Vindicated: Big Names, Big Liars, and the Battle to Save Baseball

Vindicated, Jose Canseco's 2nd baseball-steriod book is just validating everything that he has already said, or been saying, and then some. Vindicated starts with Canseco talking about the media's interpretation of him when he first came out with Juiced. Even before the book hit the shelves, a transcript of the book was leaked, and the media, inparticular, baseball went on damage control, critizing Canseco and calling him a money grubbing person who had zero to no credibilty. Some outlets even compared him to Monica Lewisnky, someone only seeking attention, but Canseco points out that he wasn't aware that Monica was a liar. He goes into how Roger Clemens name ended up not being in Juiced, or in several interviews that he did, including one with ESPN's Pedro Gomez, and above all, Canseco spoke about why he wrote JUICED and why he came out with his 2nd book, VINDICATED. Canseco sets up his story beautifully, explaining in detail encounters he had with Barry Bonds, and how 3 months later, Barry had added almost 30 lbs of muscle and the shape of his head had grown. Canseco delves into how and why MLB knew but did nothing, and how his anger at how the media chose to not believe him, or lend any credibility to him citing money issues among things, when all along, Canseco always maintained that he was telling the truth. The media judged on his character and never lent any truth to his story, like when Tony LaRussa backed McGwire yet said that Canseco was juicing. Canseco touches on the Mitchell Report, and how he felt he had been "Mitch-slapped" by the committee. He noticed how some people that he personally knew injected, or that he had injected himself were not mentioned in the Mitchell Report, like Pudge Rodriguez for example. Canseco was also upset that there were more New York Yankees in the book, both current and retired when compared to Boston, and probably the most interesting note of all, is that not one single Florida Marlin was mentioned in the report. Canseco makes note of course that Mr. Mitchell used to be on the board of directors for the Florida Marlins...draw your own conclusions. Magglio Ordonez Canseco says that he was going to, but didn't include ex-White Sox/current Tiger Magglio Ordonez because he felt sorry for him. He sided with him and showed him steriods and even injected him a couple of times. Canseco included Magglio because when stories started floating around that Canseco tried to black-mail "Maggs" into a deal to sponsor a documentary that Canseco wanted to do, and when Maggs didn't deny these rumors or acknowledge that he hadn't spoke to Canseco nor contacted him, Canseco talked. So Canseco says at first he didn't include Maggs because he liked him, and yet when Maggs didn't stand up to the blackmail rumors or call him back, Canseco burned him? Can you blame him? No. But people who are disgusted with Canseco will point out that to them, Canseco did this as a revenge factor more than anything. Canseco doesn't

Jose Canseco has said himself that he wrote this book and Juiced to exact revenge against MLB for blackballing him. His reasoning was that because he was the guy to bring steroids into the game, players improved by leaps and bounds and that caused the salary structure to explode over the years. Is that true? I don't know but I wouldn't be surprised to find out that it was. In my OPINION, I think Jose is upset that his own body betrayed him...fell apart...and he was forced from the game. At one time, Jose was the talk of the town. HE was going to hit 62 home runs in a season. HE was going to hit 756 for his career. And now...with a career that included more trips on the DL than to the All Star game, and finishing with 462 home runs,he was removed from the Hall of Fame ballot after the 2007 voting and his career has been reduced to a footnote. He's watched from the sidelines as Mark McGwire & Sammy Sosa broke records and were cheered and it ate at him (something he alluded to in Juiced).So now he decided to do something about this. Again, my OPINION is that he felt "if I can't have the addoration of the fans anymore,neither can they" I don't think he wrote this book as a cash grab. He made $50 million dollars in his career. I also don't think he wrote this to "save" the game. If Jose was able to play out his career as he wanted, was able to be elected to the Hall of Fame and was able to feel vindicated by his playing, he wouldn't have written these books. But I will say this. Shortly after Juiced came out, his former teammate Dave Stewart had said "You can call Jose a lot of things...but you can never call him a liar" and I think he proved that. I also believe that a lot of what he wrote in this book will prove true in the long run. But as far as his motives go...they're suspect at best. This book is for him and nobody else. Not MLB, not the players union or the players themselves. But for Jose Canseco and his bruised ego.

When I watch Jose Canseco give interviews, I don't like the guy. He strikes me as slimy and manipulative in almost all of his statements. But you know what? None of that matters. When "Juiced" came out, I heard and read everyone panning the guy (including myself) as someone who just wanted to make a buck. Slowly, he became the only one in the whole ordeal telling the truth. Palmeiro went from a strong a trustworthy guy to the biggest bold-faced liar in all of baseball. McGwire and Sosa went from lovable first-ballot Hall of Famers to jokes overnight. Canseco came out looking great, despite all of the doubt that first circled around him. Therefore, when this new book came out, I wanted to read it right away. I still don't like the guy, but I don't doubt that every word in here is also true and will eventually be proven as such. I don't necessarily agree with his motives on some things, but his first-hand knowledge has been credible so far, and having transcripts of polygraph tests in there seal the deal for me. I don't know how MLB will respond to the information in this book, but flat denials from accused players shouldn't be enough for the public anymore. Jose calls himself "The Godfather of Steroids" in the book, and like him or not, I agree with all of his assessments. The book is a good and fast read, and if you like the game of baseball at all, you'll get a lot out of it.

I happened to be at Barnes and Noble the day it came out and I just finished reading it during a 5 and 1/2 hour train ride to Boston. As the first to review this, I will be careful to write a fair and honest review. I reasd Juiced and eventually began to believe Canseco only recently. As the title and one chapter suggests he is vindicated and what he says is now taken very seriously. Because of the Mitchell report and live congression investigation with McNamee and Clemens, I think this book was rushed to press and it includes information from events that are only a few weeks old at the time of publication. It is not a long book but of course it is absorbing and hard to put down. Canseco starts out reviewing the events that took place around the time Juiced came out. The most interesting part of the book is what he says about Roger Clemens and Alex Rodiguez. Much of this came out in the media before the book hit teh presses and will undoubtably make it another best seller. On Clemens and the Mitchell report Canseco thinks things are not as they appear. He feels that the Mitchell report although good for describing the severity of the problem and naming some names missed quite a bit and was biased in favor of the Red Sox. Also the story by McNamee that Clemens was at Canseco's party Jose asserts is false Interestingly he tells us in this book that he originally named Clemens in Juiced and in his 60 minutes interview but Clemens name was the only one removed from the book and cut from the interview. Canseco speculates about it. Also canseco had no direct proof with regard to Clemens and after meeting with Clemens and his attorney recently he actually was persuaded to sign apetition saying that he did not think Clemens took steroids. But at the time of the publication he actually is unsure what to believe. Regarding Alex Rodriguez, Canseco talks about this near the end of the book. He had direct knowledge related to ARod's possible steriod use at the time of the publication of Juiced but he left ARod out because he felt that his strong distaste for the man would have led the readers and reviewers to disbelieve him because of this. In Vindicated Canseco talks about their personal connection and how ARod trained at Canseco's house, learned about steroids from Jose who also hooked him up with a trainer. Canseco says that ARod flirted with Canseco's wife when he visited and in Canseco's mind ARod wanted to have an affair with her. This time he is better prepared for the critics. He is very prideful of his complete truthfulness in these books and with regard to every statement that could be challenged he took lie detector tests from two very reputable testers and passed with flying colors! Canseco definitely is in it for the money whether he admits it or not and his speculation about Clemens and Rodriguez is in there to sell copies more than anything else. So take his waffling about Clemens and his accusations toward ARod with a grain

I happened to be at Barnes and Noble the day it came out and I just finished reading it during a 5 and 1/2 hour train ride to Boston. As the first to review this, I will be careful to write a fair and honest review. I read Juiced and eventually began to believe Canseco only recently. As the title and one chapter suggests he is vindicated and what he says is now taken very seriously. Because of the Mitchell report and live congressional investigation with McNamee and Clemens, I think this book was rushed to press and it includes information from events that are only a few weeks old at the time of publication. It is not a long book but of course it is absorbing and hard to put down. Canseco starts out reviewing the events that took place around the time Juiced came out. The most interesting part of the book is what he says about Roger Clemens and Alex Rodiguez. Much of this came out in the media before the book hit the presses and will undoubtably make it another best seller On Clemens and the Mitchell report Canseco thinks things are not as they appear. He feels that the Mitchell report although good for describing the severity of the problem and naming some names missed quite a bit and was biased in favor of the Red Sox. Also the story by McNamee that Clemens was at Canseco's party Jose asserts is false Interestingly he tells us in this book that he originally named Clemens in Juiced and in his 60 minutes interview but Clemens name was the only one removed from the book and cut from the interview. Canseco speculates about it. Also Canseco had no direct proof with regard to Clemens and after meeting with Clemens and his attorney recently he actually was persuaded to sign a petition saying that he did not think Clemens took steroids. But at the time of the publication he actually is unsure what to believe. Regarding Alex Rodriguez, Canseco talks about this near the end of the book. He had direct knowledge related to ARod's possible steriod use at the time of the publication of Juiced but he left ARod out because he felt that his strong distaste for the man would have led the readers and reviewers to disbelieve him because of this. In Vindicated Canseco talks about their personal connection and how ARod trained at Canseco's house, learned about steroids from Jose who also hooked him up with a trainer. Canseco says that ARod flirted with Canseco's wife when he visited and in Canseco's mind ARod wanted to have an affair with her. This time he is better prepared for the critics. He is very prideful of his complete truthfulness in these books and with regard to every statement that could be challenged he took lie detector tests from two very reputable testers and passed with flying colors! Canseco definitely is in it for the money whether he admits it or not and his speculation about Clemens and Rodriguez is in there to sell copies more than anything else. So take his waffling about Clemens and his accusations toward ARod with a grai