SPORTS
Canseco’s ethics absent in ‘Juiced’
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Also by Mike Ackerstein:
- Bohannon catches fire from deep (February 14, 2008)
- Badgers go for season sweep of Hoosiers (February 13, 2008)
- Flowers' energy needed against Indiana (February 12, 2008)
- Not again: Badgers stunned by Boilers (February 11, 2008)
Related Stories:
- Congress' subpoenas envy (March 11, 2005)
- Will MLB listen? (February 9, 2005)
- 'Juice' as a role model (October 18, 2005)
- MLB's steroid tragedy (October 13, 2004)
- MLB's official policy of inaction (December 8, 2004)
by Mike Ackerstein
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Almost three years to the day after he got the ball rolling
with his book Juiced, Jose Canseco is
once again part of the hunt for steroid users, an issue that has consumed Major
League Baseball.
Three years after I bought not one, but two, copies of the
book, I still haven’t forgiven myself for doing it (twice).
After publishing the book in 2005, Canseco, then 17 years
removed from his MVP season with Oakland, enjoyed a brief period of cultural relevancy
before disappearing once again. Last week, though, allegations involving Roger
Clemens, and a party Canseco was present for, came to light. The man who
started the whole thing was again involved in it, albeit in a much more passive
role.
Canseco’s book didn’t look like it would be taken seriously
when it was first released three years ago. Filled with wild accusations
ranging from Canseco’s alleged 3.9 40-yard dash
time to Madonna’s sexual obsession with him, it appeared to be just another
tabloid tell-all.
It wasn’t the details about sexual escapades with groupies
and drunken bar fights that sold copies, though — it was the name-dropping of
ballplayers that Canseco “knew” had taken steroids.
That’s why I bought the book.
Canseco wasn’t shy about admitting that he had taken
performance-enhancing drugs, nor was he shy about revealing others who had,
which is what made the book seem like such an important one.
Canseco blew the whistle on the “rampant” steroid usage in
baseball, not to reform the sport, but to promote himself and make some money.
Three years later, it looks like it worked. The book was a
bestseller and, in the process, it turned steroids into the preeminent issue in
baseball.
Once looking like a trashy read, now it’s cited as a footnote
in the Mitchell Report, the investigation delving into steroid usage in
baseball conducted by Sen. George Mitchell and commissioned by MLB.
I was 16 when I read the book for the first time. I had no
idea what I was getting myself into.
By that time I’d already read Jim Bouton’s Ball Four, the first book to expose illegal drug usage in
baseball. Not a user of the “greenies” described in the book, Bouton caught a
lot of flack for “ratting out” his teammates. But for the man who co-invented
Big League Chew gum to steer kids away from chewing tobacco, the book was meant
to change the game for the better, not to become socially relevant again or to
make a buck.
Canseco’s book didn’t have such a noble purpose, but I read
it anyway. As Canseco filled me, and everyone else who bought it, in on the
dirty little secret behind America’s pastime, it became impossible to watch
baseball without asking, “Is he using?”
With the congressional hearings involving Rafael Palmeiro
and Mark McGwire, both of whom were mentioned in the book, it was clear that
Canseco was at least partially telling the truth. At that point, dismissing Juiced as a bunch of lies published to sell copies became
nearly impossible even to the most skeptical of readers. There was no turning
back.
To be fair, allegations of steroid use in baseball long
preceded Canseco’s book. Ken Caminiti famously told his story to Sports
Illustrated in a 2002 cover article. But it was Canseco’s name-dropping of some
of the sport’s biggest players that injected life into the current hunt.
Now, it’s too late to close Pandora’s Box. Steroids have
left the shadows from which they lurked for so long and have been exposed as
public enemy No. 1 to baseball.
Instead of living in oblivion, we now live in fear; fear
that our favorite players will be the next ones exposed (if they haven’t been
already).
Steroids don’t belong in baseball. Having read Juiced isn’t necessary for knowing that they are a part of
it, though; by now it’s an unavoidable fact.
It’s not that I’m not glad the truth is slowly coming out;
it’s that Canseco didn’t handle things the right way. His book isn’t exactly
Woodward and Bernstein doing exhausting research in breaking a story to inform
a public with a right to truth, but rather the desperate attempt to gain notice
by a washed-up player with an already suspect reputation who decided to throw
around allegations wildly in hopes of turning a profit.
Canseco’s way of lifting the curtain on
performance-enhancing drugs may have worked, but it was done both selfishly and
recklessly, tarnishing baseball’s reputation even further, and that is the
reason I’ll forever regret sticking 50 bucks into his pocket.
Three years after the release of Juiced, Canseco has now written a new book entitled Vindicated, scheduled to come out this year. The second book
promises to reveal even more of baseball’s users. Of course, the title refers
to the feelings of credibility Canseco now believes he has because the
steroid-usage he wrote of appears to have truly taken place.
Three years later and Canseco still thinks writing Juiced was the right thing to do.
Three years later and for me, reading it wasn’t.
Vindicated? I’m not buying it.
Mike is a sophomore majoring in political science. If you’re interested in buying his second copy of Juiced or have your own thoughts on steroids, he can be reached at mackerstein@badgerherald.com.
Anonymous (February 14, 2008 @ 11:51pm):
Interesting column, why did you buy two copies?
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