Rodriguez Is a Target in Canseco’s New Book

By JACK CURRY

Published: March 26, 2008

TAMPA, Fla. — José Canseco had intimated that his coming book would have some damning information about Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees, maybe even that Rodriguez had used steroids. But when details from the book were unearthed Tuesday, Canseco’s strongest allegation was that he introduced Rodriguez to a known steroids supplier whom Canseco failed to identify.

In “Vindicated: Big Names, Big Liars and the Battle to Save Baseball,” Canseco’s second book about the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball, he said he injected Magglio Ordóñez of the Detroit Tigers with steroids. He also said that he was not sure if Roger Clemens had used steroids, but that Clemens had made references to them. And he said that he introduced Rodriguez to an unnamed trainer from Canada — referred to as “Max” in the book — who supplied steroids.

While Canseco has cast himself as a truth-teller who readily admitted using steroids during his career, his motives have been challenged by Major League Baseball. In January, The New York Times reported that Canseco had asked Ordóñez for $5 million to help finance a film and to keep him “clear” from being mentioned in the book.

Although Major League Baseball referred the matter to the F.B.I., Ordóñez declined to pursue a complaint against Canseco. In the book, Canseco denies that he pressured Ordóñez for money. Canseco wrote that he injected Ordóñez with steroids and human growth hormone in 2001, when they played for the Chicago White Sox.

The allegations that Canseco makes about Rodriguez and Clemens in the book are indirect. Canseco’s charges against Ordóñez are more detailed. Canseco changed publishers and collaborators in January for the book, which is scheduled to be released March 31.

Berkley Books backed away from Canseco’s book because it was believed to have doubted its news value. Don Yaeger, the original collaborator and a former associate editor at Sports Illustrated, pulled out because he said he felt Canseco lacked specifics. The excerpts were first revealed by Joe Lavin, a freelance writer who has written for The Boston Globe Magazine and The Boston Herald. Lavin said that he found a copy of the book on a shelf in a bookstore in Cambridge, Mass., and bought it. Lavin posted an entry about the book on his Web site. The Times obtained information from the book by examining Lavin’s copy.

After Rodriguez left the Yankees’ clubhouse Tuesday, he calmly answered a few questions about Canseco’s allegations. “I dealt with it last spring and the year before that and the year before that,” Rodriguez said.

Asked how he would be affected by the charges, which included Canseco’s belief that Rodriguez was smitten with Canseco’s wife at the time, Rodriguez said: “Zero. No effect.” Rodriguez said he planned to release a statement about Canseco’s allegations “so I don’t have to answer it a hundred times.”

In a chapter called “Vindicated,” Canseco said that Rodriguez worked out in his home in Florida in the late 1990s, and Rodriguez cagily asked him about using steroids. Canseco said he introduced Rodriguez to the supplier he called Max, who later told Canseco that Rodriguez “had signed on.” But Canseco said he did not ask Max what that specifically meant.

Although Canseco said that he did not see Rodriguez “do the deed,” he said that he hooked Rodriguez up with Max and “did everything but inject the guy myself.” Canseco has acknowledged that he despises Rodriguez, and he said he did not include Rodriguez in his first book because he worried that people would question his motives.

Canseco, who was Clemens’s teammate on three clubs and is a good friend of his, was coy in his first book about whether Clemens used steroids. Canseco continued to stutter-step around that issue in his new book.

After Clemens’s former personal trainer Brian McNamee was quoted in the Mitchell report as saying that he had injected Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone, Clemens called Canseco to complain. Clemens later flew Canseco to Houston, and his lawyers asked Canseco to sign an affidavit that said Canseco had “no reason to believe” that Clemens had used any steroids, human growth hormone or performance enhancers.

“I could honestly attest to the fact that I didn’t have first-hand knowledge of his steroid use, but did I honestly think the guy was clean?” Canseco said. Later, Canseco said, based on Clemens’s performances at an advanced age and his behavior, “I had always felt he was using.”

Nonetheless, Canseco signed the affidavit even though he said, “I had always felt he was using.”

Canseco said he excluded Ordóñez from the first book because he “played favorites” and “felt a small connection to Maggs.” After Canseco was criticized for his first book, he said he reached out to Ordóñez because he wanted to speak “to an old friend in a time of need.”

Before the Tigers played in Lakeland, Fla., Tuesday night, Ordóñez said: “I don’t want to comment on anything. I don’t want to waste my time with it.”

In Canseco’s first book, “Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ’Roids, Smash Hits and How Baseball Got Big,” he called himself “the godfather of steroids” and said that he began using them in 1984. Canseco’s revelations helped prompt a Congressional hearing on steroids in March 2005.

In the book, Canseco accused his former teammates Mark McGwire, Juan González, Rafael Palmeiro, Ivan Rodriguez and Jason Giambi of using steroids, and in the case of McGwire, Palmeiro and Giambi, events seem to back up Canseco’s assertions. Now Canseco has another book. Now he has accused more players of steroid use. The first major league game in North America is Sunday night in Washington. Canseco’s book tour begins in Ridgewood, N.J., two days later.

News source：http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/26/sports/baseball/26canseco.html?ref=baseball