Colorful Canseco a hit in Cedar Rapids

CEDAR RAPIDS – He's always good for a quote or a sound bite. Wednesday afternoon really was no different.

'Let me explain something to you,” Jose Canseco told reporters at a press conference at Veterans Memorial Stadium. 'I have an identical twin brother (Ozzie). Genetically he's the closest there is to me. At one point in time, we used the same performance-enhancing drugs, did the same workouts, ate the same foods. He didn't make it to the major leagues, he did not become a superstar. What does that tell you? PEDs don't make you a great player. They don't.”

Canseco was in town for a meet and greet and to participate in a pregame home-run derby with area softball players. The former major league slugger, whose book 'Juiced” exposed baseball's rampant steroid use in the 1980s and 1990s, wowed with some prodigious shots, including one over the 407-foot sign in left-center field.

Keep in mind, this was with a softball, not a baseball. Even at 50 years old, Canseco has an intimidating physique.

'I just don't like it when everybody says ‘Oh, yeah, I could have made it to the major leagues if I had used PEDs,'” Canseco said. 'That would basically mean that I could inject you with PEDs, and you'd be a professional athlete. That's really how it works. Then, again, are we sending a horrible signal by one of our greatest super heroes, Captain America?

'How was Captain America created? He was a guy who tried to go into the army and couldn't make it. Was a small guy, didn't have the physicality. They put him in a cylinder, pumped him up with PEDs, all of a sudden he comes out, and he's Captain America. Not Captain Crunch, not the Hulk, not Superman, but Captain America. Think about that, the hypocrisy.”

Players and coaches from both the Cedar Rapids Kernels and Burlington Bees were up close and personal behind home plate, cell phones videoing some of Canseco's moon shots. Baseball's first 40-40 man (40 homers, 40 stolen bases) still creates a lot of excitement.

Ryan Pennebaker of Fayette actually beat him in the derby finals.

'I love playing the game,” said Canseco, who still plays independent league baseball. 'It's my addiction, baseball. It keeps you in great shape. I'm just going to play baseball, softball, do these home-run derbies as long as I can.”

Canseco played in the Midwest League in 1983 for the Madison Muskies and said he remembered playing at the old Veterans Memorial Stadium. He said he hated cold weather, claiming he hit a home run while wearing ski mittens.

He played parts of 17 seasons in the big leagues and wanted to play longer, saying being black balled by MLB was the impetus behind 'Juiced.” He later wrote a follow-up called 'Vindication.”

'At one point in time, the owners got overwhelmed,” he said. 'They thought maybe ‘OK, there are a few using PEDs, so we're not going to make a big issue out of it.' … Once the players saw that, they thought that it was part of the game, part of the norm. It wasn't some hidden agenda we had. The players were just helping the team win, we were helping the city become successful. That's what we were doing.

'We weren't trying to hurt anyone or trying to be sneaky about it. A lot of times we spoke about it out loud, really. It wasn't a big deal. Strangely, and ironically, Major League Baseball lost control of it. You had all these 50-home run guys, all these records being broken and the purists said ‘Hey, wait a minute. There is something going on.'”

Canseco said much more stringent drug testing has made Major League Baseball the cleanest it ever has been. At least on the field.

'The state of the game right now is awesome, except for that Cardinals scandal that we have,” he said with a laugh. 'I don't know what's going on there. But the state of the game financially is incredible … The structure of it, the inter-league play is great. The beauty of the ballparks they have now days. I think with the salary structure, you'd have to be crazy to use any PEDs, performance-enhancing drugs. I think things are the best they've ever been.

'I think it's probably the cleanest it's ever been, period. And I'm not just talking about PEDs. I'm talking about things like cocaine, marijuana, drinking, amphetamines. Because of the salary structure, I think players are taking care of themselves a whole lot better. They have access to a lot more information and better supplements that are allowed in Major League Baseball.”

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