Canseco: Pay- for-polygraph

New York Daily News ^ | February 23, 2005

[Howlin]

Canseco's lack of remorse for steroid use damages kids
By ANA VECIANA- SUAREZ


This week I tallied up the number of years I've spent on or near a baseball field. Nineteen.

Yep, for almost two decades I've sat in the bleachers, by the dugout or on the sidelines to watch one of my five kids play the Great American Pastime. I figure that, with my youngest at 11, I probably have five or more good seasons left in me before I retire.

Which makes me, if not an expert in the game, at least a knowledgeable observer. In other words, I can — with some authority — tell my son he's hitting the ball late. I can also counsel from personal experience that losing 13-zip is not the end of the world.

Like most parents of sports-obsessed children, I've survived the wax and wane of major-league dreams. At some point in his Little League career, each of my four sons thought he would one day make it to the pros.

But one of the hard lessons of childhood — indeed, of life — is the bitter realization that you may be good, but not good enough, big enough, fast enough, strong enough. And there are many others who are better.

I wonder, though, how many young athletes now believe that a little pharmaceutical help might juice their way to the top. Maybe that gap between "great" and "good" is but a pill or needle away.

It's impossible to ignore ranting sports commentators weighing in on the latest chapter in the ongoing saga of steroid use in baseball. Slugger Jose Canseco, once and very briefly Miami's darling, has written a book about his use of the dangerous drugs. In Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits and How Baseball Got Big, he admits to taking steroids as early as 1984 and continuing throughout his career. He also names big names.

"I was the godfather of the steroid revolution," he writes. And you wonder what kind of sick pride there is in that kind of admission.

Plenty apparently. The player who was the first to steal 40 bases and swat 40 homers in one season appeared on 60 Minutes and issued statements that still make me wince:

"I don't recommend steroids for everyone. I don't recommend human growth hormones for everyone. But for certain individuals, I truly believe it can make an average athlete a super athlete."

So much for coming clean. So much for making good of a bad situation.

But an opportunity lost is not the worst part of this ordeal, not by a long shot. Lots of sons and daughters may have watched this completely unapologetic (and unforgivable) confession and entertained a tempting thought: Can 'roids do that for me, too? Already, one-fourth of high school athletes use anabolic steroids, according to the director of legal affairs for the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

True, Canseco's credibility is shaky at best. His off-the-field antics have matched his on-field ones, and not in a good way. Remember the nightclub fights? The speeding sports cars? The reports of domestic violence?

But credibility is beside the point. The damage has already been done when he declares on prime time, "I would never have been a major league-caliber player without steroids."

Can you hear all those young players' hearts breaking?

There is something pitifully sad in all this. Sad because we hope that participation in sports will help our children learn about perseverance, about teamwork, about playing fair. But instead, they are being taught that cheating with performance-enhancing drugs may be the only way the good-enough athlete can make it to the top.

After 19 years as a baseball mom, I can tell you that's a strike no matter who calls it.

[OldFriend]

How sad that his book is given publicity by all the media.

He's turned into a celebrity for being a druggie, a betrayer of his teammates and now he's whining about racism at the heart of the criticism.

[MKM1960]

I had trouble sleeping last night, so while flipping round the dial I came across Keith Olberman doing the average tacky PPV commercial that is done for questionable sporting events. I was really funny. Then I almost felt as dirty as going to DU. Canseco better have indisputable proof. After hearing several comments from people he dissed in the book, he better keep away from dark alley, deserted areas and unfriendly locations(which seems to be anyplace that has professional baseball) he might be turned into a roid injected grease spot.

[Howlin]

He's all over TV and radio these last few days.

Hannity acted like he was the man coming to save our children from drugs.

I just don't get it; that's why I was looking for SOMETHING to explain this to me, and I found this funny story.

[newgeezer]

That article is SPOT ON! Thanks for posting it. It deserves a thread of its own.

[newgeezer]

Thanks.

[mercy]

HAH! Canseco may be a prick but I LOVE what he is doing to Baseball. They deserve it. They need it and it couldn't happen to a better bunch of worthless slobs.

[Alberta's Child]

Anytime Sean Hannity wonders why some of us here on FR think he's a third-rate media hack, he should ask himself why he spends so much time on television and radio interviewing useless @ssholes like this.

[OldFriend]

Hubby was wondering if Canseco's publisher is also Sean's publisher.

Why else would Sean lower himself to have this sleaze in the studio. And then spend the rest of the show bashing the man after he left. UGH.

[Stone Mountain]

"I don't recommend steroids for everyone. I don't recommend human growth hormones for everyone. But for certain individuals, I truly believe it can make an average athlete a super athlete." So much for coming clean. So much for making good of a bad situation.

I believe what Canseco said is true. And if it isn't true, I certainly believe that Canseco thinks it to be true. I would have a much bigger problem with Canseco if he were lying about this but he isn't, he is stating the truth as he knows it. Canseco did come clean. Is he providing a good example to the children out there? No, but that's the job of their parents. I'm not going to fault Canseco for telling the truth as he knows it.

But an opportunity lost is not the worst part of this ordeal, not by a long shot. Lots of sons and daughters may have watched this completely unapologetic (and unforgivable) confession and entertained a tempting thought: Can 'roids do that for me, too? Already, one-fourth of high school athletes use anabolic steroids, according to the director of legal affairs for the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

Yes, but I don't blame that on Canseco. And if Canseco lied and said that steroids didn't help him, how would that help the situation? Clearly, these high school students are using steroids because they are effective. And everyone knows that they are effective.

But credibility is beside the point. The damage has already been done when he declares on prime time, "I would never have been a major league-caliber player without steroids." Can you hear all those young players' hearts breaking?

Nope. If Jose Canseco was such a hero to these kids that their hearts broke when he admitted that he would have been a normal player without steroids, I would submit that these kids already have a problem with who their heroes are. In any case, I can't imagine that if Canseco lied (like all the other players that nobody believes) and said that he didn't use steroids or that the steroids didn't help him, that it would make any difference at all in the amount of steroids kids are using.

Is there a problem with kids using steroids? Absolutely, and it is serious. But it isn't Canseco's fault, and it's not his responsibility to lie to the public "for the children" which is apparently what this columnist would have Canseco do.

[Howlin]

Did you see or hear him on his radio or TV show talking to this guy?

I was really surprised at how much credence he gave him.

[Howlin]

Oh, shoot.....I should have searched! And I scream at people for not doing that......duh!

[OldFriend]

Well well well......just checked and Hannity and Canseco share the same publisher...Regan Books

HHHHHHMMMMMMMNNNNNN

[Howlin]

Well, well. What a coincidence.

And he's been on ALL the Fox shows; and Judith Regan has a "deal" with Fox, if I am not mistaken.

[TexasCajun]

Loop up JERK in Webster's and find a picture of Mr. Jose Canseco!

[Alberta's Child]

I just saw the interview on Fox in the background at a diner last night -- but I couldn't hear any sound.

Not that it would have mattered anyway.

Between Don King, Amber Frey, Jocelyn Elders, and now Jose Canseco . . . Hannity is really scraping around at the bottom of the food chain at this point. If Andrea Yates weren't in prison, I'm sure she would have been booked for a half-dozen appearances already.

[OXENinFLA]

Anytime Sean Hannity wonders why some of us here on FR think he's a third-rate media hack, he should ask himself why he spends so much time on television and radio interviewing useless @ssholes like this.

DING DING DING!!! We have a winner!!

Though I wouldn't call Amber Fry an A-hole. I used a few other choice words for her....

[TheForceOfOne]

One way or another lets get this on the table and fix it. I really don't care about his book or how clean he is in light of it. I could give a damn about those who call him a snitch or hypocrite or liar. Know one can tell me the record books haven't been tainted be users of these drugs. It's only a sport for heaven sake. If my child was using drugs I wouldn't care if it was a pusher or Mr. perfect who told me about it, I would want to know. This game is meant for the children to enjoy and over exposed by drooling sports fans, greedy owners and players who make us pay through the nose to watch grown men play a kids game. Today's athletes are arrogant, and terrible role models. I have no pity for those who turn sports into an ugly money grab at our expense. Today's pro athletes are killing the game and others like Basketball, etc.

[TexasCajun]

The parody was too funny! Wonder if it's on the net anyplace?