Oct 21 2008
Canseco Should Not Apologize
Jose Canseco apologized during an interview Tuesday for writing the best-selling book, Juiced, that divulged names and details involving steroid use in baseball. Canseco played for several teams, most notable the Oakland Athletics, during his career from 1985-2001. After Canseco’s abrupt retirement–which he maintained was the result of being blackballed by Major League Baseball clubs–he wrote Juiced as a way to get revenge.
The book spawned a sequel, Vindicated, which had neither the saucy details nor the large sales of the first tome. Juiced also forced Congressional hearings, the Mitchell Report and increased scrutiny of the recently-passed baseball. Now widely considered the “Steroid Era,” many of the records set during the past 20 years are considered tainted.
There’s no way to prove which ballplayers cheated to enhance their performance. Even though Congress and MLB spent a lot of money trying to do so. Everyone involved–players, management, media, fans–wanted to believe the proverbial man behind the curtain wasn’t really the Wizard so they chose to believe astronomical home run totals previously only seen in video games.
Without Canseco’s books–for which many defamation lawsuits were threatened but none was ever actually filed–we’d likely remain in the dark about steroids. Like Deep Throat, an insider was needed to blow the whistle and improve the situation. Canseco should not apologize for bettering the game he loves.
Absolutely not. If you believe in something enough to write about it, and there’s nothing incorrect about what you’re said, then why apologize? People should be more aware about the reality of life instead of being blinkered. Canseco should be proud that he’s enlightening fans not apologizing for making them see more than the game.
They always say the sequel is not a juicy as the first book so time will tell I guess..
Though I am not a fan of Canseco, in fact he seems pretty slimy. It has been difficult to separate my negative gut reaction to him from the man who put the abuse front and center where they should be. I was a huge fan of his when I was growing up and hated to see that he had fallen so far. I am glad to see that he has gained some measure of redemption thanks to his willingness to come forward and name names. I still do not quite understand why the athletes were not prosecuted for using illegal drugs. Baseball should not be allowed to handle this internally. While it is true, many careers may have been damaged because of the investigations and naming of names, the players have not suffered the same legal repercussions that ordinary citizens would have. Just looking for a bit of equally applied justice.
Yanjiaren, all reports say Canseco’s sequel wasn’t as good as his original. No new details were uncovered.
Rich, I agree with your assessment. Sometimes a slimy inside man makes the best informer though.
Katie-Anne, sometimes people apologize because they don’t like having others be mad at them. Some think it’s better not to tell the truth than to lose friendships.