Hello Canseco Fans...

So, the big new out earlier today is that Jose says in his new book that he
introduced Alex Rodriguez to a steroids distributor (and that A-Rod tried
to sleep with Jose's wife). Interesting. Also interesting is Jose siding
with Roger Clemens, claiming he has never seen Roger "use, possess, or ask
for steroids or HGH."

The complete article is below. I don't know about you guys, but I can't
wait to read this book. You can pre-order it through Amazon (you'll have
your hands on it next week if you do) for 34% off the cover price PLUS
another 5% off for pre-ordering. Here's the link:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.\
com%2FVindicated-Names-Liars-Battle-Baseball%2Fdp%2F1416591877%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3\
Dbooks%26qid%3D1203906827%26sr%3D1-3&tag=talkingpoker-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&\
creative=9325

-Mark


==========
First, a little humor from the Onion:
February 28, 2008
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/canseco_hey_guys_who_wants_to_come

Canseco: 'Hey Guys, Who Wants To Come To My Big Steroid Party This Weekend?'

MIAMI—Former MLB star and admitted steroid user Jose Canseco extended an
informal invitation Monday to over 500 current and former professional
baseball players, requesting their presence at his house this coming
weekend for his annual steroid party.

"Hey guys, big steroid bash at my place," Canseco said while handing out
flyers at a Toronto Blue Jays spring training intrasquad game. "Nothing too
fancy, just a bunch of guys, hanging out, taking steroids. Tell your friends."

The party is historically an extravagant affair, usually featuring women in
bikinis carrying silver trays of various types of anabolic steroids, four
VIP suites upstairs where guests can sample steroids from Canseco's
personal collection, a giant 40-foot-tall ice syringe filled with Dianabol,
oil paintings of steroids on the walls, a keg of steroids, a disco ball,
and a punch bowl spiked with steroids.

"Let me break it down for you: food, babes, steroids," said Canseco,
leaning over the outfield fence of Dunedin Stadium, to Blue Jays
centerfielder Vernon Wells. "Any steroid you want. Winstrol-Stanozolol,
Deca-Durabolin, Sustanon, Anadrol, you name it. I even got some exotic
steroids from South America, and I might bust out my own special homemade
steroid blend. Oh, and if everyone chips in $5, I might get a steroid
fountain. It's gonna be sweet."

"Imagine taking steroids all night long, how cool that would be," said
Canseco, trying to get the attention of right-fielder Alex Rios. "Then
multiply that by 100. That's how much this party's going to rule."

According to colored flyers for "Jose's 22nd Annual Roid-Fest" featuring
block-lettered words reading "Music," "Cool!" "Steroids," "Awesome," and
"Injections," the event will take place at Canseco's four-acre lakefront
mansion in Fort Lauderdale. The event has been touted as a good chance for
players to relax, try out some new steroids, bulk up before the season,
meet other people who enjoy steroids, share steroid-related stories, and
"just have fun."

"Psst," Canseco said to Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Scott Kazmir while he was
warming up in the bullpen. "Hey Scott, hey man, Scott, hey Scott. Hey. Hey
man, you wanna come over and take some steroids at my house Saturday?
Everyone's gonna be there. Free roids, man. Free roids. They're good for
you. It'll be fun. Trust me. Steroid party. My place. Be there."

Canseco said that the event will be catered, featuring hors d'oeuvres such
as steroid-stuffed lobster puffs, mini steroid-burgers, and according to
Canseco, "a big steroid cake filled with steroids." Bowls of pretzels,
testosterone cypionate, and Cheetos will be situated in the house and by
the pool, and will be replenished throughout the night.

"There will be a hot tub out back filled with steroids, and then we'll go
in it and eat all the steroids, and then we'll fill it back up with hot
water," Canseco said. "Then we'll sit in the hot tub, talk about steroids
and stuff, have some laughs, do some steroids, whatever. Then these hot
girls in string bikinis will come into the hot tub and do steroids with us.
Perfect end to a perfect evening."

For entertainment, there will be a variety of games, including "Steroid
Twister," "Guess That Steroid"—a game in which blindfolded guests must
correctly identify the type of steroid that they just ingested—and
something that Canseco only described as everyone dropping their pants and
injecting steroids into each other's buttocks.

"Ever try a cherry steroid spritzer?" Canseco reportedly said to Cardinals
first-baseman Albert Pujols Tuesday. "It's like a wine spritzer, but with
steroids. Come on, come to my house. If you come, everyone will come. You
didn't come last year. You owe me."

"One thing, though: At the end of the night, we all have to pose for a big
group photo," Canseco added. "We can do one where we're all doing goofy
poses and wearing silly hats and stuff, since we'll all be in such a good
mood on account of all the steroids. But then we have to do a more serious
one, where everyone looks straight ahead at the camera."

Most players said they would attend.

"I guess I'll go," said Astros shortstop Miguel Tejada. "[Canseco] kind of
creeps me out, though. He's always writing stuff down and trying to talk to
me about how to 'cycle' and 'stack' performance-enhancing drugs, but I have
to hand it to the guy—he knows how to throw a steroid party."

"Even though I most certainly do not use steroids, and I never have, and
the mere thought is reprehensible, that steroid party should be a good
time," Tigers DH Gary Sheffield said. "Sometimes things get a little out of
hand, like in 2003, when I lost my shit and almost killed a guy and then
blacked out. But you know what they say—it's not a steroid party till
something gets broken."

"Canseco's steroid parties are always lame," Pirates first-baseman Adam
LaRoche said. "Last year when I showed up, all the steroids were already
gone and it was just Jose Canseco, Sammy Sosa, and Rafael Palmeiro sitting
on the couch, roided out of their minds, watching Mr. Baseball on TBS."

Roger Clemens said that he would not be attending, but asked for directions
to Canseco's house just in case he has to drop by for a few minutes to pick
up his wife.


==========
Today's AP story:
Jose Canseco says he introduced A-Rod to steroids distributor in his
upcoming book

NEW YORK (AP)—Jose Canseco says in his new book that he introduced Alex
Rodriguez to a steroids distributor and that A-Rod pursued Canseco’s wife,
according to the Web site of freelance writer Joe Lavin.

Lavin says on the Web site that he obtained the book, “Vindicated: Big
Names, Big Liars, and The Battle to Save Baseball,” on Monday from a
bookstore in Cambridge, Mass. The book is due to be released April 1.

Lavin writes Canseco’s book discusses A-Rod, Roger Clemens and Magglio Ordonez.

He says Canseco claimed he didn’t inject Rodriguez but “introduced Alex to
a known supplier of steroids.” Lavin also says “Canseco claims that A-Rod
was trying to sleep with Canseco’s wife.”

“I really, absolutely, have no reaction,” Rodriguez said Tuesday when asked
about the claim relating to the steroids distributor. As far as the
allegation regarding Canseco’s wife, Rodriguez responded:

“I don’t know how to answer that.”

Canseco writes about the infamous June 1998 party at his house. Brian
McNamee, Clemens’ former trainer, has said Clemens spoke with Canseco at
the barbecue and soon after approached the trainer about using
performance-enhancing drugs. According to Lavin, Canseco wrote that Clemens
did not attend.

Earlier this year, Canseco gave an affidavit to congressional investigators
stating Clemens was not there and that he had never seen Clemens “use,
possess or ask for steroids or human growth hormone.”

Lavin wrote the Ordonez reference was “that old yarn of one player
injecting another with steroids, possibly in the buttocks.” Canseco and
Ordonez were teammates on the 2001 Chicago White Sox.

The New York Times reported in January that Canseco offered to keep Ordonez
“clear” in the book if the Detroit outfielder invested in a movie project
promoted by Canseco, claims Lavin said Canseco wrote he denies.


==========
Joe Lavin's Book Review:
March 25, 2008
Jose Canseco Reviewed: With Spoilers

There I was, wandering through a quaint Cambridge bookstore on Monday, when
I noticed a copy of Jose Canseco's new book "Vindicated: Big Names, Big
Liars, and The Battle to Save Baseball" in their tiny sports section.
That's odd, I thought. I didn't know the book had come out yet. It turns
out that it hasn't. The book's not due to be released until April 1st, but,
for some reason, there was a copy for sale. And so I bought it.

It's a roughly 250-page book that deals with many things, but, of course,
all you want to know about are the Big Names. In here, Canseco accuses
three more players of using steroids, and they are:

(Spoiler Alert: Don't read any further if you don't want to know how the
book ends!)

Magglio Ordonez
Roger Clemens
Alex Rodriguez

The Ordonez story is, by now, routine -- just that old yarn of one player
injecting another with steroids, possibly in the buttocks. Canseco does
point out that the recent New York Times report -- that Canseco had offered
to keep Ordonez "in the clear" if Ordonez invested five million dollars in
a documentary that Canseco was producing -- is not true. Canseco says there
was no blackmail, and that there is no documentary at all, which is
Sundance's loss, I guess.

Meanwhile, the evidence against Clemens is somewhat flimsy, and Canseco
even admits that he's not completely sure that Clemens used steroids. After
a home run, Clemens would just make jokes like, "Man, you must have had
your juice this morning!" Other times, he would say that he was off to take
his "B-twelve shots," which, Canseco says, is how players often refer to
steroids. He does later state that Clemens did not attend the
much-discussed barbecue at Canseco's house which was mentioned in the
Mitchell Report.

Canseco wanted to include his suspicions about Clemens in his first book,
"Juiced," but the publishers wouldn't let him. When later he told 60
Minutes and ESPN about Clemens, the comments were mysteriously edited out
of the reports. Canseco began to think there was some sort of conspiracy
afoot, specifically:

Roger Clemens was from Texas. He went to play for the Astros, to be close
to his family. George W. Bush, a former owner of the Texas Rangers baseball
team, is, like Clemens, a proud Texan. Clemens is a personal friend of Bush
Sr. and his wife, Barbara. Clemens still has a standing invitation from
Bush Jr. to visit the White House anytime. Getting the picture? Maybe the
president of the United States, or his daddy, the ex-president, made some
calls and took care of things for good ole Roger.

The saddest part of this entire book is that I think I might actually
believe this. I really can see President Bush putting off the important
work of government in order to help out a ballplayer.

As for Alex Rodriguez, Canseco says he didn't inject Rodriguez, but that he
"introduced Alex to a known supplier of steroids." Canseco didn't mention
Rodriguez in the first book because he "hated the bastard." He was worried
that people would have "questioned [his] motives" had he included Rodriguez.

Why all the hatred, you ask. Well, Canseco claims that A-Rod was trying to
sleep with Canseco's wife. Apparently, even after Canseco had been nice
enough to help A-Rod find a friendly steroids supplier, A-Rod kept calling
Canseco's wife.

And, in case there's any further confusion about Canseco's true feelings,
he ends the chapter by saying:

So A-Rod, if you're reading this book, and if I'm not getting through to
you, let's get clear on one thing: I hate your f***ing guts.

As for the Mitchell Report, Canseco feels he was ignored ("I was
Mitch-slapped!") and is still bitter about it. Like many, he also feels
that George Mitchell, a director of the Red Sox, showed a clear bias in
favor of the Red Sox when conducting his investigation.

In case you're wondering, this is all true because Canseco took a lie
detector test. Actually, he took two different types of lie detector tests,
and the results are included in the book. Or he could be just saying that
he took a lie detector test. What we really need is for him to take a lie
detector test to see if he really took a lie detector test. It's only a
matter of time before he's a guest on Fox's "Moment of Truth."

Of course, my problem here is that I've never really liked Canseco and have
never really thought of him as a reliable witness, you know, except for the
minor inconvenience that much of what he has said in the past has turned
out to be true. It seems that most of the media feels this way too. We
don't really want him to be telling the truth, but, at this point, who knows?

By the way, Clemens and Rodriguez aren't the biggest names in the book. The
biggest may well be Mike Wallace. Canseco describes a conversation the two
had after his 60 Minutes interview:

When the cameras stopped rolling, Wallace asked me if we could talk,
off-camera. He kept me there for another hour, clearly curious about
steroids. . . . He wondered how the steroids and human growth hormones
(HGH) might help him, a man in his eighties, live a longer, healthier life.
He wanted to know everything. . . . When Wallace was done interrogating me,
I could see I had piqued his interest. Whether I'd made a convert of him, I
can't say. Still, I know, I was pretty convincing.

Yes, apparently, Mike Wallace could be juiced. It makes sense. How else to
explain how Wallace has stayed on top of his game well into his eighties?
No word yet on whether Andy Rooney is juiced too.