Let's see, Shakespeare, Milton, Dickens, Hemingway, Canseco... NOT!!
Worth the read because of all the hype but if you are looking for a literary masterpiece skip it.
guess it is a true story :-)
pressures to succeed...lead to unhealthy choices and damaged many so called role models.....our youth are watching......
Jose Canseco divulges MLB stars using steroids and dives into various areas of self pity and excuses for his professional baseball career and personal life. Jose starts by telling us about his overbearing father who could never be pleased and a sweet mom that passed on prematurely. Jose does a good job of showing you the stress he was under to perform and be loved. However, any sympathy that was generated from the portrait of his dysfunctional family quickly dissolved as Canseco spends the rest of the book wallowing in self pity and contradicting himself.
A good portion of the book is spent telling you how shy he is which leads to him being misunderstood by the media. The annoying part is that all his stories dont support his self image. He talks about holding a bikini contest in his hotel room where he would judge the women with his friends. Without a doubt holding bikini contests is a common practice of all introverts.
Jose also spends time talking about the discrimination he faced as a Latino in the MLB. Let me see, is this the discrimination that allowed you to be named rookie of the year and MVP of American League, clearly hatred against Latin players in the MLB prevented you from being recognized properly.
Jose tells another story about being tagged too hard in practice by a teammate in the minor leagues which led to him starting a fight with the first baseman. The coaches punished Jose by making him the bat boy for a couple days. Jose thinks this is because he is Latin, but fails to recognize that he is punished for a roid rage outburst and being a jerk to his teammates. It is easier for Jose to cry racism than to admit that he is a self-centered player.
The most annoying thing in the book is Joses claim that a sports reporter cost him millions of dollars in an advertisement deal with Pepsi because he spread rumors of Jose using steroids. Let me see, in this book you call yourself the godfather of steroids and detail when you started using steroids and how steroids made you awesome at baseball. I guess that means that the reporter didnt spread rumors but told the truth and in fact you (Jose Canseco) are to blame for losing the deal with Pepsi because of YOUR choice to use steroids. This book is infinitely annoying.
Thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is highly entertaining and insightful. It is not expertly written by any means, but it serves the point he tries to make. Since - over time - he has been vindicated in his claims its a revealing book. However, he often contradicts himself, which leads the reader to seriously question his judgment. Nonetheless, it exposes the many perversions of modern major league baseball. Because of that, I WOULD NOT call it a "must read" for any baseball fan. Some of the realities of the game today are so disappointing. This book explains those.
Reading this several years after its original publish date allows the doubts cast on its legitimacy to be wiped out. Every single player Canseco "outed" in this book originally called him a liar only to later confess. Mark McGwire's admission being the most recent. Seeing this made me read the book through a new lens.
In this book he's an unabashed proponent of steroids in this book. While he failed to convince me they're the right thing, he helped me gain a greater understanding for why just about everyone did/does it. He has since changed his tune about the benefits of roids. There's a fantastic documentary of him on A&E Biography that demonstrates how far and hard he's fallen and what the roids are finally doing to destroy his body. As such it and the book are excellent cautionary tales.
The book is also enjoyable because he provides insights to other aspects of the game not normally visible to the public.
As noted, he often contradicts himself, which makes swallowing some of his claims on racism, bias, steroid benefits, and his being blacklisted tough. However, since everyone else he implicates are all clearly liars themselves, it leaves you thinking they're all a bunch of scumbags and none of them are to be believed.
As a huge baseball fan, I actually feel better reading this book. Its helped me invest less emotionally in the game and to very simply appreciate it only for what it is...a game. Leave the business to everyone else.
I'M SURE GLAD I'M NOT ONE OF HIS FORMER TEAM MATES...DISCRETION IS NOT ONE OF HIS STRONG SUITS!!!
