Wrote Canseco, “Eric gagne says 85 percent used peds in 2004. Is that newsworthy? I thought we already discussed this topic. It’s old news.”
Gagne, the former Los Angeles Dodgers reliever and Cy Young Award winner, was talking about performance-enhancing drug use by his team. It got him a few headlines.
Canseco started all the steroid hubbub years ago by saying he believed about 75 percent of major leaguers had at least some chemical help in their veins. He was vilified and blackballed by the baseball establishment – because he was right.
When Canseco subsequently couldn’t find work in baseball anymore, he became a cartoon character, resorting to celebrity boxing and dispensing advice on steroid.com.
What baseball forgot to say was, “Thanks, Jose, for bringing attention to a problem we, in concert with the media and our sponsors, blissfully ignored.”
Gagne, an admitted PED user, has fallen into the same pit of irrelevance that engulfed Canseco. But, thanks to Canseco, we know better than to dismiss Gagne’s findings. He’s just a little late to the party.
It will be interesting to see if Gagne’s book has an impact on the Hall of Fame candidacy of former Dodgers great Mike Piazza, who, despite the absence of any compelling proof other than a bad case of back acne, is generally thought to have used PEDs.
Piazza, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens are among those who will be on the ballot for the first time in December. They are expected to have trouble gaining the necessary 75 percent of the vote.
I’ll be checking boxes beside each of their names. Then again, I’m part of the sparse crowd that thinks baseball owes Canseco a debt for bringing all this to light in the first place.
Somebody give that man a job already.
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