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 Entertainment | Books | February 2005 
In His Book, Canseco Says Giambi Overused Steroids
 Richard Sandomir
Jose Canseco, the self-anointed "godfather of steroids," alleges in his new book that Jason Giambi, a former Oakland Athletics teammate, "went overboard with steroids" and became "the most outright juicer in the game."
 Canseco wrote that Giambi "had the most obvious steroid physique I've ever seen in my life." The San Francisco Chronicle reported last year that Giambi testified to the grand jury investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative that he used steroids before signing with the Yankees in December 2001 and in 2002 and 2003 but not as early as 1997, the only season in which he and Canseco were teammates.
Canseco said that Giambi overused steroids and human growth hormone and got "so bloated, it was unbelievable."
"There was no definition to his body at all," Canseco wrote. "You could see the retention of liquids, especially in his neck and face; to those in the know, that was a sure sign of steroid overload."
In "Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits and How Baseball Got Big" (Regan Books), Canseco wrote that he was a scholarly and careful drug user who first used steroids in 1984, then introduced other major leaguers to them a year later. He continued to do so throughout his career, until, he said, steroid use became widespread.
Canseco portrays himself in the book as a proselytizer for steroids and human growth hormone to teammates and rival players, describing for them the effects of individual drugs and where to buy them. The book is scheduled to go on sale Monday, but The New York Times purchased a copy yesterday.
Canseco called responsible steroid use "an opportunity, not a danger" and said that those who say otherwise speak "from ignorance."
Canseco will promote the book tomorrow night on CBS's "60 Minutes." Mike Wallace, who interviewed Canseco for "60 Minutes," said, "I believe some of what he said, and some I find a little far-fetched." Wallace said in an interview that Canseco was motivated to name players whom he introduced to illegal performance-enhancing drugs "because he believes in steroids, managed professionally."
Canseco wrote that he converted Mark McGwire to steroid use in 1988 and witnessed how he bulked up. "After batting practice or right before the game, Mark and I would duck into a stall in the men's room, load up our syringes and inject ourselves," Canseco wrote.
He added: "I was the godfather of the steroid revolution in baseball, but McGwire was right there with me as a living, thriving example of what steroids could do to make you a better ballplayer."
Canseco said that he believed that Oakland traded him to the Texas Rangers in 1992 because of his well-known reputation for using steroids, but once a Ranger, he said, he became a performance-enhancing mentor to Juan Gonzalez, Rafael Palmeiro and Ivan Rodriguez.
"Soon I was injecting all three of them," he wrote. "I personally injected each of those three guys, many times." The results on those three Rangers stars led more players to seek his advice, Canseco wrote.
Upon his return to the A's in 1997, he said, McGwire and Giambi would use the men's room in the Oakland clubhouse to inject each other with steroids and human growth hormone, while Canseco shot himself up.
Giambi's body, Canseco said, came to resemble a professional wrestler's because "he was overdosing testosterone."
Sounding like a cross between a pharmacist and Victor Conte Jr., the founder of Balco, Canseco wrote that Giambi should have taken a lower dose of testosterone, then balanced it with steroids like Winstrol or Deca or Equipoise.
McGwire has long denied steroid use, and Rodriguez, Gonzalez and Palmeiro have denied Canseco's accusations, which became public last week when The Daily News reported them. Two of Canseco's former Oakland teammates, Terry Steinbach and Walt Weiss, have scoffed at his accusations, and their former manager, Tony La Russa, said that the massive growth of McGwire's body was a result of his workout regimen and legal proteins.
La Russa said last Sunday that Canseco would speak openly about steroids and ignored advice to stop using them.
Canseco, 40, who last played in the major leagues in 2001, speculated that the accidental discovery of androstenedione, a so-called steroid precursor, in McGwire's locker during the 1998 season when he hit 70 home runs, was a strategic ruse to deflect suspicion that he used steroids.
"Mark was an experienced steroid user," Canseco wrote. "His physique speaks for itself. And he knows as well as I do that if you're taking steroids, you don't need androstenedione. McGwire using andro would have been like a hospital patient on morphine asking for an aspirin."
Canseco also suggested that he became an inspiration to Barry Bonds at a home run contest in Las Vegas in February 2000. After Canseco removed his shirt, he says, Bonds stared at his ripped 255-pound body and asked what he had been doing.
And what did Bonds do by the next season, Canseco asks? "He showed up in spring 2001 with 40 pounds of added muscle."
According to The Chronicle, Bonds testified to the Balco grand jury that he did not know that substances he took that his trainer told him were flaxseed oil and a rubbing balm were steroids, as prosecutors believe. |
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