Jose Canseco is either totally insane, or he’s spilling some major beans about baseball in his new book. Or, in all likelihood, it’s a little from Column A and a little from Column B.
Whatever the case, check out some of the gems he drops in his new biography….I’d make jokes about each, but honestly, they don’t need it:
Page 14: Orel Hershiser and the ’88 World Series:
"That geeky little nerd sharpened his belt buckle and would rub the ball on it. We all knew it was going on. We were the freakin’ Bash Brothers and me and McGwire only got one hit apiece that World Series. But baseball didn’t care. They didn’t want a bunch of Latin and black players like me and Stew and Hendu winning the World Series. It’s really a shame Hershiser had to resort to cheating to win, though. It tarnishes his legacy, if you ask me. And Gibson corked his bat. Just another cheater."
Page 41: Claims he ran numbers for Pete Rose:
"I met Pete at the horse tracks in Miami in the
offseason. That’s where I used to get some of my stuff. I’d take the
same stuff they shot horses up with. Anyway, I bumped into him once
there and found out about his gambling habits. Truth is, I felt a
little sorry for Pete. I knew he never bet against the Reds, so when we
played Cincinnati in the 1990 World Series, I knew Pete had gone with
the Reds. That’s why I went 1-for-12 in the Series. I threw it for Pete
so he could win a little cash."
Page 891 (holy crap–there are 890+ pages?!): Claims he gave Theo Epstein key pieces of advice that contributed to the Red Sox winning the World Series:
"I’ve always wanted to stay in the game and run an organization, so
after the Red Sox hired Theo, I studied all this ‘Moneyball’ stuff and
learned about OPS and VORP and EQA and DIPS ERA and so on. I wrote a
couple computer programs to help evaluate players, showed Theo the
software and he hired me as a consultant. It was my advice to acquire
Schilling and get Bellhorn and trade Nomar. Next thing you know, the
Sox are World Series champs! I hadn’t felt that good since the night I
spent with Madonna in her Manhattan apartment! I think this is the
first step in me becoming a GM someday. Hopefully some of things I’ve
written in this book won’t come back to haunt me and get me blackballed
from the sport I love."
I hear that in the follow-up book, Jose is planning to explain how he helped Bill Belichik become the best coach in football, tell us how he shot down the 4th plane himself on 9/11, and reveal that HE actually found Saddam in that spider hole.
Jose’s Juicy Secrets {ESPN.com}