Customer Reviews

Vindicated: Big Names, Big Liars, and the Battle to Save Baseball

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I happened to be at Barnes and Noble the day it came out and I just finished reading it during a 5 and 1/2 hour train ride to Boston. As the first to review this, I will be careful to write a fair and honest review.
I read Juiced and eventually began to believe Canseco only recently. As the title and one chapter suggests he is vindicated and what he says is now taken very seriously.

Because of the Mitchell report and live congressional investigation with McNamee and Clemens, I think this book was rushed to press and it includes information from events that are only a few weeks old at the time of publication. It is not a long book but of course it is absorbing and hard to put down. Canseco starts out reviewing the events that took place around the time Juiced came out. The most interesting part of the book is what he says about Roger Clemens and Alex Rodiguez. Much of this came out in the media before the book hit the presses and will undoubtably make it another best seller

On Clemens and the Mitchell report Canseco thinks things are not as they appear. He feels that the Mitchell report although good for describing the severity of the problem and naming some names missed quite a bit and was biased in favor of the Red Sox. Also the story by McNamee that Clemens was at Canseco's party Jose asserts is false Interestingly he tells us in this book that he originally named Clemens in Juiced and in his 60 minutes interview but Clemens name was the only one removed from the book and cut from the interview. Canseco speculates about it.

Also Canseco had no direct proof with regard to Clemens and after meeting with Clemens and his attorney recently he actually was persuaded to sign a petition saying that he did not think Clemens took steroids. But at the time of the publication he actually is unsure what to believe.

Regarding Alex Rodriguez, Canseco talks about this near the end of the book. He had direct knowledge related to ARod's possible steriod use at the time of the publication of Juiced but he left ARod out because he felt that his strong distaste for the man would have led the readers and reviewers to disbelieve him because of this. In Vindicated Canseco talks about their personal connection and how ARod trained at Canseco's house, learned about steroids from Jose who also hooked him up with a trainer. Canseco says that ARod flirted with Canseco's wife when he visited and in Canseco's mind ARod wanted to have an affair with her.

This time he is better prepared for the critics. He is very prideful of his complete truthfulness in these books and with regard to every statement that could be challenged he took lie detector tests from two very reputable testers and passed with flying colors!

Canseco definitely is in it for the money whether he admits it or not and his speculation about Clemens and Rodriguez is in there to sell copies more than anything else. So take his waffling about Clemens and his accusations toward ARod with a grain of salt. I am sure that Rodriguez flirted with Canseco's wife and he may have even been looking for a sexual affair but that could be just part of Jose's wild imagination also. At least he admits when he is speculating and tells you when he has hard facts. ARod surely asked Canseco about steroids. He also must have been introduced to a supplier and he may have used steroids. But whether he went through with it and actually took the drugs is still speculation and Rodriguez has not failed a drug test yet.

As I revise this review in July 2010 information has come to light indicating that Clemens was heavily involved and lied to congress also ARod's confession and media manipulation further vindicates Canseco. I would not question Conseco's words again. I think he has been totally truthful.

Jose Canseco has said himself that he wrote this book and Juiced to exact revenge against MLB for blackballing him. His reasoning was that because he was the guy to bring steroids into the game, players improved by leaps and bounds and that caused the salary structure to explode over the years. Is that true? I don't know but I wouldn't be surprised to find out that it was. In my OPINION, I think Jose is upset that his own body betrayed him...fell apart...and he was forced from the game. At one time, Jose was the talk of the town. HE was going to hit 62 home runs in a season. HE was going to hit 756 for his career. And now...with a career that included more trips on the DL than to the All Star game, and finishing with 462 home runs,he was removed from the Hall of Fame ballot after the 2007 voting and his career has been reduced to a footnote. He's watched from the sidelines as Mark McGwire & Sammy Sosa broke records and were cheered and it ate at him (something he alluded to in Juiced).So now he decided to do something about this. Again, my OPINION is that he felt "if I can't have the addoration of the fans anymore,neither can they"

I don't think he wrote this book as a cash grab. He made $50 million dollars in his career. I also don't think he wrote this to "save" the game. If Jose was able to play out his career as he wanted, was able to be elected to the Hall of Fame and was able to feel vindicated by his playing, he wouldn't have written these books.

But I will say this. Shortly after Juiced came out, his former teammate Dave Stewart had said "You can call Jose a lot of things...but you can never call him a liar" and I think he proved that. I also believe that a lot of what he wrote in this book will prove true in the long run.

But as far as his motives go...they're suspect at best. This book is for him and nobody else. Not MLB, not the players union or the players themselves. But for Jose Canseco and his bruised ego.

When I watch Jose Canseco give interviews, I don't like the guy. He strikes me as slimy and manipulative in almost all of his statements. But you know what? None of that matters. When "Juiced" came out, I heard and read everyone panning the guy (including myself) as someone who just wanted to make a buck. Slowly, he became the only one in the whole ordeal telling the truth. Palmeiro went from a strong a trustworthy guy to the biggest bold-faced liar in all of baseball. McGwire and Sosa went from lovable first-ballot Hall of Famers to jokes overnight. Canseco came out looking great, despite all of the doubt that first circled around him.
Therefore, when this new book came out, I wanted to read it right away. I still don't like the guy, but I don't doubt that every word in here is also true and will eventually be proven as such. I don't necessarily agree with his motives on some things, but his first-hand knowledge has been credible so far, and having transcripts of polygraph tests in there seal the deal for me.
I don't know how MLB will respond to the information in this book, but flat denials from accused players shouldn't be enough for the public anymore. Jose calls himself "The Godfather of Steroids" in the book, and like him or not, I agree with all of his assessments. The book is a good and fast read, and if you like the game of baseball at all, you'll get a lot out of it.

I agree with Watty's review. Way too much rehashing of the best from JUICED. Tedious court testimonies and questions from lie detector tests.

The only real interesting new stuff is about the refusal of the networks and media to accuse Roger Clemens of juicing up. Also of interest--Magglio Ordonez' almost certain steroid usage, and A-Rod's interest in 'roids and Canseco's ex-wife. Check this one out at the library.

In 2005 Jose Canseco wrote "Juiced" in which he "outed" the baseball steroid scandal for what it was. Canseco was derided for doing a money-grabbing job, but a funny thing happened along the way: it opened the floodgates, including congressional hearings and a supposedly stricter baseball policy on steroids. Now comes the sequel, in which Canseco muses on what has happened since his first book came out.

in "Vindicated: Big Names, Big Liars, and the Battle to Save Baseball" (259 pages), Canseco goes on in his "hold no prisoner" way on what he feels is right and wrong with how the baseball steroid scandal has unfolded since his first book. Canseco looks back at the indignation of the baseball world when "Juiced" came out, only to be proved "right" of course. He has choice words for the likes of Rafael Palmero: "Palmeiro knew he was a steroids user, and he knew I knew. [...] Now here we were, only months after the hearings, and Rafi tests positive. Who's lying exactly?" On the Mitchell Report: "Senator Mitchell claimed he had personally all the players connected to the scandal. Maybe he called a lot of players, and maybe, for all I know, he called every single one of them. But he never called me."

On the "outing" of Magglio Ordenez and A-Rod, Canseco sounds pretty vindictive, but then again, he tells it how he sees it and it's difficult to argue with him. only time will tell if Canseco is right on these calls, but with his track record, I wouldn't bet against Canseco. Is Canseco self-serving in this book? of course he is. Is this another "money-grabbing" job? likely. But the facts have been with Canseco and this book doesn't diminish from that fact. (As a total aside, I read in today's newspaper that Canseco's house is being foreclosed on...)

Fine, he was right the first time.

A lot of us scoffed when Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big came out. After all, so many of the little details (the baseball anecdotes) were flat-out wrong... who could honestly expect us to believe all of the big details (Jose's allegations about who he helped 'roid up?).

Then came the infamous 2005 Congressional hearings, and Rafael Palmeiro's tainted B12 shot, and the publication of Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional Sports. Now, come to find out, Jose really was telling us the truth!

That's where "Vindicated" comes in. This is a slim volume, with big print and wide margins, in which Jose repeatedly tells us how truthful he is. I'm going to allow him his victory lap. If I can help him pay down his debts and keep him stocked in power bars and hair gel, and buy his daughter horseback-riding lessons, fine, I'm in. That's my punishment for lightly mocking "Juiced".

I won't say this is an artful book. "Juiced" had its problems but it had a competent ghostwriter, the same guy who gave us One Day at Fenway: A Day in the Life of Baseball in America and What a Party!: My Life Among Democrats: Presidents, Candidates, Donors, Activists, Alligators, and Other Wild Animals. "Vindicated", on the other hand, is written by the same titan of the typewriter (master wizard of MS Word?) who gave us If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer. Many details are repeated over and over again: in barely 200 pages I caught four repetitions of the story of Jose's pledge to his dying mother. How can so small a book have so much duplication?

The stuff about the lie detector tests is kind of over-the-top. To make a long story short, such testing is largely inadmissible in a court of law. Also Jose describes verbatim pre- and post-test banter with the test administrators which leads us to wonder if those two ex-law enforcement guys weren't just playing along with an elaborate gag.

Also, while Jose uses the scope of the entire book to waver back and forth between saying that Roger Clemens 'roided up, and then going so far as to sign an affidavit for the Rocket's lawyers saying that he knows nothing... he tells us that he knows for a fact that Clemens wasn't at the infamous 1998 Canseco family pool party, and yet wire reports say that a picture actually exists of Clemens at that party. The jury's still out on that one, for me at least.

Still, allow the man his indulgence. Also, a late chapter about why Jose loves baseball is actually kind of touching. Considering how little affection Jose showed for baseball in his earlier volume, this chapter actually gives him the slightest hint of something he's never shown us before: humility.

If you like Conseco's first book about "Roids" that was exciting and all about the inner circles of baseball, be ready that this is not more of the same. In "Vindicated", there is much more direct finger pointing and name calling than anything else. It is like the author is screaming for people to believe him. We do, Jose, you passed 2 polygraphs with absolutely "no chance of being disceptive." This book was written in a hurry, as there is no index, and the stories are not nearly as good as in his first. But the details are much better. There are several more memorial facts that one could find quite disturbing. The fact that HarperCollins(publisher of his first book) made Conseco remove the name of Roger Clemens from that text or they would refuse to print it, is quite curious. It appears that naming good ole Roger in any bad light, is not good for this world. And I like Roger Clemens!! I did enjoy those reenactments of Sosa suddenly forgetting English before Congress, and McGwire not wanting to mention the past, totally hiliarious. Jose also has issue with A-Rod and terms him "Stray Rod" for reasons you should read about. The photos of the players being buffed up, is not completely atune with the fact of steroid use, but later you learn they all, including Clemens, A-Rod, Sosa, and mosty all Yankees (except D. Jeter) do use them. For some odd reason, most Boston Red Sox players are not even mentioned?? Even the great holier than thou Andy Petitt seems to have been punched by the needle a few times. The biggest hypocrite of them all has to be the $18million -a- year commissioner Bud Selig and his court. While they pretend to dispise the use of Growth Hormone and steroids, they surely knew its presence was throughout all aspects of the game. Yet because these big home run hitters were exciting and brought in the fans, they willfully accepted gate money for the sport of it. Something like selling your soul. Selig is seemingly very good at the exploitation of sports' individuals while remaining totally innocent of any incriminating facts of his own. He is the commissioner and did not know this was going on... Please..he owns his own team.. You will not be able to put this down, because Conseco does not hold anything back, and is relentless to get you to understand how he was railroaded into making the title of enemy #1 on baseball's bad boy list. guyairey

The only thing I found really interesting was the amount of censoring out of Roger Clemens' name the big media allegedly did at the time of Canseco's first book. Jose wonders in "Vindicated" if that wasn't deliberate, a GOP plot. Well, given Clemens' testimony before the House this spring, and the partisan division over whether Clemens or McNamee was lying, Jose may be on to something. Or he may not. He gives no reason WHY a conspiracy like this would develop. (Please, no third book about that.)

The only other thing that was in any way news to me was his alleged degree of steroid relationship with Magglio Ordonez.

That said, the before-and-after pics of various actual or alleged juicers, paired with the before-and-after stats.

It's a borderline 2/3 star, leaning toward 3.

Just don't write a third volumne, Jose. We'll know that that one is all about the money.

I feel like despite people believing Canseco is a credible steroid source, most people still hate him for some reason, and thus, this book has 3-stars on amazon. Pretty absurd if you ask me.

Vindicated is just as entertaining as Juiced was, and sheds even MORE light on the steroids issue in Baseball. It's a perfect Part 2, to Juiced. Once again, Canseco was right, with Clemens and A-Rod being named in this book.

This book made me laugh out loud several times, made me get charged up with excitement, made me get angry.... it was an emotional rollercoaster. Craftfully written, and very, very entertaining. I'd recommend this book to ANY Major League Baseball fan. If you hate Canseco, whatever, but don't rate this book low because of it. The book is fantastic.

This book is a follow-up to Juiced, and although I liked Juiced better, this book was impossible to put down, as well. It is written in a really relaxed conversational style; it reads more like an interview. I picked it up at B&N and read it in one sitting.

Some of the narrative is off-topic (like the martial arts stuff and the Hollywood stuff) but overall it was really interesting. I am giving the book only 4 stars because, although I enjoyed it and could not put it down, the long "interview" really should have been cleaned up and edited a little more. As some of the other interviewers have noted, a lot of stuff was just filler, but most of it was still interesting, nonetheless.

And he adds transcripts of his lie-detector tests. Say what you want about him-- I didn't see any of the other players submit to a lie detector.

Canseco might be full of pomp and swagger, but he's not full of crap.

Oh, and I don't like spoiler reviews, but this book is worth buying, just to read what Canseco says about A-Rod!!!