daily News: "I have always
told the truth, and I am saddened that I continue to face this line of
questioning. With regard to this book, I am reserving comment until I have
the chance to review its contents myself."

As for Giambi, he told a federal grand jury in the BALCO steroids scandal
that he had injected himself with a human growth hormone during the 2003
season and started using steroids at least two years earlier, according to
a transcript reviewed by The Chronicle.

Canseco, McGwire and Giambi were A's teammates for most of the 1997 season,
before McGwire was traded to St. Louis on July 31.

Stewart is no Canseco fan and said Sunday that he told La Russa before the
final game of the '90 World Series that he wouldn't pitch with Canseco in
the lineup. Canseco, 1-for-12 in the Series, was benched. In the '88
Series, he was 1-for-19. He was 5-for-14 in the '89 Series.

"Josie took away from those teams by being part of those teams," Stewart
said. "He worked against what we were working for. ... Everyone knew he was
a key ingredient. But in the World Series and playoffs, it seemed like he
didn't want to be there. ... The guy was poison. He was weak-spirited. ...
He was one disturbance after another, and this book is typical Jose."

Like La Russa, Steinbach took exception to Canseco's accusations that
McGwire was a steroid user.

"I came through the system with Mark; we were roommates in '87," said
Steinbach, recalling their rookie year. "Mark wasn't one of those guys who
all of a sudden one offseason got so big you couldn't recognize him, like
they say about steroid users. Mark loved to lift weights. ... He was in the
gym regularly.

"Jose? No, at least not in the gym at the Coliseum or the gyms set up for
us on the road. He was phenomenal in '88. Up to that point, he showed up on
time and did his drills. All of a sudden, he didn't do the extra work in
the outfield, and it showed. It frustrated us as teammates. It was
frustrating that 24 guys marched to the same beat and Jose didn't."

La Russa suggested Canseco's work habits deteriorated after the slugger
signed his five-year, $23.5 million contract in June 1990, baseball's most
lucrative deal at the time.

"When Jose got his contract, he changed," La Russa said. "He quit working,
and he was bigger than anybody. He'd talk about the juice, and others would
talk to him about his health. He'd just laugh. ... At the same time, Mark
was a prime example of a guy who'd work, work, work."

In the book, according to the Daily News, Canseco says McGwire put
androstenedione (the steroid precursor was legal at the time) in his locker
in 1998, when he hit 70 homers to break Roger Maris' record, so it would be
discovered by the media and cover up his use of illegal steroids.

"That's so silly," said Dave McKay, who has been on La Russa's coaching
staffs for 19 seasons and headed the strength and conditioning program in
Oakland. "It's such a ridiculous comment by Jose. We're not that smart. It
was just what Mark needed -- more headlines. The fact is, he was
embarrassed when someone said there's a possible steroid inside andro. He
wasn't using it to get bigger; he was using it for recovery after games."

McKay disputes McGwire used steroids and said he never saw any ballplayers
take steroids.

"I'd be absolutely shocked to hear that Mark used a steroid or anything
that would hurt him -- he was always so careful with what he put in his
body, " McKay said.

"I know Mark well enough that if he used it, he'd tell me. This makes no
sense. We had a program, and all the players followed it. The only one who
didn't was Jose. He became smarter than us and wanted to do his own thing."

A White House spokesman, Trent Duffy, wouldn't comment on the book or
Canseco's reference to Bush during his days with the Rangers. Duffy did
reiterate Bush's stance on steroids, saying, "The President has said
steroids ought to be banned from baseball and players and owners should get
together and get rid of it once and for all. Every time the President hosts
teams at the White House, he makes a point to remind the players they're
examples for young people all over the world and to keep their bodies clean."

On another matter, the Daily News reported, Canseco writes about having sex
with hundreds of women -- not, however, Madonna, though he did, he says in
the book, make out with her in her Manhattan apartment.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“I’m so pissed off at him. First of all, I think he needs the money.
Secondly, I think he’s jealous as hell.”
- Tony La Russa

“The guy was poison. … He was one disturbance after another, and this book
is typical Jose.” - Dave Stewart

“It was frustrating that 24 guys marched to the same beat and Jose didn’t.”
- Terry Steinbach

==========
From ESPN the Magazine:
Little Doubt Canseco Played in Juiced Era
By Buster Olney
February 7, 2005

Ken Caminiti peeled away the first layer of baseball's pretense, a sad and
pathetic and doomed addict speaking out loud about his own use of steroids
to Sports Illustrated. The next real bombshell came from Jason Giambi,
whose proud fortress of deception -- how many times did he tell us how hard
he worked? -- collapsed only when he testified, with extraordinary detail,
under the threat of prosecution.

And now Jose Canseco will become the loudest of the steroid confessors in a
forthcoming book, and he possesses the least credibility of any player who
has talked about the problem. The first instinct will be to ignore him,
because:

There was no steroid-testing policy in baseball during Canseco's career.

1. He's out to make a lot of money and will do anything to pump up his
product. (Does this surprise us, by the way? Isn't that the same
combination of desire and remedy that got Canseco and a lot of other
players into steroids in the first place?)

2. He's an egomaniac who might need attention more than he needs the money.

3. He's a rat, apparently cashing in on private conversations and supposed
friendships.

The book might not hit the stores for a couple of more weeks and already
he's under attack. Arn Tellem, Giambi's agent, issued a quick response,
saying, "This book, which attacks baseball and many of its players, was
written to make a quick buck, by a guy desperate for attention, who has
appeared on more police blotters then lineup cards in recent years, has no
runs, no hits and is all errors."

Tough talk; sounds good. Just one problem: Generally, a lot of what Canseco
is expected to allege in the book will smack of the ugly truth.

Now, only Canseco and Mark McGwire -- and the other All-Stars reportedly
implicated -- know for sure whether they shared needles and Juice
tutorials. There's going to be a lot of Jose-said, he-said that comes out
of this. Within two weeks, you will probably see many denials that look a
lot like Tellem's: Canseco is a bad guy, what he's saying is wrong, he's
got no credibility (Let's remember that based on what we've seen and heard,
there would be no prohibitive favorite in a truth-telling contest between
Canseco and Giambi).

But Canseco's broader assertion -- that there were a lot of steroids in
baseball, dating far back -- fits perfectly with all the anecdotal evidence
and sport-wide assumptions. Commissioner Bud Selig deserves credit for
pushing the tougher testing regimen across the finish line, and MLB also
gets points for starting the steroid testing in the minors. However, those
changes have taken place only in recent years, and the underground
discussion of steroids dates back well into the 1980s -- about the time
Canseco emerged in the majors for Oakland.

Scouts and executives already were chortling and rolling their eyes back
then about hitters who bulked up suddenly and absurdly, and suddenly were
beset by muscle strains. If you were around the game and didn't hear any of
that, well, you purposefully had planted your head in the sand, whether you
were an owner, a player, a union leader, a writer. Everybody knew;
everybody blew it, to varying degrees.

When Sammy Sosa's bat split in 2003 and a palm-sized spot of cork was bared
for the world to see, the resulting controversy and ethics debate was
laughable to many in the game. It was like prosecuting Mrs. O'Leary for
breaking a farm zoning law while Chicago burned. There was a lot of
hand-wringing over the impact of a little cork in an era when many of the
greatest performances came out of a vial.

I believe most of what occurred from 1987 to 2004 was legit, but sadly, all
of the players in this era will be stained by the steroids. No
black-and-white asterisks will be printed next to the names and numbers,
but when baseball fans and historians look back at this period of time,
they will forever apply their own statistical translations. Thirty-five
home runs in 1998 is roughly equal to -- say, 20 -- in 1968.

Steroids has held the game hostage for almost two decades, and there will
be constant reminders of that; inevitably, other steroid users like Jose
Canseco will come out and tell us more about what we already thought was
happening. At this point, we should not be shocked. We should know that no
individual player -- not even Giambi -- should be turning into a pariah for
steroid use, because the stuff had become part of the game's competitive
fiber and culture.

Baseball can't change its recent past now. Its challenge is to change its
future, to clean up and aggressively pursue steroid-users. That way, we can
get back to a climate when we might ignore the Jose Cansecos.

==========
From the New York Daily News:
Let players answer Canseco's charges
By BILL MADDEN
February 8, 2005

NEW YORK - It is unclear exactly what Jose Canseco hopes to achieve with
his scorched-earth, take-no-prisoners steroids tome that will hit the
bookstores sometime in the next couple of weeks.

On one hand, it would appear that Canseco, sounding much like beat poet
Allen Ginsberg's celebration of LSD in the '60s, is seeking to justify the
use of steroids so that baseball will recognize them as a viable, logical
and safe "breakfast of champions." On the other hand, in painting such a
wide brush across so many of his fellow baseball superstars of the '80s and
'90s, Canseco would seem to be doing a pretty good job of undermining all
the records and achievements of the game he has said "blackballed" him.

Canseco may be an attention-seeking buffoon in the eyes of some, but his
claims are disturbing, if only because they open up a whole new level of
denial over the presence and knowledge of steroids in the clubhouse.

It is certainly not surprising to hear Tony LaRussa's impassioned defense
of Mark McGwire and condemnation of Canseco: If McGwire was as juiced as
Canseco claims, it's a reflection not only on the accomplishments of those
great LaRussa-managed Oakland A's teams of 1988-90, but on LaRussa himself.
According to the manager, when he learned of the sort of revelations
Canseco planned to put in the book regarding McGwire and steroids, he
contacted his coach, Dave McKay, who's been with him since 1985 and who
supervised McGwire's workouts.

"I've seen (McGwire's) workouts and I've seen what he went through,"
LaRussa said. "All I know is what I see. And Mark McGwire got where he was
through his workouts and taking all the legal nutrients and other things
like that that he was taking under our supervision. As for what Canseco
says went on in my clubhouse, I will say that he's full of it for the
simple reason that he and McGwire were not close friends. They didn't hang
out together. They didn't spend time together. And as for the other
charges, all I can say is ask the other guys on the team. Ask Terry
Steinbach. Ask Carney Lansford. Ask Dave Stewart. They've all checked in on
this."

According to Canseco, both he and McGwire were shooting up in the A's
clubhouse bathroom. As Canseco attests in his ode to steroids, workouts are
only a part of the body-building process. What's particularly disturbing is
the detail in which Canseco describes steroid use by McGwire and some of
his teammates on the Texas Rangers. Canseco makes it sound as if this was
all a very open secret on both teams, that everyone knew those trips to the
bathroom stalls were about more than two guys revisiting the toilet
training of their infancy.

So if that's the case, how did LaRussa not know what was going on? Or Kevin
Kennedy, the manager in Texas in 1993? If you believe Canseco, they all had
to know, everyone from the owners on down, which, in Texas, would have been
one George W. Bush. In Oakland, which apparently comes off as the cradle of
steroids in baseball in Canseco's book, what with McGwire passing the juice
torch to Jason Giambi, the GM was Sandy Alderson, currently commissioner
Bud Selig's VP of operations.

"You can only go so far," LaRussa said of any attempt to police the
clubhouse too closely. "When you step in in any way the union gets involved
and brings up the issue of privacy. Canseco would often walk around our
clubhouse bragging about how quickly he could bulk up."

You can see where all this is going. In a couple of weeks, "60 Minutes" is
said to be planning a segment on the book and all of Canseco's charges, and
at the end of this week, Giambi is expected to hold his own press
conference in New York to explain all his previous denials of steroid use
in light of his reported admissions to the BALCO grand jury in San Francisco.

It's no longer just about Barry Bonds and the home run record. It's about
owners, general managers, managers, trainers and the players themselves.
What did they know and when did they know it?

Because of Canseco's credibility, the public ultimately may dismiss his
book as the ravings of a self-serving jerk who, as Giambi's agent Arn
Tellum put it, "has appeared on more police blotters than lineup cards in
recent years." At least it comes out after baseball (albeit kicking and
screaming through the halls of Congress and amid the siren calls of the
media) finally recognized the seriousness of the problem and implemented a
far more comprehensive and punitive steroids policy.

From here on, it is probably not in baseball's best interest to comment
any further on this book. Let the players themselves answer Canseco's charges.

And after that, it will be up to baseball historians and Hall of Fame
voters to determine the impact all of this has had on the game and its
hallowed records.

==========
From ESPN.com:
Steroid allegations draw Palmeiro's ire
Feb. 9, 2005

Orioles first baseman Rafael Palmeiro on Monday denied Jose Canseco's
assertion in his forthcoming book that he used steroids while the two were
Texas Rangers teammates.

In book excerpts published by The New York Daily News on Sunday, Canseco
claims he introduced the performance enhancers to Palmeiro, Ivan Rodriguez,
and Juan Gonzalez when Canseco joined the Rangers in 1992.

"I categorically deny any assertion made by Jose Canseco that I used
steroids," Palmeiro said in a statement. "At no point in my career have I
ever used steroids, let alone any substance banned by Major League
Baseball. As I have never had a personal relationship with Canseco, any
suggestion that he taught me anything, about steroid use or otherwise, is
ludicrous.

"We were teammates and that was the extent of our relationship. I am
saddened that he felt it necessary to attempt to tarnish my image and that
of the game that I love."

Rodriguez and Gonzalez said that they had not seen the book.

"I'm in shock," Rodriguez told El Nuevo Dia newspaper for Tuesday's
editions in Puerto Rico. "He is saying things that aren't true, and it
hurts me a lot that he would say things like that because I've always had a
lot of respect for him, and I've even helped him many times when things
weren't going well for him."

Gonzalez's agent, Alan Nero, said, "Our immediate reaction is we feel sorry
for Jose, that he felt he had to do this for whatever reason. And we feel
badly for everyone he implicated in this.

"Juan has never used steroids and has never been in favor of their use.
And, in fact, in 2000, when Major League Baseball did its survey, Juan was
in favor of testing and was one of only two players that volunteered to be
tested at that time," Nero said.

Orioles owner Peter Angelos also issued a statement Monday supporting
Palmeiro and said he's willing to offer any legal assistance that Palmeiro
would need to clear his name.

"The Orioles are solidly behind Rafael Palmeiro and have absolute
confidence in him and in his denial of the Canseco story," Angelos said.
"The Orioles will do everything we can to be of assistance to Raffy in
meeting these allegations that have no foundation. We know him well and the
kind of athlete he has been and the vigorous manner in which he has
trained. He is a highly professional athlete."

According to the Daily News' account, Canseco writes in "Juiced: Wild
Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big," that he
personally injected Mark McGwire with steroids; that he saw McGwire and
Jason Giambi inject each other; and that President Bush "had to have been
aware" of rampant steroid use among the Rangers when he owned the club in
the early 1990s.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said he spoke to Bush about
alleged steroid use.

"If there was, he was not aware of it at the time," McClellan said.

"He has recognized, for some time now, that steroids is a growing problem
in professional sports, particularly Major League Baseball," he said.
"That's why the president has made addressing the issue a priority in his
administration."

Canseco's long-awaited book was scheduled for release by Regan Books on
Feb. 21. But the New York Times reported Monday night that the book will be
released Feb. 14 instead.

Parent company HarperCollins posted a book description on its Web site that
said Canseco "made himself a guinea pig of the performance-enhancing drugs"
and added the 1988 AL MVP "mixed, matched and experimented to such a degree
that he became known throughout the league as 'The Chemist.' "

McGwire, who has long denied steroid use, said in a statement to the Daily
News: "I have always told the truth and I am saddened that I continue to
face this line of questioning. With regard to this book, I am reserving
comment until I have the chance to review its contents myself."

Ex-A's pitcher Dave Stewart couldn't say one way or another whether
Canseco's claims are true.

"I could never say 'Josie' is a liar," Stewart told the San Francisco
Chronicle. "I don't like his work ethic, and I don't like him as a
teammate. But one thing I can't say about him is he's a liar.

"As far as what Josie's saying, I can't deny it or verify it. I'm not going
to pretend it didn't happen because I don't know. We weren't in the same
circles, but I'd have to say he definitely knows what's going on in his
circle. Nobody I associated with on the team was a steroid user [among the
players Stewart mentioned: Carney Lansford, Rickey Henderson, Dave
Henderson and Dennis Eckersley].

Terry Steinbach, McGwire's roommate in 1987 when the pair were A's rookies,
said McGwire worked out to build his physique.

"Mark wasn't one of those guys who all of a sudden one offseason got so big
you couldn't recognize him, like they say about steroid users," Steinbach
told the Chronicle. "Mark loved to lift weights. ... He was in the gym
regularly.

"Jose? No, at least not in the gym at the Coliseum or the gyms set up for
us on the road. He was phenomenal in '88. Up to that point, he showed up on
time and did his drills. All of a sudden, he didn't do the extra work in
the outfield, and it showed. It frustrated us as teammates. It was
frustrating that 24 guys marched to the same beat and Jose didn't."

St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, who managed both players with
the Oakland A's during the late 1980s, defended McGwire in an interview
with The New York Times on Sunday.

"I am absolutely certain that Mark earned his size and strength from hard
work and a disciplined lifestyle," La Russa told the newspaper. "When he
was a kid in 1987, he hit 49 home runs. It's a real shame. For some people,
this is going to put a stain."

Canseco hit 462 home runs in a major league career between 1985 and 2001.
He played seven full seasons for the A's before being traded to Texas in
'92. He also played for Boston, the Yankees, Toronto, Tampa Bay, Oakland
again, and the White Sox.

McGwire's 16-year career ended in 2001. He finished with 583 home runs,
hitting 196 in his four full seasons with St. Louis following a July 1997
trade to the Cardinals. In 1998, the year McGwire and Sammy Sosa took their
swings at Roger Maris' record 61 homers, McGwire finished with 70 to Sosa's 66.

Three seasons later, Barry Bonds hit 73 home runs, a record that had been
called into question long before Bonds, according to leaked grand jury
testimony from the BALCO hearings, acknowledged this winter that he
unknowingly used steroids.

A few years ago, Canseco claimed that 80 percent of major leaguers had
taken steroids. Last spring, he said: "I think the numbers may have
changed. Who knows? Maybe the numbers have diminished."

==========
From the Orlando Sentinel:
Sadly, Canseco right on mark about McGwire
By Mike Bianchi
February 9, 2005

Spare me the shock.

Spare me the outrage.

Spare me the denials.

Did we really need Jose Canseco to tell us Mark McGwire was on steroids?

As if we didn't already know.

A reporter busted McGwire long ago for taking androstenedione -- a form of
testosterone-producing steroid now banned by baseball. If McGwire was
taking andro, why wouldn't he take something a little stronger to make him
hit the ball a little farther?

Let's stop playing dumb, shall we? Let's stop treating Canseco like some
sort of low-down, lying scum for actually having the gall to stick a
syringe not only in McGwire's buttocks but in McGwire's myth. Let's just
come out and admit what we've suspected for quite sometime now: McGwire's
home run total, just like Barry Bonds' home run total, is as artificial as
the nose on Michael Jackson's face.

Just because Canseco is a loose cannon doesn't make him a liar. Sure,
Canseco might be a complete knucklehead in all other aspects of life, but
when he writes a book on steroid use in baseball, he is the foremost
expert. If anybody knew what players were using steroids back in the 1990s,
it's the ultimate juicer himself.

If Canseco writes in his new book that he personally injected steroids into
McGwire's backside in a bathroom stall in the Oakland locker room, why
should we not believe him? The common question being asked is, "Why would
anybody believe Canseco?" I've got a better question: "Why would anybody
believe baseball?"

The baseball establishment is already trying to discredit Canseco by saying
he is making these outlandish claims about McGwire just to sell books and
make a little bit of money. But hasn't baseball used steroids to sell its
game and make a whole lot more money?

Canseco's claims in 2005 aren't any more outlandish or inflated than
McGwire's home run total in 1998. If Canseco makes money on his book, it
won't be nearly as much as the millions made by the hulked-up, bulked-up
McGwire for breaking Roger Maris' home run record. Or the millions made by
Major League Baseball during the McGwire-Sammy Sosa home run chase that not
only rescued the sport but transcended it.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Steroids aren't ruining
baseball. Steroids saved baseball.

The dramatic duel between McGwire and Sosa is credited with being the key
catalyst in helping baseball recover from the lingering resentment of the
1994 strike. Isn't it clear now that without andro (and who knows what
else) that there would have been no home run duel?

Maybe this is why we're seeing many in the baseball media pile on Canseco
the same way they piled on Steve Wilstein, the Associated Press reporter
who broke the story about McGwire taking andro. It seems nobody is quite
ready to admit that we were all duped seven years ago when McGwire broke
the record.

Remember how you felt back then? It was one of those magical moments when
you remember exactly what you were doing at the time. I was reading a
bedtime story -- The Little Red Caboose -- to my daughter, Tess, when my
wife rushed in and told me McGwire was up in the fourth.

Here's what I wrote about McGwire the next day: "We don't get that many
stories to tell our grandkids. This one is a keeper, right up there with
Lindbergh and man on the moon. Except this was a man and his moonshots. One
small step for man, one stupendous, tremendous home run trot for mankind."

Sadly, that summer now feels more like a bummer.

At the time, it seemed too good to be true.

And now we know why.

Because it wasn't.

==========
From the Rocky Mountain News:
Former A's teammate defends McGwire
Weiss says he doesn't believe Canseco's allegations
February 10, 2005

Walt Weiss, a former Oakland Athletics teammate of Jose Canseco and Mark
McGwire, said Tuesday he does not believe Canseco's claim that he injected
McGwire with steroids.

"I'd like to vouch for 'Big Mac,'" Weiss, a Colorado Rockies coach, said
from Hawaii, where he is vacationing. "I spent a lot of time with Mac in
the weight room in spring training, on the road during the season, and in
the off-season, we lived near each other and worked out. So I saw firsthand
the time that (McGwire) put in both on the field and in the weight room.

"He was a tireless worker and a great teammate, so I certainly have no
problem vouching for 'Big Mac' and the work that he put into his craft."

Canseco was the American League Rookie of the Year with the Athletics in
1986. McGwire won the honor the following year and Weiss made it three A's
in a row when he was chosen in 1988.

==========
From ESPN.com:
Canseco: Bush Had to Know About Steroids
Feb. 10, 2005

After months of talking about naming names in a tell-all book, retired
slugger Jose Canseco is about to do just that.

The New York Daily News published details of Canseco's book, which is still
in the editing stages, in Sunday's editions.

Canseco writes that he personally injected Mark McGwire with steroids and
that he saw McGwire and Jason Giambi inject each other, according to the paper.

The long-awaited "Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How
Baseball Got Big," is scheduled for release by Regan Books on Feb. 21.
Regan publicist Paul Olsewski told The Associated Press in an e-mail that
the release date could be moved up.

Parent company HarperCollins posted a book description on its Web site that
said Canseco "made himself a guinea pig of the performance-enhancing drugs"
and added the 1988 AL MVP "mixed, matched and experimented to such a degree
that he became known throughout the league as 'The Chemist.' "

McGwire, who has long denied steroid use, said in a statement to the Daily
News: "I have always told the truth and I am saddened that I continue to
face this line of questioning. With regard to this book, I am reserving
comment until I have the chance to review its contents myself."

St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, who managed both players with
the Oakland A's during the late 1980s, defended McGwire in an interview
with The New York Times on Sunday.

"I am absolutely certain that Mark earned his size and strength from hard
work and a disciplined lifestyle," La Russa told the newspaper. "When he
was a kid in 1987, he hit 49 home runs. It's a real shame. For some people,
this is going to put a stain."

La Russa also disputed Canseco's claim that the two sluggers injected
steroids together as teammates.

"We detailed Mark's workout routine -- six days a week, 12 months a year --
and you could see his size and weight gain come through really hard work, a
disciplined regimen and the proteins he took -- all legal," La Russa told
The Times.

"As opposed to the other guy, Jose, who would play around in the gym for 10
minutes, and all of a sudden he's bigger than anybody."

Canseco claims he introduced the performance enhancers to Rafael Palmeiro,
Ivan Rodriguez, and Juan Gonzalez when he joined the Rangers in 1992.

Rodriguez and Gonzalez said that they had not seen the book and declined
comment. Attempts to contact Palmeiro's agent have been unsuccessful.

"Neither our current owner, general manager and manager were with the
Rangers then," Rangers spokesman Gregg Elkin said. "The Rangers continue to
support baseball's initiative to get steroids out of the game."

Canseco's steroid use apparently wasn't hidden from La Russa during their
time in Oakland. According to La Russa, Canseco would openly discuss
steroids and ignore advice to stop doping.

"He'd say, 'Come on, man, what are you talking about? I got the world by
the tail,' " La Russa told The Times. "Sometimes you suspected, and then
guys would deny it. Jose would make a joke of it."

In his book, Canseco also writes that President Bush "had to have been
aware" of rampant steroid use on the Texas Rangers when he owned the club
in the early 1990s, the Daily News reported.

The White House had no comment on Canseco's specific allegation, but did
say the President called on leagues and players unions to eradicate steroid
use in his 2004 State of the Union address.

Giambi's agent, Arn Tellem, took issue with Canseco's credibility.

"This book, which attacks baseball and many of its players, was written to
make a quick buck by a guy desperate for attention, who has appeared on
more police blotters than lineup cards in recent years, has no runs, no
hits and is all errors," Tellem told the Daily News.

La Russa, who has managed the Cardinals since 1996, also blasted Canseco's
motives for the book.

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

"Secondly, I think he's very envious and jealous that Mark had the career
he had. If you line them up side by side, which we did in '86, '87, '88,
Jose was the more talented player and, in fact, more intelligent about the
game.

"Mark wanted an uncomplicated swing and a 'see it, hit it' approach. He
didn't have a lot of information on the other pitchers. Jose was really
cerebral at the start, and look at where their careers have gone."

Canseco hit 462 home runs in a major league career between 1985 and 2001.
He played seven full seasons for the A's before being traded to Texas in
'92. He also played for Boston, the Yankees, Toronto, Tampa Bay, Oakland
again, and the White Sox.

McGwire's 16-year career ended in 2001. He finished with 583 home runs,
hitting 196 in his four full seasons with St. Louis following a July 1997
trade to the Cardinals. In 1998, the year McGwire and Sammy Sosa took their
swings at Roger Maris' record 61 homers, McGwire finished with 70 to Sosa's 66.

Three seasons later, Barry Bonds hit 73 home runs, a record that had been
called into question long before Bonds, according to leaked grand jury
testimony from the BALCO hearings, acknowledged this winter that he
unknowingly used steroids.

A few years ago, Canseco claimed that 80 percent of major leaguers had
taken steroids. Last spring, he said: "I think the numbers may have
changed. Who knows? Maybe the numbers have diminished."

==========
From A St. Louis paper:
February 10, 2005

.....It's actually laughable to see all these baseball people rushing to
attack Canseco's reliability when this is a sport that has been
perpetrating a fraud for the past few decades with its record books
dominated by bloated, chemically enhanced heroes. So now that Canseco is
out stumping his sordid tales in "Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash
Hits and How Baseball Got Big," how dare anyone remotely associated with
this game try to play the holier than thou card?

The Canseco bashers will line up and attack him as a liar. They will call
him a self-promoting snitch who violated nearly every sacrosanct law of the
clubhouse by ratting out his former teammates. They will say he's trying to
soil baseball to get onto the best-seller list. And they'll be right, of
course. Yet despite that, they'll still come away looking like the bigger
snake oil salesmen because they're defending a sport whose greatest records
and biggest stars are just as fraudulent as Canseco.

Whatever they say about him, it won't be enough to detract from the
overwhelming evidence that Canseco is probably telling plenty of truths
about baseball's Steroid Era. And if you are willing to reconcile that
troubling truth, then by extension, you must be willing to accept an even
more unsettling fact that will surely make many folks here in St. Louis
squirm:

Mark McGwire is just as big a propped-up, juiced-up fraud as Barry Bonds,
Jason Giambi and the late Ken Caminiti.

==========
From the AP:
Canseco book fast seller on first day
By RONALD BLUM
February 15, 2005

NEW YORK (AP) -- Jose Canseco's autobiography that accuses several top
players of steroid use and charges baseball management long ignored
performance-enhancing drugs got off to a fast start on its first day of
publication.

Amazon.com listed ``Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How
Baseball Got Big'' as third on its best seller list Monday.

The book had an initial printing of 150,000 copies but it was unclear how
many copies were bought. Regan Books does not disclose sales figures,
spokeswoman Jennifer Suitor said.

``I don't think it's a good thing, obviously, because it's bringing a bad
light to the game,'' New York Yankees captain Derek Jeter said Monday.
``This is a time, obviously, baseball is in a negative light and Jose is
not helping out. In terms of his accusations, the only people that know are
him and whoever he is accusing. The unfortunate thing is, if it's not true,
you're looking at guys having to defend themselves over something they
haven't done.''

Mark McGwire, one of the former teammates Canseco accused of using
steroids, issued a written denial.

``The relationship that these allegations portray couldn't be further from
the truth,'' McGwire's statement said. ``I also worry how these false
allegations will taint the accomplishments of the Oakland Athletics'
coaches, players and executives who worked so hard to achieve success
during the era in question, along with the other players and organizations
affected by this book.

``Most concerning to me is the negative effect that sensationalizing
steroids will have on impressionable youngsters who dream of one day
becoming professional athletes. Once and for all I did not use steroids or
any other illegal substance.''

McGwire was not available for interviews.

In the book, Canseco is an unabashed advocate of performance-enhancing drugs.

``By the time my 8-year-old daughter, Josie, has graduated from high
school, a majority of all professional athletes -- in all sports -- will be
taking steroids. And believe it or not, that's good news,'' he writes.

``I have no doubt whatsoever that intelligent, informed use of steroids,
combined with Human Growth Hormone, will one day be so accepted that
everybody will be doing it. Steroid use will be more common than Botox is
now. Every baseball player and pro athlete will be using at least low
levels of steroids. As a result, baseball and other sports will be more
exciting and more entertaining.''

Canseco calls himself the ``godfather of steroids in baseball,'' saying ``I
single-handedly changed the game of baseball by introducing them into the
game.''

He says both baseball management and the union tried to ignore steroid use.

``Are players the only ones to blame when Donald Fehr and the other bosses
of the Major League Baseball Players Association fought for years to make
sure players wouldn't be tested for steroids?'' he wrote, adding: ``Fehr
had to know the truth.''

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig said last week that the sport's leadership
was unaware of possible steroid use until 1998. Fehr declined comment Monday.

Canseco expresses resentment at the way he was treated by management and
the media.

``There was a huge double standard in baseball, and white athletes like
Mark McGwire, Cal Ripken Jr. and Brady Anderson were protected and coddled
in a way that an outspoken Latino like me never would be,'' he wrote.
``Canseco the Cuban was left out in the cold, where racism and double
standards rule.''

Canseco specifically took aim at Jason Giambi, a former Oakland teammate.

``Giambi had the most obvious steroid physique I've ever seen in my life,''
Canseco wrote. ``He was so bloated, it was unbelievable. There was no
definition to his body at all. You could see the retention of liquids,
especially in his neck and face.''

He also devotes sections to players' womanizing -- including his own -- and
to umpires he calls ``the most vengeful people you'll ever meet,'' saying
they are on ``power trips.''

``There are certain things that belong with us ballplayers,'' Yankees
pitcher Carl Pavano said. ``It's a tight group. It's sad to see someone
that desperate come throw themselves out there to make money.''

The 1986 AL Rookie of the Year and 1988 MVP, Canseco spent 17 seasons in
the major leagues, finishing with 462 home runs in a career that ended in
2001, when he was 37. He clearly has a high opinion of his performance.

``I was hands down the best player in the world. No one even came close,''
he wrote. ``I was created by the media. Back in the 1980s, I was like a
rock star. Everywhere I went, I had to have bodyguards. I had it all: the
body, the personality, everything. I was Hollywood.

He blames baseball management for prematurely ending his career before he
could reach 500 homers.

``The owners realized that they needed to put the kibosh on steroid use, or
at least pretend to,'' he wrote. ``So they decided to send a loud message
to all players, by getting rid of the player most closely identified with
steroids: Jose Canseco.''

He insists he still is in good enough shape to play, saying steroids have
kept his body young.

``If you start young enough, when you are in your 20s, 30s and 40s, and use
steroids properly, you can probably slow down the aging process by 15 or 20
years,'' he wrote. ``I'm 40 years old but I look much younger -- and I can
still do everything the way I could when I was 25.''

==========
From the NY Daily News:
To tell the truth, seems like lying is their pastime
February 15, 2005

Suddenly the real national pastime in the national pastime is protecting
your own backside, and not just Mark McGwire's, the one Jose Canseco says
he injected with steroids. Even though we're not just supposed to trust a
thing Canseco says.

Now, along with Canseco, we're not supposed to trust a man named Greg
Stejskal. Stejskal is a little different from Canseco, though. He has a
badge and is a Special Agent out of the Ann Arbor, Mich., office of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Stejskal tells the Daily News now that he warned Major League Baseball
officials over 10 years ago that Canseco and other players were using
steroids, but that his investigation went nowhere because there was no drug
policy in baseball at the time.

Baseball denies Stejskal's version of things, the way Mark McGwire denies
he ever used steroids and Tony LaRussa denies that McGwire used steroids.

Stejskal says, "They certainly looked the other way."

There are no surprises in this anymore, not even from the FBI. The surprise
is all the denial. Even now, all this time after the fact, there is so much
denial about steroids you want to walk through the subject wearing high
rubber boots.

McGwire expects us to believe him because he was everybody's All-America,
baseball's Paul Bunyan. He did more than anybody to put baseball back on
its feet during the home run summer of 1998. And we sure liked him as a
home run king a lot better than we liked Barry Bonds later on. So he has
been getting the benefit of the doubt from the baseball public for years.

The same guys who routinely go after Bonds like he's the head of the
steroid cartel in baseball somehow find a way to keep McGwire out of the
conversation. Another form of denial.

Jason Giambi? He clearly told a lie as big as his biceps last spring when
he said he'd never used steroids. Now, though, we're supposed to give him a
hug because he swears he's telling the truth.

LaRussa wants us to believe him when he says that Canseco's version of life
with the Oakland A's team that LaRussa managed is a "fabrication." But
apparently only the parts about McGwire.

Gary Sheffield says that BALCO provided him with vitamins and a substance
known as "the clear" a few years ago. He says he thought it was some kind
of cortisone. He says he had no idea that it was a steroid and that he gave
it up, anyway, because it wasn't working. We're supposed to believe this
version of things even though Sheffield is another one of the ballplayers
who testified in front of that BALCO grand jury.

Here is another reason why we're supposed to believe Sheffield: He had a
great big year for the Yankees, even playing hurt, and ended up second to
Vladimir Guerrero in the MVP voting in the American League.

So Sheffield is a good Yankee, a hero Yankee already, because he says he
didn't know what he was using. It is a good angle. Giambi came clean and
allegedly told that grand jury he knew exactly what he was doing. Only he
had an awful year, so now he's the one stealing money from poor George
Steinbrenner.

Bonds - the real headliner here, along with McGwire - says that he
unwittingly rubbed steroid cream all over his body thinking it was flaxseed
oil, because his friend and trainer Greg Anderson told him it was flaxseed
oil. Bonds must have watched how Sheffield played it. Or maybe it was the
other way around. Or maybe the two of them had better lawyers than Giambi.

But it's clear - steroid "clear" - that the dumber you act about this
stuff, the more truthful we're supposed to believe you are.

The more publicity Canseco gets for this book of his, the more he is
attacked by the baseball establishment, and by the people he names in his
book. It gets better by the day. Everybody else is telling the truth about
drugs and Canseco is the only liar.

Or so they say.

Except what do LaRussa and McGwire and the rest of them do when somebody
else steps forward to back Canseco's version of things? Maybe we can
believe Greg Stejskal about Canseco as long as we don't believe him on
anybody else.

Giambi, who certainly did not dispute the leaked version of his grand jury
testimony, says that Canseco is "delusional." Really? About what parts? If
Giambi did use steroids and told the grand jury that he used steroids and
Canseco says that Giambi used steroids, who's the one acting delusional here?

LaRussa says that Canseco's story about injecting McGwire is a
"fabrication." How does LaRussa know that? LaRussa also wants everybody to
believe Canseco only did this for the money. Well, if Canseco is looking to
make the kind of money he did as a ballplayer, he better hope this book
sells on the non-fiction list as if Jon Stewart and the guys from "The
Daily Show" wrote it.

Here is Dave Stewart of the old Oakland A's talking to John Shea of the San
Francisco Chronicle the other day:

"If you're an admitted steroid user, believe me, you'd know who uses them."

In the same interview, Stewart says that he didn't think Jose Canseco was a
very good teammate, but that he didn't think he was a very good liar, either.

"I can't deny (Canseco's charges) or verify (them)," Stewart says. "I'm not
going to pretend it didn't happen because I don't know."

Nobody should try to pretend steroids didn't happen. The sport was dirty
for too long. People can't possibly think they can walk away clean now.