Boswell bashes Canseco

ADKbrown · **Posted:** Tue Feb 08, 2005 12:44 pm

Jose Canseco's SOON-TO-BE-PUBLISHED book, Juiced, accuses McGwire, Palmiero, Ivan Rodriguez and others of using steroids. Those don't seem like outlandish accusations, given what we know about drug use in baseball and other sports, but Thomas Boswell seems to think they are. I don't understand why he's dismissing them before the book even comes out.

I haven't got the hang of inserting hypertext in the new forum. Boswell's link: [/url]http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6271-2005Feb7.html[url][/i][/url]

jjmoney62 · **Posted:** Tue Feb 08, 2005 1:00 pm

I think most of the ballplayers and coaches (La Russa in particular) are jumping on Canseco (and his reputation as a flake) as a way to discredit it out of the gates. I detect a hint of semantics in some of the denials. Also, certainly, this could be the crazy ranting of a goofball. It will be interesting to see what Jason Giambi says. He was there and could easily confirm or deny whether McGwire joined them in steroid use.

As it stands, it's one person (with a lousy reputation) making baseless allegations.

(And please, ADK, do not use "forthcoming" like that.)

Wayne Countryman · **Posted:** Tue Feb 08, 2005 2:36 pm

There's no telling how many players dabbled in steroids years ago. Steroids are safe when used in moderation under a doctor's care. Players (and fans and copy editors) have used them to speed healing, among other purposes.

It took a while for all of the dangers to become known, even among users. Warnings have been brushed off before and after Lyle Alzado's death (which he and others attributed to complications from steroid abuse).

I nearly fainted when i heard that Rafael Palmeiro was among the accused. Not because I'm much of a fan of his, but because if he did use them, it couldn't have been for long or to bulk up.

The list of players who ever used steroids probably would go far into the hundreds. To call all of them abusers would be ridiculous. But if a test existed to prove heavy use years back, the game would be in turmoil.

I wouldn't trust Canseco on anything, but this issue is far from over.

wordygurdy · **Posted:** Tue Feb 08, 2005 3:54 pm

I had read the Boswell column before popping in here. I too think he is being a little hasty in dismissing the charges so easily.

And clearly Boswell wrote the piece before the release date of the book was pushed up to Feb. 14. Boswell speculates that Peter Angelos' threatening to protect Palmeiro's reputation will cause Regan Books to remove passages implicating Palmeiro, but that seems unlikely given the advancement of the publishing date.

Even if you take Canseco's accusations with a ton of salt, there's probably more than a little truth to them. The big question is for which player he's accused are the charges more true than for others?

The short answer is that we will never know, and it's too bad that allegations may end up denying one or more of those players Hall of Fame admission (Palmeiro in particular).

I find it hard to believe that Palmeiro was using steroids because he just doesn't seem to have that body-builder physique. And his production over his career has been consistent--he hasn't had any real spikes that would cause you to wonder whether he was artificially enhancing himself.

Once McGwire admitted to using Andro and it was subsequently banned by baseball, I wondered whether that would affect McGwire's chances at the Hall. I still wonder. He hit 583 home runs, but ... what else? World champ once. Rookie of the Year. O.K., but he doesn't strike me as a great player. Very good, maybe well above average, but he just doesn't pop into my head when I'm thinking about all-time greats at first base.

You can't really point to McGwire's single-season home-run record as one of his signal achievements because it's tainted by the Andro. The supplement, later determined to be a steroid precursor, clearly helped him that year, and if anyone could be accused of being Brobdingnagian, it was he.

I think the same cloud of suspicion is going to affect Sammy Sosa, whose production has declined precipitously the past few years and whose physique seems to have shrunk accordingly. I wouldn't elect Sosa because of the dramatic change in his physique at an older age--he went from whippet to giant in a fairly short amount of time.

Matthew Grieco · **Posted:** Tue Feb 08, 2005 4:25 pm

ADKbrown wrote:

I haven't got the hang of inserting hypertext in the new forum.

Code:

[url=http://www.link.goes.here/]This where you put the text that you want to appear as the link, which can also just be the link itself again if you so choose.[/url]

Oeditpus Rex · **Posted:** Tue Feb 08, 2005 6:33 pm

I don't recall any reviews or previews of "Ball Four" â€” christ, was it really 35 years ago? â€” but I'd bet a lot of them read much like Boswell's column. You've certainly got to admire him for going out on a limb to dismiss a guy who's been dismissed by pretty much everybody associated with the game.

</snark>

ADKbrown · **Posted:** Thu Feb 10, 2005 4:51 pm

One of the few topics Giambi addressed specifically was Jose Canseco's upcoming book, which is being released next week. The New York Daily News reported Sunday that Canseco says in the book that he, Giambi and Mark McGwire shot steroids together.

``I think it's sad. I think it's delusional,'' Giambi said. ``It's just so far-fetched. It's not even fantasy.''

*So who do we believe?*

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