Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, & How Baseball Got Big [Hardcover]

I read this book when it first came out and I am glad I did not review it then. Like many others I was skeptical about what Canseco was saying. I just couldn't believe that all the famous athletes that he named took steriods or HGH. The idea that he personal injected many of them seemed ludicrous. The media put it down as a bunch of lies to sell books. Canseco also had his ups and downs and did not have a great reputation in baseball. After the hearings things looked even worse. But what came out in the long run was that everything he said became highly plausible or confirmed by drug testing or further investigation. This book is now a landmark book in the history of major league baseball. The only thing I disagree with Canseco on in this book is the idea that taking steroids was good for the game of baseball even though it led to more home runs and excitement for the fans. At least in his new book based on the accumulated medical evidence he has changed his tune. No one can deny that this was one of the major books to blow the lid on the use of steriods in baseball.

I believe that Canseco wrote this book for the noteriety and the money and that his selective choice of names to name was deliberate to sensationalize the book and sell copies. He now freely admits to naming people to make the book marketable in his new book vindicated. Also I think the book was intended to provide a rationalization for his own use of steroid and for turning so many others onto it. But the Mitchell report and other investigations has confirmed that those named were really users!

This, unlike, say, Pete Rose's book last year, is one book I had to read as soon as it came out. Simply written (no co-author is noted, but he must not have been very good), the book flies by. Of course, the media has leaked much of the good stuff already. As with any memoir (again, a stretch to use that word), truth is often muddled. Here it is worse. Did baseball really blackball Jose? Did Roger Clemens use steroids? Dave Martinez (that was funny--he was so mediocore)? Jose is clearly bitter for the way he was treated over the years. I can't possibly understand what it was like for a Latino ballplayer in the mid-80s. When he describes the racism involved in the game, much of it rings true. His bittnerness toward Cal Ripken (I'm assuming details were left out to avoid libel suits--common throughout the book) seems more mysterious. He is right that media (and the umps) play favorites sometimes. There is no question he is right about certain players and their steriod use. His digs at Mark McGwire are not cheap shots (pun intended). Mac was never the nice guy that we often heard about. He was surly, angry, and quite possibly a fraud. Same with Sammy "The Diva" Sosa. Each of these guys did a ton of stuff for charity. So did Canseco (which, immodestly, he points out)...but who knew that about Canseco? Not me.

Where he runs into trouble, at least for this reader, is his insistence on how good steroids are. The only steroids I ever took were for an infection and hope I never have to take them again. They can be great (look at how they saved Jerry Lewis--and how puffy he got) as medicine perhaps. But, his insistence on their goodness is a bit scary. Still, the man is a true believer. I just hope kids don't read this as the gospel. And the fact is, Canseco, Mac, etc, all cheated. He doesn't seem to care. Then again, I think the service he is doing to baseball is far more important. His book won't let the Barry Bonds' of the world keep fooling us.

Canseco also brushes over his marriages and the vast majority of his playing career (this is not a book that talks about the game between the lines). He claims to be unfairly persecuted by the Florida DA...the truth? Who knows? He claims to have had a nervous breakdown, but doesn't back it up. Who knows?

Finally, I think what might stay with me (besides the steroid stories) are the geniune moments. His hilariously overblown "affair" with Madonna. His near-suicide is poignant. I have no doubt he loves his daughter deeply. His pain over his break up with his second wife (everyone feels this kind of pain, even stars). The saddest part is the that deep inside his massive body, he is still a little hurting boy. He is very cautious about how he describes his father, but reading between the lines, we see a sad little boy and sad man. His father was incredibly tough on him. His mother died when he was barely out of his teens and she was his protector. Much of his career and incidents can be seen as a man looking for his fathers protection (his constant mentions of his insecurity) and the love of his mother (which he so sadly lost when she passed away). He has made some bad choices, but, in the end, he needs so much attention, because he never got it from the most important man in his life. All very sad. I think this book will serve an important purpose for our nation's past time and maybe help Canseco grow...maybe.

Halfway through reading Jose Canseco's new book "Juiced", it occurred to me that my opinion of this man was changing with every page I turned. I went into this book thinking that this was a man simply out to make a buck at the expense of others. What I've learned is that this book isn't about Jose Canseco or any of the many run-in's with the law that tarnished the amazing persona he gave of in his hey-day. This book is about a story that no one in Major League Baseball wants told......This book is about the TRUTH. We've all heard the rumors from reporters about how steroids have been killing baseball for years......now hear the story from a man who knows what he's talking about from being there in the trenches. This is no different than what Jim Bouton went through in the 1970's with his book "Ball Four". It took until 1988 to invite Bouton back to Yankee Stadium. Canseco is being treated like a social leper, just like Bouton was. I hope it won't take 18 years for the world's eyes to be opened and focused on what Canseco is saying here. He may very well be the key to returning baseball as America's Pastime.