'Juiced' slugger goes to bat for steroids

Canseco was the American League's rookie of the year (1986) and its MVP (1988). He is also an evangelist, and constructive uses of steroids and human growth hormones are his gospels. Within 10 years, he writes, most pro athletes will be taking steroids.

''Believe it or not," he writes, ''that's good news." Indeed, ''human life will be improved, too. . . . We will be able to look good and have strong, fit bodies well into our sixties and beyond. . . . Steroids, used correctly, will not only make you stronger and sexier, they will also make you healthier."

Canseco has no regrets, no qualms, about his own use of steroids. He brims with self-confidence, convinced that at age 40 he could still bang out the 38 home runs he needs to reach the 500-homer club, but he says he's been made a scapegoat by Major League Baseball and the players association.

As the game tried to recover from the season-ending strike in 1994, a proliferation of home-run hitters proved beneficial. The ''Bash Brothers" -- Mark McGwire and Canseco -- had set the look back in the late '80s, but it was the Mark McGwire/Sammy Sosa battle in 1998 that brought the homer battle to unprecedented levels, when McGwire powered out 70 and Sosa hit 66.

By 2003, Canseco asserts, it was harder to find a player who wasn't using steroids than one who was. The owners, he says, were complicit in accepting the spread of growth-enhancing drugs. Canseco even says, ''There was no question that [Rangers owner] George W. Bush knew my name was connected with steroids."

The Rangers traded to acquire Canseco anyway. On arrival, he educated and injected several fellow teammates.

As players bulked up, so did ballpark attendance and player salaries. Steroids were illegal, and owners faced a double dose of bad news: ballooning salaries and fear of exposure. The pendulum swung, and owners began to grandstand, wringing their hands about steroids, and decided to blackball the player most closely identified with steroids: Canseco.

His cockiness and lavish lifestyle made it easier on them. Canseco never whines about racism but reports a double standard. McGwire was the ''All-American boy," but the Cuban-born, darker-skinned Latino bore the brunt of the blame.