Jose Canseco Is Right, but Still...Shut Up!

When Jose started running his mouth about steroid use in baseball after he retired, I wrote him off as simply being a spotlight seeker.  A guy who would say anything to remain in the spotlight and make a few more bucks. 

Then when his tell-all book that named steroid users names hit the shelves I was shocked.  I couldn't believe that Jose would go to this length just to make a buck.  But given his personal situation, he was in financial straights and was involved in some marital troubles as well, I understood why he was doing it.  It was still wrong to make those false accusations.

In retrospect, I was wrong and Jose was right!  Many of his accusations in his 2005 book, Juiced: Wild Times, Smash Hits, Rampant 'Roids and How Baseball Got Big have turned out to be true! 

Jose, the admitted steroid user, pointed a wagging finger at some of the biggest names in the game: Mark McGwire (recently admitted use), Rafael Palmeiro (had already admitted use), Jason Giambi (admitted user), Ivan Rodriguez, Juan Gonzalez and more!

So here I am, openly and freely admitting that I was wrong...I was adamant to some of my friends and fellow fans that I simply could not believe that so many of baseball's biggest stars were on the juice.  They clearly were. 

But for the love of the game, Jose, you were wrong to write this tell-all book.  You violated a trust that is implicit among the men who are lucky enough to play this game for a living.  You violated the sanctity of the locker room for no reason other than to make a quick buck.  No one had you under oath, no one brought you in for questioning...you just wanted to make money.

Bad Jose...bad.  It's too bad there is no character test to play major league baseball...maybe the game could have avoided this whole steroid thing and Jose's big mouth.