Is there anyone here who thinks Canseco is lying?

[MikeG]

[mr fry]

1. yep

not about everything but i doubt it is all true

[TwilightZone]

2. What? A star athlete lie just to sell a few books?

Nah. Couldn't be.

[Mend]

3. No, I think the problem is worse than he says...

look at the way baseball players looked twenty years ago. Our nutrition and work-outs didn't get that much better.

[roguevalley]

4. no. i think they have a morass and have done nothing about it. i

think he may have even low balled what's going on.

[tishaLA]

5. About some details, yes

But the overall arc of what has been reported so far? Not a chance. If anything, it's worse than he says.

I'm actually interested in hearing what he says about race in baseball. That might be even more fascinating, if not as immediately marketable, than the steroid stuff.

[aaronbees]

6. Nope

I think he could embellish in parts but the general tenor is true -- perhaps even understated since he's simply focusing on what he himself saw. We'll see, I suppose, but I think this is just the tip of the iceberg. I think baseball's headed for some real trouble and it's well deserved.

[jakefrep]

7. Yes

He's trying to sell books.

[Jack Rabbit]

8. I have entertained that possibility

However, I have no way of knowing one way or the other.

[joeybee12]

9. Not sure--I do know he's not the most trustworthy person, and he's bankrup

Could be making things up to sell a book.

Then again, some of it does ring true. And I do believe that steroid use is more widespread than baseball would like to admit.

[DaveinMD]

10. no

I completely believe that half the league was juicing.

[hijinx87]

11. I tried not to pay attention to canseco in the 80's.

nd I can't see any reason to start now. I think he's destined to be remembered more for the HR that bounced off his noodle years ago than any of this . . . .

I did see him hit a fairly booming HR during spring training at vero beach a few years back when he was trying to make the expos. I don't think he made it, and I think that was as close as he has come to an MLB roster since then. but he hit it against a kid that was bagging groceries a month later.

[Lexingtonian]

12. nope

He could well be wrong on particulars. But, in general, when there's something banal and expectable and bad to tell about other people it tends to be true. It's the flagrant, wierd, one-time event stuff that is dubious.

The Eighties and Nineties were all about machismo and individual megadeals in all American sports. There was every incentive for good baseball hitters on mediocre teams to use steriods- there wasn't a downside to it, and tons of money, homer acclaim, and 'cosi fanni tuti' (Everbody's Doing It)/every guy for himself moralism on the part of other players. One look at Canseco hitting that fourth tier seating home run in the WS...that kind of bulky upper body took pharmaceutical assistance of some kind. The rest is all about people peeking through their fingers at what's been completely obvious for at least ten years.

[Arkana]

13. To be honest, I'm ashamed that Canseco ever played for the BoSox....

but I think that while some of what he's saying is crazy, some of it could very well be true.

[HuckleB]

14. Sure. So are Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, Palmeiro etc... etc...

Their vehement denials are much more telling than Canseco's "tell-all" book. Canseco is scum. But in showing his stripes, he's shown the world that these guys are every bit as bad.

[Hokie]

15. I think he is telling the truth

I was not sure until I watched the interview. Only steroids or a dramatically juiced up baseball can explain the offensive explosion in baseball int he 90's. I think the owners looked the other way because they knew the chase of the home run records put fannies in the seats.

[kaitykaity]

16. When a fame whore says something

controversial to get face time, I don't usually put
a whole lot of stock in it. Yeah, I think the players
are juicing, but come on.

They need a better source than that sad creature.

[ProfessorGAC]

17. You Can Count Me

There is no way this loser sells book one by doing a mea culpa. The only way to sell this piece of trash is drop names, without regard to facts.

He's already been caught in a lie on this in the Wallace interview. (He injected Mark several times? No, it was suddenly once or twice. He didn't keep track. Blah, blah, blah.)

Does anybody honestly believe that Palmeiro used? Look at him. He didn't get big and strong and he already had a lightening quick bat. Not everyone who learns to drive the ball, instead of just hitting it, used steroids. Guys have learned to do this for the last 75 years!

The facts don't line up with some of his statements, and his book would go nowhere if he didn't name names.
The Professor

[HuckleB]

18. Yeah, Palmeiro used.

I've got little doubt about it. Did he use as long as McGwire, Bonds and Sosa? No. That doesn't mean he didn't use.

[ProfessorGAC]

19. Then We'll Have To Disagree

Sometimes, weight lifting alone does work. Everyone who gets stronger doesn't need to have used steroids.
The Professor

[HuckleB]

20. Sometimes...

but not to the extent it did in the '90s, and to the extent it did for Palmeiro. Weight lifting has been around a long time, and what happened in the '90s wasn't simply due to weight lifting.

[ProfessorGAC]

21. In YOUR Opinion

My opinion is the opposite. You have no proof. This makes both opinions equally valid. Hence, we will disagree.
The Professor

[HuckleB]

22. Nope.

I don't think your opinion is based on anything but your imagination. I've spent too much time around athletes, weight rooms and baseball in particular. You must be a McGwire fan who got sucked into the hype. Sorry, but he used and he used big time. The evidence is far too great to believe otherwise. Legal mumbo jumbo simply doesn't outweigh the reality that he and Sosa and Canseco and Bonds and on and on and on would all have to be one in a million freaks who suddenly showed up in MLB at the same time. Sorry, but the odds against that are simply too great.