Why Jose Canseco Is Bad for Baseball

As I am doing my daily browsing of sports articles, I come upon one in particular that really bothered me, “Canseco regrets naming names in his book about steroids.”

This article bothered me for two reasons:

Canseco knew what the implications were for players named beforehand because of the fallout of BALCO, Barry Bonds, and all that.

How do you not know it would hurt players? Especially ones on trial before Congress?

I mean come on, be honest with yourself. How could you not know it would hurt players, whose job it is to play baseball? That’s like an employee not knowing that telling their boss that John or Jeremy has been watching porn at work would get John or Jeremy fired. You know your boss is going to fire them, so what are your intentions?

Canseco claims his intentions were to "to show I was telling the truth" about steroids in baseball. Really? So why not tell on yourself and that’s it? Why would you implicate Sosa, Palmeiro, and McGwire, three players with recent home run and hitting records?

Palmeiro looked Congress in the eye and said, “I have never used steroids, period.” Then tests positive for them, gets an asterisk on his home run and hits record in baseball, and pretty much faded out of glory. If you respect people, if you respect their games, you don’t tarnish their image; you sharpen and boost their image, especially in a world where the media sets the agenda.

Canseco goes on to say that “he "wanted revenge" on Major League Baseball because he believed he had been forced out of the game.” Jose, face it, if somebody doesn’t want you, they fire you, you can seek revenge on players and think that it's cool, seek revenge by just telling the people that steroids is a problem in baseball, not snitching on players just to get book sales.

I think America has figured out you’re broke now. You got knocked out in Atlantic City by former Philadelphia Eagles return man Vai Sikahema for “charity,” you got caught with more illegal drugs in San Diego, and now you claim to be living “check to check.” It pretty much sounds like the life of an addict trying to make money for his habit.

Baseball doesn’t need anymore negative attention, and Jose Canseco is just that.

Let's Go Phillies!

To read Canseco's word, go here.