It all started with his book, “Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Big.” Jose Canseco played a great role in exposing the widespread steroid use in Major League Baseball during his time. The book dealt with the rampant use of steroid by baseball players which according to Canseco could reach up to 80% of the MLB players. It is not an ordinary book since it revealed some of the big names in baseball who are using some form of illegal substances or performance enhancers. Many criticized Canseco for his allegations but as investigations and confessions were made, he was able to prove that most of the things he wrote were true.

Some of the star players of the league mentioned in the book include Mark McGwire, who recently admitted that he took steroids during his prime and Rafael Palmero, who denied using steroids but was later found positive for a banned substance. Canseco did not stop exposing the real world of baseball when he published another book entitled “Vindicated.” In that book, he alleged that Alex Rodriguez is also using steroids. A-Rod denied the allegations but was later forced to admit it when Sports Illustrated named him as one of the 104 players tested positive for steroids by the Major League in 2004. With the uncovering of the steroid era in baseball, the league had instituted stricter policies to ward off the use of performance enhancing drugs.

But the whistle-blower does not have a clear conscience when steroid use is the issue. Ray McNulty of TCPalm.com said that Canseco wasn’t some innocent bystander. “To the contrary, he was just as guilty as everyone else. More, in fact. He merely blew the whistle on a cheating scandal he helped create. To this day, he refers to himself as the “godfather of steroids.” So let’s not give him too much credit,” McNulty said. He even admitted to the media that up to this time he is using testosterone to treat his health condition.

In fact, Jose Canseco was mentioned again in the hearing of the Mobile pharmacy steroid distribution case. He was named by one of the respondents as a regular client of Applied Pharmacy. In the report of Brendan Kirby of al.com, one of the employees of Applied Pharmacy Services identified Canseco as one of their customers. Based on the federal investigation, the compounding pharmacy was able to sell illegal steroids to hundreds of customers including bodybuilders, amateur athletes and ordinary people. But their most important clients came from the professional sports just like Canseco. In last week’s hearing, the name of the Olympic gold medalist and professional wrestler Kurt Angle also surfaced. Angle was reported as one of the patient of Dr. David A. Wilbirt who pleaded guilty 3 years ago on steroid charges.

With regards to his steroid books, McNulty said that it became the encyclopedia of steroid use in baseball. “Juiced,” did have a tremendous impact. It exposed a terrible wrong. It did more than any baseball exec or union chief or journalist to clean up the mess and begin restoring integrity to the game,” he said. According to the writer, it was a story that needed to be told and without it, it’s unlikely anything would’ve changed.

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