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

Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big To fully understand this book, people must go behind the book and find the true state of mind of the author. Unfortunately in this case, the author is the one and only Jose Canseco. Jose Canseco is what I like to call, â€Å"The black sheep in the family of baseball.† Canseco’s history can be related to such incidents of drug using, heavy drinking, numerous sexual encounters with hundreds of partners, and unreasonable acts of violence. This book goes into grave detail on how steroids have changed his life and how it is currently changing baseball. Juiced starts off with what appears to be a legal disclaimer. "This book does not intend to condone or encourage the use of any particular drugs, medicine or illegal substances." Yet the author spends most of the time doing nothing but repeating his assertions that taken under proper supervision, these drugs can enhance everyday life. Jose Canseco says he wrote Juiced because he wanted his fans to listen to him and hear him out on what he has to say about the current state of baseball and it’s future. I believe this former 40-40 had another reason for writing this book and it’s plain and simple†¦money. Money encourages the human mind to perform selfish and somewhat outlandish stunts in order to achieve wealth. I believe that Jose Canseco’s mind consists of slop and greed. It’s a proven fact that this 1988 Major League MVP has a truly unstable mind. One incident in his book that proves this is the time he went â€Å"deep sea fishing.† The story begins with Jose Canseco’s wife leaving him for Kansas City Chiefs’ all-star tight end, Tony Gonzalez. Mr. Canseco reacted by grabbing his 12-gauge shotgun and taking his boat out to sea where he decided to shoot sharks with his shotgun when they surfaced. This incident is one of the very many incidents that question the complete truth in Juiced. Jose Canseco is best known for several things: A fly ball bouncing off his noggin and landing over the fence, dating Madonna, his tape measure home runs, having numerous run-ins with the law, being the first man to ever hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in the same season, and his bulging biceps. In Juiced, Canseco recalls other steroid user’s stories within the sport ... ...baseball and hold them responsible. Unfortunately, there are also a lot of bad things rising from the depths of this book. One of these would be the fact that Jose Canseco is gaining more attention for these appalling allegations and stories. Not only is Canseco gaining attention from the media but he’s also profiting immensely from his book, book signings, talk shows, and television appearances. The only thing worse than a regular Jose Canseco is a rich Jose Canseco. We are simply feeding the dragon himself by agreeing and believing all his allegations in Juiced. The book clearly depicts that there are holes within his stories and these prevent the truth to be fully told. Although I have an undying hatred for Jose Canseco, he deserves credit for forcing America to give serious attention to the steroid problem not only in baseball but all of professional sports. Without Jose Canseco’s deceiving stories about the abuse and the media attention that this is creating, there is a possibility that this could have been unnoticed for many years to come. This drug usage throughout the league is clearly paving a dark future for our national pastime.