Juiced: Jose Canseco
Jose Canseco's Juiced is even more relevant today than it was when it was published in 2005. Of course, its authorship is somewhat problematic. It is written by a self-admitted user, but even if a reader only believes part of Canseco's memoir it confirms the findings of the more recent Mitchell report that the use of steroids and human growth hormone was not simply accepted in baseball, but encouraged by the league's owners. Steroid use has come to seem like the 'right' thing to do, to baseball players like Canseco, because the coaches pressure them to become users and baseball fans clamor to see their favorite players bigger, faster, and stronger to justify the stratospheric salaries in the game. Former MVP and World Series star Canseco credits drugs with enabling him to put on enough muscle to play competitive baseball-to play against people who were using the same drugs. Canseco's most controversial claims are that Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro and Sammy Sosa were fellow users and would never have had the careers they had, without the use of performance using drugs. He say
In high school, he was skinny and weak, a nobody who was afraid to talk in class, and was verbally abused by his father. His reasoning for taking the drug sounds self-hating-he assumed since at the time there were no Cubans in baseball, there "had to be a reason" (Canseco 24). Every baseball player and pro athlete will be using at least low levels of steroids. Canseco says he was miserable before he started taking steroids. Then, his mother died of a blood clot in her brain. As a result, baseball and other sports will be more exciting and entertaining. Canseco minimizes the side effects of what he considers minor does of the drug, and insists steroids are vital aspects of improving performance in a competitive athletic climate. And maybe we'll love longer and better, too" (Canseco 2). Canseco vowed he would become great, at any price (Canseco 25). What is so striking about Juiced is that it does not rationalize or excuse Canseco's drug abuse, or his concealment of the practice. s these drugs gave these players both a psychological as well as physical edge. Steroid use will be more common than Botox is now. Steroids can't make a ballplayer great; they are part of a battery of other advanced training supplements ballplayers use, like vitamins and nutrition.
Common topics in this essay:
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Canseco's Juiced,
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Acceptance Essays
