King Kaufman's Sports Daily

Jose Canseco is an attention whore, but that doesn't have to mean his steroid accusations are all lies. Plus: The Go Daddy Girl and the rest of the Super Bowl ad crop.

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Feb. 9, 2005 | Jose Canseco has pushed back the release date of his new book so he can write a chapter about the Go Daddy Girl. He claims she's juiced, and also that he never slept with her.

Actually, Regan Books moved up the release date by a week to Valentine's Day after the New York Daily News ran a report Sunday that detailed some of the more colorful revelations in Canseco's tome, which is called "Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and What He Knows Throws the Blows When He Goes to the Fight," or something like that.

Too bad for Canseco. He could have used a little publicity for his book but all anybody wants to talk about is the Go Daddy Girl.

Even Canseco's confession that he made out with Madonna but never slept with her seems like small potatoes compared to the confusing, mildly amusing Super Bowl commercial that got the NFL bluenoses in a snit because of a broken spaghetti strap and some cleavage. Poor Jose. First he was overshadowed by Mark McGwire, and now by an obscure cheesecake model and "WWE Diva" named Candice Michelle.

Among Canseco's literary doozies, according to the Daily News: He injected McGwire's keister with steroids during their "Bash Brothers" days in Oakland, and he watched McGwire and Jason Giambi inject each other during a later stint with the A's. The Daily News reported that Canseco takes credit for introducing steroids to baseball, and that he taught Ivan Rodriguez, Rafael Palmeiro and Juan Gonzalez about them after he was traded to the Rangers.

Rodriguez, Palmeiro and Gonzalez have issued denials. McGwire released a statement saying he'd wait to review the book before commenting, which is a fascinatingly measured response even from a media recluse.

Even more eyebrow-raising -- and publicity-generating -- is Canseco's reported charge that President Bush, who was a part owner of the Rangers when Canseco played for Texas, must have known about the rampant steroid abuse on the team. White House spokesman Ken Lisaius didn't comment directly on the charge, but he noted that Bush called on baseball to get rid of steroids in his 2004 State of the Union address and that Bush's "position on steroids has been clear for some time."

Well, if a year is "some time," that's true, but it's not ridiculous to suggest that Bush's "position on steroids" might have evolved between 1992, when he was managing general partner of a baseball team that stood to profit from juiced-up sluggers hitting home runs, to 2004, when he was out of the baseball business and running for reelection as president.

Having said that, I also should say I think it's ridiculous to suggest that Bush must have known what was going on in the Rangers' clubhouse. He'd have had to have been a very savvy owner indeed to know what was going on, and I don't know of anyone who ever thought of him as anything like a savvy owner.

Next page: Jose Canseco: The "Clambake" Elvis of baseball. Plus: Super Bowl ad review