Report: Canseco claims introducing A-Rod, steroids distributor
ESPN.com news services
NEW YORK -- Jose Canseco says in his new book that he introduced Alex Rodriguez to a steroids distributor and that A-Rod pursued Canseco's wife, according to the Web site of freelance writer Joe Lavin.
Lavin says on his Web site that he obtained the book, "Vindicated: Big Names, Big Liars, and The Battle to Save Baseball," on Monday from a bookstore in Cambridge, Mass. The book is due to be released April 1.
Lavin writes Canseco's book discusses A-Rod, Roger Clemens and Magglio Ordonez.
He says Canseco claimed he didn't inject Rodriguez but "introduced Alex to a known supplier of steroids." Lavin also says "Canseco claims that A-Rod was trying to sleep with Canseco's wife."
"I really, absolutely, have no reaction," Rodriguez said Tuesday when asked about the claim relating to the steroids distributor. As far as the allegation regarding Canseco's wife, Rodriguez responded: "I don't know how to answer that."
Canseco also writes about the infamous June 1998 party at his house. Brian McNamee, Clemens' former trainer, has said Clemens spoke with Canseco at the barbecue and soon after approached the trainer about using performance-enhancing drugs. According to Lavin, Canseco wrote that Clemens did not attend.
Earlier this year, Canseco gave an affidavit to congressional investigators stating Clemens was not there and that he had never seen Clemens "use, possess or ask for steroids or human growth hormone." The affidavit is part of the evidence gathered by the congressional committee looking at drugs in baseball.
Lavin wrote the Ordonez reference was "that old yarn of one player injecting another with steroids, possibly in the buttocks." Canseco and Ordonez were teammates on the 2001 Chicago White Sox.
The New York Times reported in January that Canseco offered to keep Ordonez "clear" in the book if the Detroit outfielder invested in a movie project promoted by Canseco, claims Lavin said Canseco wrote he denies.
Earlier this month, the New York Daily News reported the federal government was hoping to arrange a face-to-face meeting between Canseco and IRS special agent Jeff Novitzky, its lead steroids investigator, when his upcoming book tour stops in San Francisco.
Novitzky reportedly wants to talk to Canseco as part of the federal investigation into performance-enhancing drugs in sports.
Canseco, who will visit six cities while promoting his second steroids-related book "Vindicated," will be in San Francisco, where Novitzky is headquartered, on April 9 and 10.
The release of the book, to be published by Simon Spotlight Entertainment, is to coincide with Canseco's scheduled appearances on ABC's "Nightline" on March 31 and the Howard Stern show on the day of the book's release.
"Vindicated" is the follow-up to Canseco's 2005 book "Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits and How Baseball Got Big." The book, which described his steroids use and implicated Mark McGwire, among others, rocked Major League Baseball.
Canseco initially was to collaborate with former Sports Illustrated associate editor Don Yaeger on "Vindicated," but Yaeger passed on the project, telling the Daily News in January that Canseco didn't have enough goods on Rodriguez.
"I had a chance to review the Jose Canseco [material] that he provided me. I don't think there's a book there," Yaeger told the newspaper. "I don't think he's got what he claims to have, certainly doesn't have what he claims to have on A-Rod."
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Originally Posted by Matt700wlw
