Stickler for Truth?
Jose Canseco has long planned to make a literary splash. "As a rookie he said he was going to write an exposé on things going on in the clubhouse," says Dave Stewart, a former A's teammate. "I don't think anyone took him seriously."
Now Canseco has made good on his word. According to the New York Daily News, Canseco says in Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big, that he injected Mark McGwire with steroids in the bathroom of the A's clubhouse when they played together in the late 1980s and early '90s. The News reported that the book, due on Feb. 14, also says McGwire introduced ex-Athletic Jason Giambi to steroids and that Canseco, who admitted in 2002 that he used steroids, injected Rafael Palmeiro, Juan Gonzalez and Ivan Rodriguez while they were all Rangers in the mid-'90s.
Palmeiro denied the charge, saying, "At no point in my career have I ever used steroids." Other players also questioned Canseco's credibility. "Canseco was jealous of McGwire," says Ron Hassey, an Oakland catcher from '88 to '90. Adds Stewart, "I think most people [in baseball] would say he's not credible." --Albert Chen
COLOR PHOTO
ALBERT DICKSON/ICON SMI (MCGWIRE AND CANSECO)
BASH BROTHER
Canseco (right) says McGwire and Rodriguez (inset) cheated.
COLOR PHOTO
PAUL SANCYA/AP (RODRIGUEZ)
  [See caption above.]