Skip navigation

Ex-star Kittle: Canseco should fear for his safety

'My first thought was 'I wonder who's going to be the first one to shoot him'

Image: Canseco
Luis M. Alvarez / AP
Ex-star Jose Canseco blew the lid off the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball with his 2005 book "Juiced."
Slideshow
Oakland Athletics v Boston Red Sox
  Baseball's steroid scandal
See some of the key players and those implicated in steroid use.

more photos

Slideshow
  Baseball beefed up
A Daryl Cagle roundup of editorial cartoons that examines the steroid controversy.

more photos

Slideshow
Image: Budweiser Shootout
  Week in Sports Pictures
The Saints triumph in the Super Bowl, Olympians work on final preparations for Vancouver, and more.

more photos

NBCSports.com news services
updated 10:26 a.m. ET Feb. 24, 2009

Former Chicago White Sox slugger Ron Kittle says Jose Canseco should fear for his safety after exposing baseball's steroid problem in his books and with his public statements, the Chicago Tribune reported Tuesday.

"My first thought was: 'I wonder who's going to be the first one to shoot him,'" said Kittle, who was the American League Rookie of the Year in 1983 after hitting 35 home runs. He had 176 career home runs in 10 seasons with the White Sox, Yankees, Indians and Orioles.

"I still think somebody who might have had their life ruined might take vengeance on him. If I were [Canseco], I would think about that.

Story continues below ↓
advertisement | your ad here

"That's how I look at things. Maybe it's the wrong way, but I think in [bad] economic times when kids are exposed to it and they get to the big leagues to make the money, they will do [steroids]. But it's the wrong path. It's a quick fix."

Canseco, who himself has admitted using steroids, was roundly criticized for his 2005 book "Juiced," which linked several baseball stars like Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro and Barry Bonds to use of performance-enhancing drugs.

But Kittle told the Tribune that Canseco broke one of the cardinal rules that what happens in the locker room stays in the locker room.

"There is a sign in just about every clubhouse: 'What you see here, what you say here, let it stay here when you leave here,'" he said.

© 2010 NBC Sports.com

Sponsored links