In Vindicated he boasts that he passed two polygraph tests-to prove he told the truth in Juiced. So what? Polygraphs are far from 100% reliable.
1. You can pass them even if you're lying
2. You can fail them even while telling the truth.
If someone wants to believe you're lying, they can always dismiss a Poly-maybe you know how to beat them. Or maybe the test wasn't somehow faulty.
If someone wants to believe you're telling the truth they can always dismiss it on the same grounds if you failed it. This is about the fallacy of the Smoking Gun. It's like the GOP in the 90s with Bill Clinton, thinking there would be this smoking gun that would make everyone agree with them about the Clintons-and this gun never materialized, even Monica Lewinsky's blue dress.
It was the same thing for Dems and the Iraq war. When people want to believe-or not believe-something, there is no Smoking Gun.
On the subject of the morality of steroid use, Canseco's been all over the map.
"There has been a constant evolution in Canseco’s attitude toward muscle drugs since his best-seller rattled baseball with his revelations of steroid use in the game, including that his “Bash Brother” Mark McGwire was a major user. At the same time, Canseco went to conspicuous lengths to portray Roger Clemens as a loyal husband. Back then, Canseco proudly proclaimed himself the “Godfather of Steroids” and said they did wonders for him and should be embraced."
Three years later, however, an A&E documentary revealed him to be profoundly regretful about the harm that his long-term steroid use had caused, limiting his body’s ability to produce natural hormones. By then Canseco was financially strapped, and also tangled up in the criminal investigation into Clemens."
"In 2008, Canseco got busted at the Mexican border trying to smuggle a fertility drug into the United States. The substance, human chorionic gonadotropin (which also got Manny Ramirez in trouble) is thought to be useful to steroid abusers hoping to bring their testicles back to life."
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/vinton-jose-canseco-odd-choice-talk-kids-character-article-1.1767556
Sometimes he seems to think steroids are great and everyone should use them; other times he sees them as a scourge, and something he wants to help drive out of society.
Meanwhile, he still looks like a guy who does steroids.
After he wrote the book, he was offended when people asked if he was broke and needed the money or how he felt throwing all those other players under the bus-he claimed to only want to punish MLB and the player's union, yet the only one he really hurt was the players who's lives became a living hell after he named them.
I'm not necessarily a fan of whistle blowers, and certainly in his case, he had clear ulterior motives. Ok, what he said about steroid use was basically true. Of course, we all basically knew that already. So what? He didn't have to give the Witch Hunt a smoking gun and that's what he did.
For the record, I do wonder if maybe we'd be better off if there never was a crackdown on steroids, which is why it might have been a better thing had he never written the book. It seems now he himself feels the same way.
http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/story/mark-mcgwire-done-with-jose-canseco-drives-canseco-to-twitter-072414
"I regret writing the book," Canseco told SF.Gate.com. "I regret putting my friends in the book even though it was a true account of what happened. The reason I did it was not a good reason. My anger toward Major League Baseball for not being able to find a job at the end of my playing career really overwhelmed me."
http://www.aol.com/article/2014/07/21/jose-canseco-wishes-juiced-never-happened/20934319/
In all fairness, having read his Juiced, and now that I'm nearing halfway through his Vindicated, Canseco has a problem of always blaming others for his own problems. I can understand his pain and disappointment for how his career ended-maybe the owners did unfairly drum him out-but he isn't honest with himself.
He seemed upset in Juiced with his reputation as a 'bad boy'-suggesting that the only reason for this was because he is Latino-while McGwire was the 'All American boy' just because he's white. Yet, he also mocks players like Cal Ripken, Jr. or A-Rod who always said the right thing. He pats himself on the back for being an 'entertainer.'
So he both cultivated his bad boy image and yet claims this was some unfair typecasting by the white media-he is always happy to play the race and ethnic cards. What he never does is look at himself and that some of his image was self-induced.
Episodes like the following, on the other hand, show that he has some real problems and that his biggest enemy may be himself.
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/jose-canseco-bottoms-out-6382879
1. You can pass them even if you're lying
2. You can fail them even while telling the truth.
If someone wants to believe you're lying, they can always dismiss a Poly-maybe you know how to beat them. Or maybe the test wasn't somehow faulty.
If someone wants to believe you're telling the truth they can always dismiss it on the same grounds if you failed it. This is about the fallacy of the Smoking Gun. It's like the GOP in the 90s with Bill Clinton, thinking there would be this smoking gun that would make everyone agree with them about the Clintons-and this gun never materialized, even Monica Lewinsky's blue dress.
It was the same thing for Dems and the Iraq war. When people want to believe-or not believe-something, there is no Smoking Gun.
On the subject of the morality of steroid use, Canseco's been all over the map.
"There has been a constant evolution in Canseco’s attitude toward muscle drugs since his best-seller rattled baseball with his revelations of steroid use in the game, including that his “Bash Brother” Mark McGwire was a major user. At the same time, Canseco went to conspicuous lengths to portray Roger Clemens as a loyal husband. Back then, Canseco proudly proclaimed himself the “Godfather of Steroids” and said they did wonders for him and should be embraced."
Three years later, however, an A&E documentary revealed him to be profoundly regretful about the harm that his long-term steroid use had caused, limiting his body’s ability to produce natural hormones. By then Canseco was financially strapped, and also tangled up in the criminal investigation into Clemens."
"In 2008, Canseco got busted at the Mexican border trying to smuggle a fertility drug into the United States. The substance, human chorionic gonadotropin (which also got Manny Ramirez in trouble) is thought to be useful to steroid abusers hoping to bring their testicles back to life."
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/vinton-jose-canseco-odd-choice-talk-kids-character-article-1.1767556
Sometimes he seems to think steroids are great and everyone should use them; other times he sees them as a scourge, and something he wants to help drive out of society.
Meanwhile, he still looks like a guy who does steroids.
After he wrote the book, he was offended when people asked if he was broke and needed the money or how he felt throwing all those other players under the bus-he claimed to only want to punish MLB and the player's union, yet the only one he really hurt was the players who's lives became a living hell after he named them.
I'm not necessarily a fan of whistle blowers, and certainly in his case, he had clear ulterior motives. Ok, what he said about steroid use was basically true. Of course, we all basically knew that already. So what? He didn't have to give the Witch Hunt a smoking gun and that's what he did.
For the record, I do wonder if maybe we'd be better off if there never was a crackdown on steroids, which is why it might have been a better thing had he never written the book. It seems now he himself feels the same way.
http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/story/mark-mcgwire-done-with-jose-canseco-drives-canseco-to-twitter-072414
"I regret writing the book," Canseco told SF.Gate.com. "I regret putting my friends in the book even though it was a true account of what happened. The reason I did it was not a good reason. My anger toward Major League Baseball for not being able to find a job at the end of my playing career really overwhelmed me."
http://www.aol.com/article/2014/07/21/jose-canseco-wishes-juiced-never-happened/20934319/
In all fairness, having read his Juiced, and now that I'm nearing halfway through his Vindicated, Canseco has a problem of always blaming others for his own problems. I can understand his pain and disappointment for how his career ended-maybe the owners did unfairly drum him out-but he isn't honest with himself.
He seemed upset in Juiced with his reputation as a 'bad boy'-suggesting that the only reason for this was because he is Latino-while McGwire was the 'All American boy' just because he's white. Yet, he also mocks players like Cal Ripken, Jr. or A-Rod who always said the right thing. He pats himself on the back for being an 'entertainer.'
So he both cultivated his bad boy image and yet claims this was some unfair typecasting by the white media-he is always happy to play the race and ethnic cards. What he never does is look at himself and that some of his image was self-induced.
Episodes like the following, on the other hand, show that he has some real problems and that his biggest enemy may be himself.
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/jose-canseco-bottoms-out-6382879
No comments:
Post a Comment