Today, I had the opportunity to catch quite a bit of the MLB Channel on XM Radio. On the 3pm EST show epononymously titled "The Show" (maybe I will change this website to "The Blog") cohosted by Rob Dibble and Kevin Kennedy, Jose Canseco was interviewed, followed by Pete Rose.
A meeting of the minds.
At any rate, I thought readers might be interested to read some of what transpired. First, this listener's account of the Canseco segment:
...When asked why he wrote the book, Canseco said he thought it would be "fascinating" to tell the story of how he changed the face of baseball by introducing steroids to the game, even asserting that he saved the game. He claimed that team owners knew what he was doing and "turned a blind eye" as spread the juice because it would make the game more exciting through home runs hit through enhanced strength. He feels that as the 90's wore on, he was blackballed by the owners of the game because salaries were becoming too high. Players were hitting tons of home runs (due to steroids) which drove salaries up and the owners wanted them driven down.
...He used steroids because he wanted to become the best player he could -- for his deceased mother's sake -- and he didn't reall care how he accomplished it.
...When asked if he really thought he was blackballed, he said that Alex Rodriguez came to him and told him he was being blackballed. Canseco also believes that is why he was not popular with fellow players -- they knew he was being blackballed and did not want to be associated with him.
...The owners didn't realize that he was "an intellectual athlete."
...It's a great story in his mind, "I was reading my book the other day, and I was like, wow."
...Kevin Kennedy asked Canseco if he thought that no one hit 50 homeruns in the 2004 season, the first time in a long time that did not happen, because steroids was being tested for; Canseco replied, "No doubt about it. Homerun percentages are way down now."
At this point, I would like to point out that according to statistics on ESPN, home run rates were actually up in 2004. See "Juice Box".
...Canseco said that both Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were "juiced" in 1998.
OK. Here is where it get's really weird. Ready?
..."People have to understand [steroids] is all a process of evolution. Human beings have been cloned on the blackmarket, we just don't know about it yet."
...He is in the midst of writing a second book, which, for legal reasons, he couldn't go into too many details about it. However, Canseco did manage to say that the reason he had been in jail for four months recently was due to "powerful entities working to keep the first book from being published." Fortunately, we will be able to read about that in the second book. Yay.
...He owns his own production company and he will produce a move based on his first book.
Can't wait to see that.
Pete Rose followed Canseco on "The Show" (Dibble introduced him as "one of the classiest guys ever") and the first words out of his mouth -- without even being asked for his reaction -- was, "What does Canseco know about being blackballed from baseball?! If he was blackballed, it was because he couldn't play anymore." For the most part, Rose did not say much about Canseco in a positive way. In addition, Rose was not asked about his official banishment (as opposed to Canseco's unofficial banishment) and did not speak of it on his own. Most of Rose's segment of the show was a "no one is as good as we were, the game was better in our day"-type of discussion.
At any rate, this is by no means a transcript, but I wanted to pass this on, I am assuming that few readers were able to listen, and I am sure that Canseco's claim about Sosa will make headlines.
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Update: If you do have access to XM Radio, the interview will be rebroadcast tonight at 9 PM EST.
