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Overview

One of the most electrifying and controversial athletes ever to step onto the baseball diamond shares the untold story of his rise to fame and fall from grace, including a never-before-seen look behind the curtains into the history, dangers, truths, and lies about baseball's dark secret: steroids.

When Jose Canseco burst into the Major Leagues in the 1980s, he changed the sport-in more ways than one. No player before him possessed his mixture of speed and power, which allowed him to become the first man in history to belt 40+ home runs and swipe 40+ bases in the same season. He won the Rookie of the Year, the MVP award, and a World Series ring. He was a dynamo on the field, and a magnet for trouble off it. From his frequent run-ins with police, to his wild and often highly public love life, Canseco broke the mold of the big-time athlete and ushered in a new era of super-athletes with outrageous salaries and rock-star lifestyles. But behind the gaudy stats and the glitz and glamour of his public life, Canseco cultivated a dark secret, one that would alter the game of baseball and the way we view our heroes forever. Canseco made himself a guinea pig of the blossoming performance-enhancing drugs movement that was only just beginning to take hold in Major League Baseball. Anabolic steroids, human growth hormones-Canseco mixed, matched, and experimented to such a degree that he became known throughout the league as "The Chemist." He passed his knowledge on to trainers and fellow players, and before long performance-enhancing drugs were running rampant throughout the league.

Today, this issue has crept out of the closet and burst into the headlines as players balloon to herculean proportions and hundred-year-old records are not just broken, but demolished. In this shocking autobiography, Canseco sheds light on a life of dizzying highs and debilitating lows-and also provides the answers to questions about steroids and the Major Leagues that millions of sports fans are only now beginning to ask.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780060746407
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date: 2/14/2005
Pages: 304
Product dimensions: 6.00 (w) x 9.00 (h) x 1.01 (d)

Meet the Author

Jose Canseco was born in Havana, Cuba, and immigrated to Miami in the 1970s. After being drafted by the Oakland Athletics, he went on to win Rookie of the Year, the American League MVP Award, and a World Series ring. In all, he played for seven different teams and ended his baseball career with a total of 462 home runs. Today, Canseco lives a quiet life in California with his daughter, Josie.

Read an Excerpt

Juiced

Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big

By Jose Canseco

HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Copyright ©2006 Jose Canseco
All right reserved.
ISBN: 0060746416

Chapter One

"You'll Never Add Up to Anything"

I always told Jose and Ozzie,
"Do better next time."
I'm obviously a very serious man.
I never fool around with anything.
But I was never stern or a dictator.
Jose Canseco Sr.,
My father

My dad earned a good living in Cuba during the Batista years, working as a territory manager for Esso Standard Oil. He also picked up a little extra cash working nights as an English teacher at the Professional School of Commerce in Havana. He worked hard and was a good provider for our family. As soon as Fidel Castro came to power in 1959, though, my father was smart enough to know that before long the new leftist system would control the entire country, and that would not be a good thing for people like my father. He figured that everything he had worked for in Cuba would be lost, and he was right, too. Soon after Castro came to power, my father lost his job. Then he lost his house. And then his car.

He was in an unusual position in that he had already spent time in the United States studying English. He had gone to Shreveport, Louisiana, as a teenager and lived with an uncle there forseveral years, starting in 1940, and his time in American schools gave him enough of a grounding in the language to teach it in Cuba. As much as he would have liked to stay in Cuba, his country, he was also comfortable with the idea of diving into a new life in the United States -- if that was his only choice.

So my father notified the Cuban government that he wanted to leave the country, and the government basically answered: Tough luck. There was a serious shortage of skilled professionals, and Castro could not afford to lose white-collar workers like my father. The government announced that such workers would only be allowed to emigrate if a specific replacement could be found to handle their particular job. But no one was available who was qualified to take over my father's job with the oil company. The government wrote him a letter saying that because of his professional ability and expertise, he was not allowed to leave the country until further notice. He would have to wait years for them to change their minds.

My dad was born in 1929, in a town called Regla, on the outskirts of Havana. Both my father's parents had come over from Spain and his father, Inocente, had a big, light-green Packard car that he used to earn a good livelihood. He would load six or seven tourists into the Packard and drive them all over the place showing them the sights of Havana. Back then, baseball and boxing were the top sports in Cuba. My dad used to listen to New York Yankee games on the radio; his favorite players were Babe Ruth and, later, Roger Maris and Joe DiMaggio. But my father was not much of a baseball player himself. He shagged a few balls when he was a boy, but that was about it.

My father met my mother, Barbara, when they were both teenagers in Regla. He had come back from Louisiana and was studying at the Institute of Havana, from which he graduated with a degree in English. They used to go ballroom dancing or take strolls together around the town's central park. Sometimes they would go to the movies to catch the latest Errol Flynn picture or sweeping sagas like Gone With the Wind.

My parents and older sister, Teresa, were living in Regla in July 1964 when my mother gave birth to me and my twin brother, Osvaldo. People like to say that Ozzie and I were like pocket-sized atom bombs when we were babies, but my father says we were actually nice and quiet. People were always fussing over us. They usually had trouble telling the two of us apart because we looked the same and were the exact same size and weight. But I had a birthmark on the back of my hand, so that helped family members know which of us was which.

Those were bad times to be living in Cuba, especially since the government knew my father did not support their system. My father had to wait until the year after Ozzie and I were born for a chance to leave. The Castro government announced in 1965 that it would allow an airlift of people from Varadero, Cuba, to Miami. Ozzie and I were just babies when my parents took us and Teresa to the airport, where we climbed into a small propeller plane. There was only room for about twenty people inside, and apparently it was stuffy. I don't remember any of that, but it was an important day for the family and we heard about it later.

"It was very, very hot inside the plane,"my father used to tell us, looking back on that momentous day.

He would always tell us how sad he was, leaving behind his home country and his parents, and the rest of his family. But he knew he had to do it, and he was eager to start a new life, making the most of his knowledge of English. We were also lucky to have family members living in south Florida, ready to help us out. My Aunt Lilia was there at the airport, waiting to meet us, but first my parents had to go through an inspection. They had no money or identification, but they stripped my father and searched him, and then stripped my mother and searched her, too.

"We had nothing,"my father would tell us.

But he had English, and the work experience to land a good job soon after he arrived in America. He found work as a territory manager for Amoco Oil, which was a good position, but to him it was only a start, and he was always looking for other ways to bring in extra income ...

Continues...

Excerpted from Juiced by Jose Canseco Copyright ©2006 by Jose Canseco. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

First Chapter

Juiced
Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big

Chapter One

"You'll Never Add Up to Anything"

I always told Jose and Ozzie,
"Do better next time."
I'm obviously a very serious man.
I never fool around with anything.
But I was never stern or a dictator.
Jose Canseco Sr.,
My father

He was in an unusual position in that he had already spent time in the United States studying English. He had gone to Shreveport, Louisiana, as a teenager and lived with an uncle there for several years, starting in 1940, and his time in American schools gave him enough of a grounding in the language to teach it in Cuba. As much as he would have liked to stay in Cuba, his country, he was also comfortable with the idea of diving into a new life in the United States -- if that was his only choice.

"It was very, very hot inside the plane,"my father used to tell us, looking back on that momentous day.

"We had nothing,"my father would tell us.

Juiced
Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big. Copyright © by Jose Canseco. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

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C-Ro

Posted February 27, 2012

Good information hidden behind a curtain of ego

Juiced, by Jose Canseco is an interesting account of Canseco's life in Major League Baseball during the steroid era. In between his accounts of injecting people with steroids or educating them about steroids are endless displays of how much Canseco thinks of himself. It is an endless stream of stats and stories of why he was treated unfairly in the Majors and why he should be in the Hall Of Fame. Unfortunately for young baseball players like myself, the main message Canseco is sending is that he does not regret using steroids and he would do it again if given the chance. As a true baseball fan, with comments like these, I find it impossible to respect Canseco. His defense for using the steroids was simple; it made him better. This is obviously true. However, it is against the rules, so no matter how much better they make you or however many people around you are using them, the rules of baseball say it is cheating. If he had any respect for the game like he says, he would not be saying that he made the right decision. I really did like how brave he was to come out and tell everyone the truth; I like how he does this. If this was all he did, I'm sure I would have enjoyed the book much more, but with the additions of personal accolades I found it hard to get through.
I do think it’s good to read this book, because it is important to hear all sides of a story; just be prepared to fight through the bogs of boasting. I have also read Canseco’s Vindicated, and it is very similar in the way it is written. It is also a good book to read, because it discusses the legal trials the players went through once the steroid scandal broke.
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Anonymous

Posted January 12, 2007

Awesome

I like this book because it was about how steriods started off in professional baseball. I would recomend this book to anybody that has an interest in baseball, because it names off many baseball heros that have used steriods.
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Anonymous

Posted December 26, 2006

The other side exposed

This book was very well written.I must admit,at the beginning of this steroid investigation,I wasnt fond of Canseco,however,he exposes a side of baseball that so many feared would eventually leak.Highly recommend this book.
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Anonymous

Posted August 24, 2005

Interesting Look Into Another Side of Baseball

Eventhough Conseco is getting so much flak for this book, it truly is a great read. It opens your eyes to a side of baseball that most of us don't see but only hear rumors about. The book will make you sad, angry and happy all in one and you will be entralled from start to finish.
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Anonymous

Posted March 7, 2005

This is a great book and it has some truth to it!

A very good read. I could not put it down. I wish everyone read the book before they comment on it. No one likes a snitch, but somebody has to do it and it could do baseball some good to clean up the sport. People should also bear in minf that its about his life and experiences, not just who he named, as that would only take a page or two. You cant write a book just on naming names, so he tells a lot and I liked reading it.
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Anonymous

Posted March 11, 2005

Must Read

If you ever dream of having to do anything with the major leagues, you must read this book. It uncovers the dark side of America's pastime in more ways than one. I personaly was moved and forsed to think why players would do this. Baseball makes more sense after reading this book.
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Anonymous

Posted March 1, 2005

America has been in need of this book for a while now!

Its a great book. It gives you the inside onto the baseball and proffesional sports world. It is very fast paced and sheds light into the taboo subject of performance enhancers. It is a great book! I enjoyed it very much.
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Anonymous

Posted May 1, 2005

JUICED: Controversial, Exciting, Interesting, and Sad

In this interesting and thought-provoking book, former slugger Jose Canseco takes the reader on a trip through his baseball life. From humble beginnings as a youngster in Cuba to the bright lights of major league baseball stadiums, Canseco lays everything on the line, including his use of anabolic steroids. Called ¿The Chemist¿, Canseco was known as the godfather of steroids. He freely passed his knowledge of steroids onto trainers and his fellow teammates such as Mark McGwire, Jason Giambi, Ivan Rodriguez, Rafael Palmeiro, and Juan Gonzalez, even claiming to have personally injected the players himself. Canseco claims that many active players of today are using steroids. And with all of the added muscle and greatly improved stats these players are putting up, I would have to agree. Just compare Barry Bonds or Mark McGwire early in their careers and compare that to what they look like now and it is easy to see that Canseco has a reasonable argument. There were many things I exciting things in this book. I enjoyed reading about Canseco¿s rise to stardom from a difficult childhood and the support he offered towards his mother. Although, I think he became over exaggerated with the fact the media treated him differently due to him being Latino. There are many examples in the book where Canseco believes that racism was involved against him and even went as far as saying Mark McGwire was an ¿America¿s Boy¿. I believe that some sportswriters race may have been a factor to them but to believe that all of them were against him because he was Latino is just insane. Canseco also leads one to believe that if taken correctly, steroids can be beneficial. This may be true to some aspects, but Ken Caminiti a former player for the San Diego Padres, just recently died from the effects of steroids. Keeping this in mind, I¿m not sure if I would want to take that kind of a risk. As I scanned over others reviews to this book, I found there opinions tend to be mixed as mine, liking different parts of the book over other parts. Others found this book to be a total waste of time while many other people enjoyed reading this book and would give it a five stars rating if asked of their opinion. Publishers Weekly for example, write that ¿In this poorly written, controversial memoir, Canseco, a one-time American League MVP, reveals himself to be an unapologetic user of performance-enhancing drugs.¿ Proving that not everyone may enjoy this book. Reading over the reviews, the media seemed to criticize this book more so than the average fan did. It seems the fans are behind Canseco whereas the media is not. Overall, I concluded that this was a very interesting book that sheds light on a controversial issue. Baseball needs to clean up this steroid mess and put some hard and fast rules in place to stop the use of performance enhancing drugs. Major League Baseball has already moved in that direction by forcing a stronger penalty on the players who are caught taking steroids. Canseco does a great job of explaining how steroids work and gives the names of several suspected steroid users. You can choose to believe him yourself about injecting other players. The bottom line is there is a problem that needs to be addressed, and this book has finally shed some light on a topic that has been around for a long time and needs to be looked at by baseball.
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Anonymous

Posted February 14, 2005

Unbelievable!!

An amazing look at baseball. I guess we should have known, but it's cool to hear it from someone on the inside.
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Anonymous

Posted February 22, 2005

where there's smoke there's fire...

All these players got so big so quickly and they're not on steriods? Where there's smoke there's fire... I believe most of what Canseco had to say. The book was very entertaining and a quick read. Canseco occasionally drowns in self pity and overfocuses on racial issues. Still, he provides a lot of great insights into the players, the owners and the state of the game. I was a fan of Canseco during his years in the majors and am still a fan after reading his book.
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Anonymous

Posted February 14, 2005

Baseball has a chance to get clean again

Halfway through reading Jose Canseco's new book 'Juiced', it occurred to me that my opinion of this man was changing with every page I turned. I went into this book thinking that this was a man simply out to make a buck at the expense of others. What I've learned is that this book isn't about Jose Canseco or any of the many run-in's with the law that tarnished the amazing persona he gave of in his hey-day. This book is about a story that no one in Major League Baseball wants told......This book is about the TRUTH. We've all heard the rumors from reporters about how steroids have been killing baseball for years......now hear the story from a man who knows what he's talking about from being there in the trenches. This is no different than what Jim Bouton went through in the 1970's with his book 'Ball Four'. It took until 1988 to invite Bouton back to Yankee Stadium. Canseco is being treated like a social leper, just like Bouton was. I hope it won't take 18 years for the world's eyes to be opened and focused on what Canseco is saying here. He may very well be the key to returning baseball as America's Pastime.
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Anonymous

Posted February 17, 2005

Not bad

But i don't think it lived up to the hype. This book is more about his pro-steroid views and his feeling that the whole world is out to get him then about major league baseball. I wouldn't let a young child read this book for the fear that he/she would get the impression that steroids and cheating are positive things. I also did not like the whole 'world is against me' attitude he takes in the book.
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Anonymous

Posted February 14, 2005

Facts?

I read the book, and all there seems to be is allegations, and his so called 'first hand exsperience.' Just because he said it happened, does not mean it did. I am sorry folks, but this book is equal to Jose's Career. Average, and a few homeruns short of the Hall of Fame.
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Anonymous

Posted February 14, 2005

Read it and Love it. Excellent!

I played baseball in College and was always taking a back seat to all the big guys, those that obviously juiced. I was a slim player with a .738 batting average. i played at Rollins College and was drafted number 126 by the Boston red sox. I never played for them, I never made it to AAA, always in AA because of my size. I did view the hypocracy of the sport and business when I saw many of my peers moving into AAA because of their size and not their numbers. It was obvious that the slim guy had no chance. Hard work meant little. I finally at age 35 feel vindicated by this book. I still remember the scouts telling me that size would have put me on any starting roster in the majors. Someone has to highlight all those poor souls who played by the rules, who never quite landed or were drafted by any team. Baseball must now start to look at hard workers not a big juicers. I'm happy today, I'm not a millionaire but I have a healthy life thanks to God and my work ethic. Thanks Jose, this book is a long time overdue. Atleast someone had the cohones to write about it. You are a role model.
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Anonymous

Posted February 14, 2005

Injection Crisis !

Call him what you want, but Mr. Canseco makes us think about half truths! Instead of using the 50 - 50 rule, after you read Juiced, you'll agree it's more 80% to 20% that the powers that be in Major League Baseball didn't care as long as baseball was making money. In your face, confident, no holding back writing! Mr. Canseco delivers more than enough information to question how baseball and the owners conduct business without looking at their 40 man roster. As a hugh baseball fan, I can't possibly look at baseball superstars the same way again.
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Anonymous

Posted February 14, 2005

Insightful

While Canseco is a questionable person off the field, there is no reason to doubt his word on the field. Canseco is a borderline Hall of Famer. Do we question Jim Bouton when he writes of the drunkenness and womanizing in baseball that took place beyond the eyes of the public? No! Therefore, we need to give Canseco time to watch his story unfold. Amen!
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Anonymous

Posted February 16, 2005

It Doesn't Pay To Believe In Anyone

The book is good, but in my point of view-sad. I grew up idolizing the 'Bash Brothers', Canseco in particular. I took many a school yard beating defending him from jerks telling me he was 'a walking 'roid'. Turns out the jerks knew what they were talking about. His personal endorsement of everyone 'smartly' using 'roids is disturbing and his unappologetic nature disgusting. Reading this book, however entertaining it may be, reminds me of the Rose book. Two men, idols to many, with grand thoughts of delusion in their own pitiful heads. It's why neither will get into the Hall, no matter what their numbers.
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Anonymous

Posted April 1, 2005

Give Canesco Credit...

I'm not a huge Jose Canseco fan. But, although it may not have been his goal, he definitely deserves credit for forcing baseball -- and the country -- to give serious attention to the steroid problem that is transforming our national pastime. Way to come clean, Jose. A nice antidote to the scandal is Tom Stanton's book on a hero of a different time: Hank Aaron and the Home Run That Changed America.
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Anonymous

Posted February 22, 2005

I believe him.

Let me say i thought this book was awesome. I grew up loving this guy when I was a kid. Some parts of the book I actually feel bad for the guy. The way the media portrayed him. It was just truly unfair. I respect the man for having the balls to come out and let (US) the public know what exactly is going on in baseball and other sports today. Before I read this book I had a feeling that guys like McGwire,Sosa,Palmerio, and Pudge were juiced. I mean LOOK AT THEM. Canseco only clears it up by coming out public because if it wasn't for guys like Canseco we would never know what's going on. Owners hid it from us because they were all making money and to me is a shame. So my whole thing is if you juiced up, just admit it. It's obvious as it is anyways. And its also a shame that MLB kicked him up of baseball the way they did with just being 38hr shy of 500 and a chance to get into the Hall of Fame just because he was educating other players on roids and in many ways costing MLB more money for salaries. And the charity work he does is awesome and the media wouldnt let us know that of course. So all Im saying is dont believe the media because they only say what they want us to believe and its not fair to guys like Canseco but overall this was worth the 25 bucks and one hell of a read. Thanks Jose for speaking the truth because no one else would.
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Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big

Overview

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More About This Book

Overview

Related Subjects

Product Details

Meet the Author

Read an Excerpt

Juiced

HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Chapter One

"You'll Never Add Up to Anything"

First Chapter

Chapter One

"You'll Never Add Up to Anything"

Customer Reviews

Rating Distribution

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Recommend other products that relate to your review. Just search for them below and share!

Good information hidden behind a curtain of ego

Awesome

The other side exposed

Interesting Look Into Another Side of Baseball

This is a great book and it has some truth to it!

Must Read

America has been in need of this book for a while now!

JUICED: Controversial, Exciting, Interesting, and Sad

Unbelievable!!

where there's smoke there's fire...

Baseball has a chance to get clean again

Not bad

Facts?

Read it and Love it. Excellent!

Injection Crisis !

Insightful

It Doesn't Pay To Believe In Anyone

Give Canesco Credit...

I believe him.