Jose Canseco Apology

OK, OK, I know that I started writing this many, many months ago, and I haven’t really figured out what to do. Well, since my wife has become increasingly tired of my arguing with her, I have decided to use this as a forum to state the outlandish opinions that I hold dear and defend vehemently. I am going to mix in some sports, some philosophy, some other crap that runs out of my mouth at all the wrong times. Right now I HAVE to address this Jose Canseco thing.

For those of you that don’t know, Jose Canseco was part of the Bash Brothers back in the late 80’s early 90’s for the Oakland Athletics professional baseball team. The A’s were a team to be feared and besides their incredible pitching staff Jose Canseco and Mark McGuire (aka the bash brothers) were the reason. Jose Canseco was the first man EVER in baseball to make the 40-40 club (40 homeruns and 40 stolen bases). He was also a world-class idiot. He is the only person I know in the pros to have helped the other team score a homerun off of his head. He also in the playoffs one year managed to hit a TV camera in the stands with a deep blast, leaving a dent!

Well, the reason that I bring him up when he should have been forgotten, is his recent TV special. Yes that’s right anyone can get their own special on TV now, and it doesn’t have to be on PBS. SO the TV special is about his addiction to steroids and how he is trying to kick the habit. Seems like a stretch to me since he hasn’t been a professional athlete for many years, so why is he still taking. Well, it comes out that he is flat ass broke, again, and impotent, poor guy. Anyway, he came on the show, which probably has a fair share of You Tube play at this point, and said a heart felt apology accompanied with a cheesy sound track. The apology was not to the fans that he screwed, not to the league he burned, and not to the network that picked up his lame ass show, but to the people that he ratted out in his book “Juiced”. Jose wrote about his experiences in Major League Baseball and how he made it through his use of steroids. Not only that but these are the other people that I helped to get hooked on steroids. To give this rant a little perspective, Baseball was going in depth on the stereoids investigating at this point. We had the Congressional investigation (great use of tax funds..?) concluded, and everyone wass getting a pass. The players had a far more strict substance abuse policy (which in the Majors seems to be Meth instead of roids, but….), and we had our satisfaction as fans that only some people were users. Then there was the Mitchell investigation, which was separate again from the congressional hearings on steroids, though he was still a state senator. The fire for the Mitchell investigation came from a strong bit of investigatory reporting ala Woodward and Bernstein from a pair of San Francisco Chronicle reporters. They titled their book “Game of Shadows”. They show the under side of steroid and “performance enhancing drugs” in baseball. They also named names, spurring further congressional investigation via the aforementioned Mitchell report. At this point the investigations became a sort of indictment of Barry Bonds. Not that I have a huge problem with this because I have no respect for him as a player or a man, but it is not right to persecute someone because you don’t like them. It became a bit of a witch hunt to keep him from breaking Hank Aaron’s homerun record. He did it and now no one will touch him.

As I drift off topic, I want ensure you that I am trying to give enough background to help you along my opinion that I am about to drop. Ok, so back to Jose. He wrote “Juiced” during the time of the Mitchell Report. He wrote it after “Game of Shadows”, and had not been a player for many years. In this book he names athletes that had been under scrutiny for steroid use and some other fan favorites who seemed clean. It was a big deal and he promoted the crap out of it. He was on every sports network and radio station in the country. The end result is that he is still broke. It was not the major basis for the Mitchell investigation, and has been written off already as drivel from a bitter whiner. Someone that is trying to make a buck in the steroid scare. He then managed (god knows how) to get a show about him kicking his steroids habit. He then apologizes to the players that he outed, and he “feels bad.” I’d feel bad if I was impotent and overweight, and oh yeah, broke. He has no prospects for making money because none of the sports networks like him other than the controversy. The apology comes off as insincere and without the background track, would have no emotion whatsoever. He is again trying to create buzz for his new money making venture. As I watch ESPN they go as far as to give the man credit for the fact that he helped clean up the game. HA! That was already happening with the “Game of Shadows”. The league was already cleaning the game; Congress and our tax dollars were in twice! He contributed nothing except for a couple of great years at the A’s. Oh yeah, those years were steroid infested and there would be no way he would have even made the majors without them. He had accused a group of people that may or may not have used steroids. He gets to come out and make outrageous claims that someone only has their career because of roids, and he thinks that apologizing in his next money making scheme is OK? No way Jose! This man is a pariah in our society and for the media to even bother with anything that he says or does, is just as troublesome. Check your sources guys, this man is motivated by money and exposure and will say or do anything to keep himself in the spotlight. Jose Canseco you officially SUCK!