Stars deny Canseco's steroid allegations

RALEIGH, N.C. - Accusations by former baseball slugger Jose Canseco that he used steroids with several top players, including home run king Mark McGwire, are being strongly denied.

The Daily News of New York reported that Canseco, in a book to be published later this month entitled “Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ’Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big,” alleges that several of his former Oakland and Texas team mates used performance-enhancing drugs.

They include McGwire and current players Jason Giambi, Ivan Rodriguez, Rafael Palmeiro and Juan Gonzalez.

McGwire said in a statement to the Daily News on Monday: “I have always told the truth and I am saddened that I continue to face this line of questioning.

“With regard to this book, I am reserving comment until I have the chance to review its contents myself.”

Palmeiro also denied that he used steroids.

"I categorically deny any assertion made by Jose Canseco that I used steroids," Palmeiro said in a statement. "At no point in my career have I ever used steroids, let alone any substance banned by Major League Baseball. As I have never had a personal relationship with Canseco, any suggestion that he taught me anything, about steroid use or otherwise, is ludicrous."

Former Canseco teammate Ivan Rodriguez also denied the charges.

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“I am in shock. Surprised. He is saying things that are not true, and it pains me much that he says such things because I have always had much respect for him, and moreover, I helped him many times when things weren't going well for him”, Rodriguez said in the Puerto Rican newspaper El Nuevo Dia.

“I have never needed any of that. I am not a home run hitter. Why would I use that? To continue hitting doubles?” added Rodriguez, a 14-year veteran of the major leagues and MVP of the American League in 1999.

Rodriguez led the Florida Marlins to the World Series title in 2003.

The newspaper said Canseco, who is retired, claims that he, McGwire and Giambi injected steroids together in the bathroom stalls at Oakland Coliseum and that he also injected Rodriguez, Palmeiro and Gonzalez after he was traded to Texas.

Tony La Russa, who coached McGwire and Canseco at Oakland in the 1980s, denied the accusations.

“I am absolutely certain that Mark earned his size and strength from hard work and a disciplined lifestyle,” La Russa, now manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, told The New York Times.

La Russa said in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle he believed Canseco was writing the book because “he needs the money” and “he’s jealous as hell” of McGwire, his former Oakland team mate.

McGwire, who hit a then-major league record 70 home runs in 1998 with the Cardinals, has admitted to using androstenedione, a testosterone-producing supplement, which was available over the counter and was legal in baseball at that time. He has denied using other steroids.

BALCO testimony
Canseco’s allegations follow testimony in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) steroids scandal that top baseball players used performance-enhancing drugs.

Giambi, who now plays for the New York Yankees, admitted to a federal grand jury in the BALCO case that he used steroids, but not before 2001, The San Francisco Chronicle has reported.

The Chronicle also said current home run king, Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants, told the BALCO grand jury he used a clear substance and a cream linked to the doping scandal, but he never thought they were steroids.

Both the grand jury testimony and Conseco’s accusations could affect whether the accused players make baseball’s Hall of Fame, the Daily News said.

It quoted several baseball writers who help select new Hall of Fame members as saying they are concerned about the accusations.

“I would not vote for any artificially inflated player - and that includes Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire,” the newspaper quoted Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Terence Moore as saying.

He added: “You’re hurting guys like the Mickey Mantles and the Babe Ruths and you’re hurting people in the game now that are legitimate.”

However, another member of the Baseball Writers Association of America, Nick Canepa of the San Diego Union-Tribune, said: “I would have trouble changing my mind because we don’t have any proof yet.”

The Daily News also reported Canseco’s claims in the book that U.S. president George Bush, who was the Texas Rangers general managing partner when Canseco played there, had to have been aware that his players were using performance-enhancing drugs but did nothing about it.

White House spokesman Ken Lisaius declined to comment on the claims, but he noted that President Bush called on players and owners during his 2004 State of the Union address to get rid of steroids and applauded the beefed-up drug policy Major League Baseball and the Players Association agreed to in December, the Daily News said.

“This President’s position on steroids has been clear for some time,” Lisaius told the newspaper.

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