Sports Media Review by Jonathan Weiler

Wednesday, July 5, 2006
2:12:00 PM EDT

Jose Canseco is in the news again and not mainly because he’s trying to erase the memory of his previous, disastrous turn as a pitcher. On Monday, Canseco continued his war of words with major league baseball and announced plans for a multi-media fusillade to come.

Here are some of the details from Tom Fitzgerald in today’s San Francisco Chronicle:

Where does this man find the time? Jose Canseco is writing two more books and is executive producer of a documentary that will be based on his first book, which explored the slimy, steroid-riddled underbelly of major-league baseball.

He said one new book, "Vindicated," will have even more steroid revelations about baseball than his 2005 book, "Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big." So will the movie, which he said will come out late next year and "will be devastating."

Then there's the novel he's writing -- "The Prototype" -- about an assassin who is created by the government to be an expert at firearms and martial arts. Canseco: "He's 6-foot-4. How come nobody can spot this guy? Guess why."

Why?

"Because he's a professional baseball player. "

Sounds intriguing.

Canseco also made the rather sensational charge on Monday that major league baseball plays favorites, agreeing to hide the positive tests of some players, but not others. According to Canseco, who says he has “informants,” MLB made such an arrangement with Rafael Palmeiro, but then, out of fear that Congress would find out what they were up to, exposed Palmeiro’s positive test last summer.

It was in this context that Canseco called baseball executives “like mafia.” 

As quoted in the Chicago Sun-Times, Canseco also said, “'I don't think Major League Baseball is too enthused and involved in finding out the truth,'' he said. ''They are going to hide in their little dark corners and little crevices as long as possible.''

Unsurprisingly, MLB denied all of Canseco’s allegations and argued that they were “without foundation.” 

Is Canseco believable?

Sporting News radio took up this issue for a good part of the day yesterday. Morning hosts Bill Lekas and Matt Spiegel categorically dismissed Canseco’s claims. They both took issue with Canseco’s use of the term “mafia,” saying it was “ridiculous” to paint baseball with that brush.

Lekas also rejected the idea that baseball could manage to pull off a “conspiracy” the likes of which Canseco was proposing: “they can’t even get the all-star game right. They’re not smart enough to engage in a conspiracy…”

That many of the allegations in Canseco’s originally-derided book “Juiced” turned out to be correct clearly did not make an impression on Lekas and Spiegel. They considered his charges to be a joke.

Later in the day on Sporting News radio, Doug Russell gave Canseco more credit. He noted that Canseco’s revelations were the main reason baseball began to take the performance-enhancing issue more seriously and that much of what Canseco said was ultimately vindicated. Russell repeatedly noted that the book was about as self-serving a piece of literature as has ever been written, which only goes to show that he obviously has never read Pete Rose’s book, My Turn, or Henry Kissinger’s memoirs, for that matter. Russell did suggest that Canseco’s book didn’t really achieve its original purpose which was, in the ex-slugger’s words, to “get” major league baseball because he was blackballed. In fact, one of the main effects of the book has been to sully the reputation of some of the players named in it. It may have motivated the owners and the commissioner to change their tune on the issue, but it certainly hasn’t hurt them in any discernible way – they changed their testing policy on their own, and are enjoying record popularity and revenues.

That’s partly because fans and media are never going to care about the actions of owners and executives as much they care about the players, and are, therefore, always going to hold the players to a different standard than the owners. This isn’t necessarily wrong and, even if it is, there’s nothing to be done about it. It’s the flip side of the fact that the players, not owners and executives, are the recipients of fans’ adulation and hero-worship.

But, it need not follow from that inevitable double-standard that sports media should take the owners and league officials at face value. Why, for instance, does it take great intelligence to use your influence to protect your interests and reputation? Canseco may be merely speculating about the sport’s intent to protect certain players and not others, but what is inherently implausible about the idea that MLB would, under the pressure of Congressional oversight, make deals, back out of them, and otherwise cover its ass? There need not be any brilliant plan for engaging in the kinds of behavior of which Canseco is accusing MLB. All that’s required is that the sport use its considerable influence say, for example, with private testing labs, to keep certain information from coming out. To assume that MLB (or the players’ union) is incapable of thinking and acting in this way is no more warranted than is taking any other public institution’s spin at face value. Whether its Enron, or your typical Presidential administration, or a major sporting institution, like the NCAA, the NFL, the IOC or MLB, billions of dollars are on the table and it’s fair to assume that, when the stakes are that high, dissembling, obfuscating and otherwise keeping the full picture from public view are a likely, if not inevitable part of the operation. The significance of the issues is not the same, but Canseco reminds me of the Giancarlo Esposito character in Bob Roberts. He’s an imperfect, arguably unbalanced messenger. But, he’s really the only one out there right now who’s trying to “connect the dots” as he says. If there are sharper, less self-serving people out there to do this – well, great. But in the meantime, if the choice is between having Canseco do it or not having it done at all, my money’s with the slugging knuckle-baller.

Update: 

Speaking of credibility, Seth Mnookin, author of Feeding the Monster, a new book about how the Red Sox out themselves over the top, chimes in with a comparison of Canseco’s statements to those of some notable baseball celebrities.

http://www.sethmnookin.com/blog/2006/07/04/a-prophet-is-not-without-honor-except-in-his-own-country/

 

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