OT- How do you feel about Jose Canseco?
With the news on McGwire, none surprising at all, it brings up an interesting question. How do you feel Canseco? He is arguably the slime of Major League Baseball, but he has been honest about everything. I used to think he was a piece of crap, but he single handedly puts these cheaters in check.
The league can test and do research, but who know more about these guy then the one notorious for providing and doing them? I thought it was great that everyone praised McGwire for finally coming forward and the first day of the news, Jose is out there telling the real truth. I kind of appreciate the dude.
On another side note, I'm watching outside the lines and the man that gave Mark the roids said, and I quote, "Let's put it this way, if Paris Hilton took the stuff mark was taking to get "healthy", she'd be able to run over Dick Butkus"
Amazing quote.
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:15 PM ^
Pre or post "Hang Time" Butkus?
I think from day 1 that Conseco was the most believable...i don't think he really gave a fuck about his own image or self-perceived image. Didn't he challenge McGwire to a public polygraph? or am i imagining that?
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:21 PM ^
He definitely challenged him to a poly. Said he's been taking them ever since the book came out and passed them all. A scumbag for sure, but an honest one.
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:22 PM ^
I think that guy's answer was a little disingenuous. Steroids don't make automatic muscles, they help build muscle tissue faster and let you train more often. They would help more during an off season lifting program than during the season.
Regardless of how McGuire is portrayed, Canseco will always be regarded as a douchebag. Blowing the lid off of the steroids controversy was good, but let's not pretend it was out of some sense of moral obligation like he claims. He was broke and it was a good story that sold.
January 22nd, 2010 at 4:51 PM ^
At least not in the sense that many do. They are medically indicated for recovering from injury, but those who are injured the most in the line of work are not allowed to use them now because of the abuse of people like Canseco. There were plenty of abuses and it should have been cleaned up, but nobody who used them before they were against MLB rules should be blamed for using them.
Canseco is vilified by some and deified by some, but to me the answer is in between. He was blackballed from doing the only thing he knows how to do and decided to use every resource he had to fight back. I have no problem with that and actually admire it, but I am not naive enough to think he was trying to "reform" anything. I am more inclined to believe he made money the best way he could and used his information as a way to say, "Fuck me? No, fuck you!" to MLB.
And I do have to admit that it worked quite well. Nobody has caused more grief to MLB than Canseco has. And nobody has provided more easy stories to lazy, self-righteous members of the media, either.
No matter what you think of Canseco's motives, he has accomplished a lot. The media should be thanking Canseco for allowing them to "phone it in" whenever they are too lazy to write a real story. The players should be thanking him for making it no longer neccessary to mis-use steroids to keep up with the norm, thus statistically extending their life expectancy. And those who religiously follow every steroid story between episodes of Desperate Housewives should thank him for filling their time.
As for me, I'm ambivalent. I am thankful that, in spite of his motives, he helped clean up the game, but am disgusted with the witch hunt aspects of the whole episode. It seems that frustrated athletes who write about sports are the first to beat their chests and call someone who actually plays the game a "cheater."
The MSM should have a filter similar to that of Brian's here at Mgoblog. Whenever a member of the MSM uses the word "cheater," he or she should be held in the same esteem of anyone who uses any of the "forbidden names" here, such as M-dollar sign-U or O-dollar sign-U. They should be negged in MSM-go-points, which would translate to dollars in their paychecks.
If they continue their behavior, they should get the MSM banhammer and go to work at McDonalds, Burger King, or something equally demeaning to their misplaced senses of dignity.
January 22nd, 2010 at 5:08 PM ^
Keep in mind that steroids also prevent injury and allow for quick recovery.
In total, steroids allow players to play a (close to) full slate of games, when, in all probability, they might normally not be able too.
Just look at those individuals suspected of taking steroids - when using they were pretty healthy, despite the demand of a 162 game schedule, age, etc.; after stopping use, they started to get hurt at a remarkably higher rate. It's not coincidence.
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:22 PM ^
Just about everything Canseco has said is true...
now get him out of my face! I would feel differently about him if it didn't seem like he was only in this for personal gain. It's like he wants some sort of medal now. We have learned how widespread steroid use was in baseball. Who cares about little details like "who injected this person?" or "why they used it?" The average fan should know to take these statements with a grain of salt anyways.
Congrats, Jose. You enlightened us all. Spare yourself the eye-rolling and another ass-beating at the hands of a pro fighter. Pull a Tyson and fade into bolivian!
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:24 PM ^
About the same as I feel about mob informants who go into the Witness Protection service. Necessary evils...but they're still scumbags.
I'm glad Sammy Gravano testified and put John Gotti away. But I still think Gravano is a piece of crap murdering thug.
I'm glad Canseco spilled the beans about steroids. But I still think he was detrimental to the game. His fake physique and his success at figuring out how to cycle steroids was one of the reasons the drug became so omnipresent in the sport.
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:24 PM ^
I think he's a douchebag for ratting out all his peers but it looks like most of the stuff he's saying is pretty accurate. he also had a big role in helping the league and fans realize how big the problem was. I hate him but who know how much we would know about the steroid era if not for him?
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:29 PM ^
that if I never heard Jose Cansecos name again that would be just fine with me.
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:30 PM ^
Hes probably telling the truth but no one respects a snitch
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:33 PM ^
But I gotta say that I respect you for keeping your screen name even when you're in the negatives. +1 for not pulling an em0.
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:52 PM ^
... thankful.
Jose... vindicated.
January 22nd, 2010 at 4:25 PM ^
Not that I like him or anything, but he did save that lady's baby and most of her belongings in that Simpsons episode back in 1991/92.
Then again, he never did get to play for Mr. Burns' softball team because of his actions. He should have just drank the nerve tonic like Griffey.
January 22nd, 2010 at 5:21 PM ^
That comment about sums it up. Canseco was brave (or maybe naive) but the element of self-interest combined with his inability to seem very personable ultimately keeps him an unpopular character. He exposed a dark truth that many suspected but few want to acknowledge any more than we have to. Unpleasant business all around. Sometimes the messenger gets shot...
What really bugs me is the initial reaction, especially from the MSM. I still recall listening to Dan Patrick and Rob Dibble tear into Canseco on ESPN radio when he first went public with the accusations. They kept assassinating his character repeatedly, but they also really pressed him while he was on the phone. They asked him WHY he would do it and what he hoped to gain out of it. He had the same answers he gives now, but in hindsight, you have to wonder if he was to reevaluate his response would he see that little was gained. Canseco loses too, even if he was backed by the truth.
January 22nd, 2010 at 5:37 PM ^
I feel like he was the meathead trailer trash of the steroids scandal. McGuire has at least handled the press well, even in his denials. He never had the roid rage. With Canseco, I feel like it was always about getting his face in the public.
January 22nd, 2010 at 5:41 PM ^
I kid. But I really believe he is the only honest voice in the baseball steroid scandal. Ask a question, get an answer. Pretty novel concept considering the way Bonds, Sosa, Palmero, etc. have handled it.
January 22nd, 2010 at 6:09 PM ^
a different point of view on Canseco.
Went to a bar/restaurant in Santa Monica to watch the Dodgers play in the post season and I believe it was also the same day Michigan played Iowa this year. I was there with a bunch of friends who happen to work in the front office for the Dodgers.
We noticed that Jose Canseco was there with a girl who looked like she may be a porn star several tables away. We thought it was pretty funny but living in LA you see "celebs" every once in awhile and you don't think very much about it.
Then later on, a waitress came over to our table with half of a bbq chicken pizza and a few chicken tenders and let us know that the gentleman over there had sent it over to our table.
She pointed at Jose Canseco and we looked over at him and he smiled and waved at us.
That is right, Jose Canseco sent over his left overs as a nice gesture to our table. This may be taken as a rude gesture but he sent us his leftover food with as genuinely good intentions as one can have in this situation. We had no interaction with him up until this point so we were very surprised needless to say.
We are a young bunch who all are very recent college grads so we welcomed the free food and thought it was hilarious that Jose sent it over to us. A couple of us walked over there to talk to him and he said that he saw we had a big group and thought we would appreciate the food. They told him they worked for the Dodgers and he said something along the lines of "They don't like me very much there". We all shook his hand and wished him well.
We all put on 15 pounds of muscle after eating those chicken tenders and we were all able to bench press about 20 more pounds at a time with more reps than before.
Not sure if this will change your opinion of Jose as a person or baseball player. However, if you are in a restaurant with him, you may just get a taste of what he is eating.
January 23rd, 2010 at 9:35 AM ^
Slightly off the OP topic but here goes.
What really annoys me is the image of McGwire strutting around the basepaths after the record-breaking homer, cameras popping, Joe Buck gushing, and worst of all, the Maris family there with Roger's bat. I find that revolting.
Then the congressional hearings where we can't talk about the past, and now he comes "clean" so he can get back in the dugout.
Enough is enough with this guy.
Canseco may be a sleazy nut job but he has been honest, and right, about this stuff when everyone else denied it.
January 22nd, 2010 at 10:52 PM ^
While the rest of Mr. Burns' mercs were out dinking around getting in bar fights with the likes of Barney Gumball and what not, dude rescued a woman and her baby, plus all of her belongings from a house fire. And was then nice enough to rearrange the ungrateful bitch's stuff out on the lawn. That makes him okay in my book.
January 22nd, 2010 at 11:02 PM ^
Ken Griffey's grotesquely swollen jaw, Steve Sax and his run in with the law. We're talkin Homer, Ozzie and the Straw.
Growing up a Braves fan, I LOVED the part where Bart and Lisa were chanting "Darryl" and then the Straw shed a tear.
January 23rd, 2010 at 1:19 AM ^
I can't get enough of the ball bouncing off his head for a home run.
January 23rd, 2010 at 5:26 PM ^
I feel the same way about conseco as I do skip bayless, lane kiffin, terrel pryor, superaids, beer shits, and wet socks.
January 23rd, 2010 at 5:50 PM ^
He may be an opportunist, but he has done the sport a great service by outing the many steroid users.
I'd like to see someone to do the same to get amphetamines (which are probably even more widely used) out of baseball.