“Even when this book came out, and the howls of derision from sports journalists on the back pages and ESPN talking head shows about its existence and veracity were loudest, there was always the hunch that Jose Canseco, the one person probably more responsible than any other for making steroids popular among the players of his era, knew where an awful lot of the bodies were buried. Juiced lets on about a lot of that, and serves up a slew of juicy tidbits along the way (his bathroom-stall exploits with Mark McGwire and his personal joy at tracking the spread of steroid use across the leagues as he jumped from team to team, with the owners and the league offices looking the other way the whole time, have all entered public knowledge by now). In fact, it's still surprising how much of what he's mentioned about performance enhancers in this book has actually turned out to be the truth. Like him or hate him, take him seriously or write this stuff off as the ramblings of a junkie, it turned out his voice is the most consistently honest and accurate one in the steroid debate. That speaks less to his credibility than it does to the lack of credibility on the part of anyone else (including, and maybe especially, Bud Selig and Barry Bonds).
The whole thing is written in a breezy, conversational style which is surprisingly easy to read. I wouldn't pay full price for it, but if you need something dishy, funny, a little sexy and full of good anecdotes about sports and the notorious bunch who follow athletes around, I can easily recommend this.”
chicobangs wrote this review Friday, August 24 2007.
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