Give 'em Some Stankeye!

I guess it’s only necessary that I give my two cents on this whole Jose Canseco thing. First off, I don’t plan on reading Canseco’s book. Frankly, I would rather immerse myself in 300 pages of brainless frothing at the mouth from Ann Coulter or some other right-wing wacko than read Canseco’s written tripe. From what I hear, the guys whom the former Bash Brother supposedly “outs” are mostly players that he didn’t even see using steroids, he just heard “strong rumors” or he could tell by looking at them or some crap like that. The guy who Canseco seems particularly bent on taking down is Mark McGwire, with whom Canseco alleges he’d had ‘roid parties with when the two were teammates with the A’s.

Frankly, this whole thing reeks of an attempt to cash in on the latest and juiciest craze. Steroids talk has become sort of a McCarthyist witch hunt in baseball in recent years, and now that it’s reached its peak with the whole BALCO mess, here comes Canseco with a well-timed tell-all book about his experiences. Coincidence? Judge for yourself. Just remember that we’re talking about a guy whose few remaining shreds of credibility are dangling by their chinny-chin-chin. This is a guy who once tried to ram his ex-wife off a bridge, who whined and sulked his way through six-and-a-half years in Oakland before being traded for erstwhile “village idiot” Ruben Sierra, who blew his arm out trying to impress fans as he warmed up in the bullpen with Texas, and who once had a baseball bounce off his head and over the fence for a home run. Integrity certainly isn’t a strong suit with this guy.

Then again, its easy to dismiss what Canseco has to say because he’s a proven dimwit, but maybe we just can’t or won’t bring ourselves to believe what he alleges is true. What if a baseball sage like Nolan Ryan or Greg Maddux came out and wrote a book naming names of steroid users? People would sure as hell listen then. Maybe Canseco is telling the truth. Then again, maybe he is simply full of hot air, and is out to gain fame in the Jim Bouton way by making himself out to be some sort of half-assed whistleblower. Maybe Tony LaRussa was right when he said that Canseco was simply jealous of McGwire’s accomplishments. The only thing I know for sure is that Canseco’s book will do absolutely nothing to solve the steroid problem in baseball, but will only serve to fan the flames of speculation that hinders progress instead of aids it.