I love Bill James’ writing on baseball. Actually, I just love the whole concept of Bill James. Like me, he was a sort of dorky baseball super fan trained in statistics, who leveraged that into a full time spot for himself right in the heart of the sport. Without Bill James there is no Moneyball. He has arguably been as significant to the history of baseball as anyone since Jackie Robinson. He literally changed the way the sport was played.
Yesterday, I learned on Blogcritics that James had finally weighed in on steroids in an article entitled “Cooperstown and the ‘roids.”
After reading it, I was shocked at how similar it sounded to every single thing that Jose Canseco said in his book, Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Big.
I pointed that out to a friend and he replied with the following question: “So is Canseco actually smart or did he just get lucky?”
My answer: Canseco is definitely that smart.
Let’s get a couple things out of the way first.
1. Juiced is in no way a literary work of art, it is however without a shadow of a doubt the most significant sports release of all time in terms of how it wound up affecting the game it chronicled.
2. Canseco has possibly become an even more significant figure in the evolution of the game than James. It’s become fairly accepted history that steroid use was this ugly plague that Canseco unleashed and popularized. Most look at him as a pariah. If Jose thought he was blackballed from baseball a decade ago, you can only imagine how likely he is to ever get another job within the game again now.
Fair or not, Hall of Famer Cap Anson has been historically blamed for segregation in baseball, and Canseco, likewise, will always be seen similarly with regards to steroids, but to blame baseball’s steroid problems on Canseco is just plain silly. Do you really think that had Jose “just said no” that steroids never would have hit baseball. The establishment will tell you that Canseco is comparable to “Freeway” Ricky Ross’ impact on the popularization of crack, but at most Jose probably just sped things up by maybe a year or so.
Article comments
1 - Brad Laidman
Didn't even realize that Canseco just dropped this bombshell. I guess it would be good as a writer to do my research before I write the article. :)
"It's not about naming names," he said. "I've never had anything against the players. It's always been against Major League Baseball. I know who's on that list, but like I said, it's not about attacking the players. It's about the machine that allowed this to happen. What I speak out of my mouth is the truth. It burns like fire. Just remember, I have never lied about this subject."