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
more than forty home runs and swipe more than forty bases in the same season.
He won Rookie of the Year, Most Valuable Player, and a World Series ring.
Canseco shattered the mold of the out-of-shape baseball player and ushered
in a new era of superathletes who looked like bodybuilders, made outrageous
salaries, and enjoyed rock-star lifestyles. And the ticket for this ride?
Steroids.
Behind the gaudy stats and the glamour of his public life, Canseco cultivated
a secret just about everyone in MLB knew about, one that would alter the game
of baseball and the way we view our heroes forever.
Canseco made himself a guinea pig of the performance-enhancing drugs that were
only just beginning to infiltrate the American underground. 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 Major League
Baseball. Sluggers scooping up pitches at their ankles and blasting them out
of the park, pitchers cranking fastballs inning after inning - Canseco showed
the players how to customize their doses to sculpt the bodies they wanted, and
baseball as we know it was the result.
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
only broken, but also demolished.
In this shocking memoir, Canseco sheds light on a life of dizzying highs and
debilitating lows, provides the answers to questions about steroids that
millions of fans are only now beginning to ask - and suggests that, far from
being a passing trend, the steroid revolution is only a taste of things to
come. Who's juiced? According to Canseco's authoritative account, more than
you think. And baseball will never be the same.
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