Canseco's new book: Vindicated

[Team Clark]

From ESPN. This will be interesting when it comes out.

Jose Canseco has finalized a book deal for his sequel to "Juiced" and it is expected to hit bookstores by Opening Day of the 2008 season, two New York newspapers reported Sunday.

Robert Saunooke, Canseco's lawyer, told The New York Daily News and The New York Post that the book, which has a working title of "Vindicated" will be co-authored by former Sports Illustrated writer Don Yaeger.

"Jose already has a lot of stuff put together," Yaeger told The Daily News.

Disappointed by the Mitchell report, Canseco hopes to publish "an unjaundiced view, without the rose-colored glasses" of steroid use in baseball, Saunooke told The Post.

"The book is basically going to be -- I don't want to say an attack -- but it will be a clarification of why certain names should have been mentioned [in the Mitchell report] that were not mentioned," Saunooke said of the new book. "We had hoped that the Mitchell report would have been more revealing. It basically ended up being nothing more than [Mitchell saying], 'I talked to a lot of people, some people wouldn't talk to me and it's up to the commissioner,'" Saunooke told The Daily News.

Saunooke told The Post that he and Canseco talked to Sen. Mitchell and provided him with "tons of information and background" on steroid use in baseball. But when the Mitchell report was released, he and Canseco were disappointed that names like Rafael Palmeiro and Ivan Rodriguez were not named.

Canseco's name appears 105 times in the Mitchell report, more than that of Barry Bonds (103) or Roger Clemens (82). In all, the 409-page report identified 86 names to differing degrees, but Clemens clearly was the symbol.

"I saw the list of players, and there are definitely a lot of players missing," Canseco told Fox Business Network this month. "I don't know what they accomplished or what they are trying to prove."

Prodded further about players not included, Canseco said this of Alex Rodriguez: "All I can say is the Mitchell report is incomplete. I could not believe that his name was not in the report."

One of the topics of Canseco's new book, Saunooke told The Post, will be how Mark McGwire asked for immunity before his appearance before Congress in 2005.

Another topic of Canseco's new book might be A-Rod.

In July, Canseco told WEEI Radio in Boston that he had "other stuff" on Rodriguez, who he called a "hypocrite" who "was not all he appeared to be."

"Jose has information about A-Rod and the Yankees that will be in the book. But, I am not sure if Jose is willing to disclose it at this point," Saunooke, told The New York Times in July.

In Baltimore for a Yankees' game against the Orioles that month, Rodriguez told reporters that he hadn't heard Canseco's comments about him. "And I have no comment."

In "Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big," Canseco called himself the "godfather of steroids in baseball," saying, "I single-handedly changed the game of baseball by introducing them into the game."

He wrote in that book that he personally injected McGwire with steroids and that he saw McGwire and Jason Giambi inject each other.

Canseco also claimed he introduced the performance enhancers to Palmeiro, Rodriguez, and Juan Gonzalez when he joined the Rangers in 1992.

Canseco hit 462 home runs in a major league career between 1985 and 2001. He played seven full seasons for the A's before being traded to Texas in '92. He also played for Boston, the Yankees, Toronto, Tampa Bay, Oakland again, and the White Sox.

A small clip from a previous article. Torre has a pretty good perspective.

Yankees manager Joe Torre said he was disappointed to hear about Canseco's comments.

"You worry about anything like that, because unfortunately, when people see it in print, they add credence to it. That's the sad part about it," Torre said, according to the New York Daily News. "It's a shame, because when you play this game, you'd like to believe you play with some kind of respect. Obviously, Jose needs the money."

[sonny]

Jose, please just go away.

[MrCinatit]

Part of me wants him to go away.
Another part of me extremely bregrudgingly sort of appreciates him for bringing the problem to light, and letting us know that things are not quite fixed. Essentially, he has become this generation's Jim Bouton and Curt Flood - guys who were not at all popular at the time for what they did, but people came to appreciate them a little bit more later.
Canseco is certainly no hero, this is for certain - but, sometimes the world needs a bad guy.

[Dom Heffner]

Obviously, Jose needs the money."

That ad hominen tie goes great with the shirt, Joe.

[traderumor]

Originally Posted by Dom Heffner

That ad hominen tie goes great with the shirt, Joe.

No doubt. By that standard, anyone who writes a book that is doing it to earn a living cannot be credible.

[Yachtzee]

People sell information for money all the time. Right now, Canseco is a loose cannon, but it doesn't necessarily mean he's lying about players for money. He's just willing to sell them out. If MLB wanted to minimize Canseco's potential damage to the reputations of its players, I think they would have been better off bringing Canseco in on the investigation and getting whatever he has on players so they could verify it. If it turns out his info is unreliable, they can then say they conducted a thorough investigation into his claims and found nothing to substantiate them. As it is, with what we already know about McGwire, Giambi and Palmiero, Canseco looks like the most honest and straightforward one of the bunch, even if his truth has a profit motive behind it.

[Dom Heffner]

"You worry about anything like that, because unfortunately, when people see it in print, they add credence to it. That's the sad part about it," Torre said, according to the New York Daily News.

Yeah, and Jose has been flat out wrong on everything he said.

What's sad is that Joe Torre can't wait until the book comes out to refute what Canseco says.

"It's a shame, because when you play this game, you'd like to believe you play with some kind of respect.

Drinking a little of that Tracy Jones Kool-Aid are we?

All of these ballplayers deserve our respect because they've played the game? What a pompous jerk. Respect is earned, not granted, and wasn't it Torre who penciled in Giambi's cheating butt into a lineup everyday?

They took our respect and tossed in the trash and now they want us to go fetch it from the bin, uncrumple it and iron it out for them.

Somehow that sounds like your job, Joe, and part of that would be for you to wait until all is written and said and then you can refute it, though why anybody would take the word of anybody involved with baseball is beyond me.

[icehole3]

a lot of people called him a nut, now he's not looking that bad IMO

[Crosley68]

Regardless of the motivation, the truth is the truth. The overwhelming majority poo-pood his first book as outlandish fiction. It appears now that he was much more accurate than anyone else was on the topic of steroids in baseball.

I predict that everyone will dismiss this book as well, maybe not with the same zeal but with the same "he needs the money" argument. Then in a year or so, after all the lawsuits and threathen lawsuits swirl around us, the same people will say (with much less zeal) "hey you know, he was probably right.

[MartyFan]

Sometimes the truth isn't pretty to look at...sometimes the truth is a cold splash of water letting us know that what we think is the truth is nothing but a lie.

Wow...deep...

[icehole3]

yep, some people dont want to hear their favorite players names associated with drug abuse. I want every bit of information out there because IMO this will keep these dopers out of the Hall.

[IslandRed]

Originally Posted by Yachtzee

If MLB wanted to minimize Canseco's potential damage to the reputations of its players, I think they would have been better off bringing Canseco in on the investigation and getting whatever he has on players so they could verify it. If it turns out his info is unreliable, they can then say they conducted a thorough investigation into his claims and found nothing to substantiate them.

Good point. As it turns out, Canseco was (so far as we can tell) telling the truth about things he observed or did. But at a certain point, when things move from what he knows to what he's heard, he's not necessarily any more credible than anyone else, particularly when talking about guys who have never been his teammate or best buddy (e.g. A-Rod).

[Team Clark]

Update: Maybe Canseco is stretching his exploits just a little?

Former Sports Illustrated associate editor Don Yaeger, who had initially planned on collaborating on Jose Canseco's next book, has decided against working with the former slugger, according to a published report.

Jose Canseco

Canseco
"I'm passing," Yaeger told the New York Daily News. "I had a chance to review the Jose Canseco [material] that he provided me. I don't think there's a book there. I don't know what they're going to do. I don't think he's got what he claims to have, certainly doesn't have what he claims to have on A-Rod. There's no meat on the bones."

Canseco finalized a deal for his sequel to "Juiced" and it is expected to hit bookstores by Opening Day of the 2008 season, two New York newspapers reported last month.

The working title of the book is "Vindicated."

[marcshoe]

Originally Posted by IslandRed

Good point. As it turns out, Canseco was (so far as we can tell) telling the truth about things he observed or did. But at a certain point, when things move from what he knows to what he's heard, he's not necessarily any more credible than anyone else, particularly when talking about guys who have never been his teammate or best buddy (e.g. A-Rod).

And I'm worried that the hearsay stuff will give those who would like to ignore the situation or say its overblown an excuse to do so. They could argue that it's okay to vote the known users in because there was so much false information out there, who knows?

[jojo]

Originally Posted by Crosley68

I predict that everyone will dismiss this book as well, maybe not with the same zeal but with the same "he needs the money" argument.

I think it depends upon how he writes it. If the second book aims higher than the first one, people might receive it more charitably.