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Transcript

Jose Canseco: SWAT Teams, Smuggled Drugs, and 'Roid Rage · DISGRACELAND

0:00
Speaker 1: Disgraceland as a production of Double Elvis. The stories about
0:25
Speaker 1: Jose Canseco are insane. He was detained for trying to
0:30
Speaker 1: smuggle drugs across the border from Mexico into the United States.
0:35
Speaker 1: He was the target of a police swat team when
0:37
Speaker 1: a gun was found in his car. He was sued
0:40
Speaker 1: for his part in a nightclub brawl while dressed as
0:43
Speaker 1: a vampire. He was busy being seduced by Madonna in
0:47
Speaker 1: her apartment when he was supposed to be taking batting
0:50
Speaker 1: practice before a game. And he was the self proclaimed
0:54
Speaker 1: godfather of steroids, using, abusing, and introducing other players to
0:59
Speaker 1: the over the entirety of his seventeen year Major League
1:03
Speaker 1: Baseball career. And he did it all unapologetically while simultaneously
1:09
Speaker 1: being a part of some of the greatest moments in
1:11
Speaker 1: sports history. I liked that loop I played for you
1:15
Speaker 1: at the top of the show. That wasn't a great
1:17
Speaker 1: sports moment. That was a preset loop from my mellotron
1:21
Speaker 1: called Stranger Is as Stranger Does MK One. I played
1:27
Speaker 1: you that loop because I can't afford the rights to
1:30
Speaker 1: a clip from She Drives Me Crazy by Fine Young
1:34
Speaker 1: Cannibals and Why would I play you that specific slice
1:39
Speaker 1: of the raw and the cooked cheese? Could I afford it?
1:43
Speaker 1: Because that was the number one song in America on
1:47
Speaker 1: April twenty first, nineteen eighty nine, and that was the
1:50
Speaker 1: day that Jose Canseco found himself surrounded by police cars,
1:55
Speaker 1: a swap van, and a hovering helicopter on this episode,
2:00
Speaker 1: drug smuggling, swat teams, nightclub brawls, police helicopters. Unapologetically juiced
2:08
Speaker 1: in Jose Canseco, I'm Jake Brennan and this is Disgraceland,
2:42
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty nine, San Francisco. Jose Canseco slammed on the brakes.
2:48
Speaker 1: As he did, the nine millimeter automatic hidden inside the
2:51
Speaker 1: bag on the passenger seat slid out and hit the
2:54
Speaker 1: floor of the car. He didn't have time to worry
2:57
Speaker 1: about that right now, or about the fact that he
2:59
Speaker 1: just parked in a handicapped spot. Polly could think about
3:03
Speaker 1: was getting this fucking cast off his hand. He stepped
3:06
Speaker 1: out of his Candy Apple red Jaguar and slammed the
3:09
Speaker 1: door shut. Minutes later, he was inside the Sports Medicine
3:13
Speaker 1: Center at the University of California, sitting on an exam
3:17
Speaker 1: room table, tapping on that stupid cast and waiting for
3:21
Speaker 1: the doctor. He was anxious, just like he was in
3:24
Speaker 1: the batter's box every time he was about to send
3:27
Speaker 1: the baseball into orbit, farther than anyone else in the
3:30
Speaker 1: Majors could have ever dreamed. He was so anxious, in fact,
3:35
Speaker 1: that his body was beginning to shake. But wait, that
3:40
Speaker 1: wasn't him shaky. That was the walls of the exam room.
3:46
Speaker 1: There was a rumble coming from outside. Through the window,
3:50
Speaker 1: he watched a helicopter pass by. Low. There was a
3:55
Speaker 1: light knock on the door, and the doctor walked in. Finally,
4:00
Speaker 1: how much longer till this plaster comes off and it's
4:02
Speaker 1: back to the field and back to the weight room
4:05
Speaker 1: a few more weeks? Great? We good here. Jose Canseco
4:09
Speaker 1: didn't have time for this. He made his way to
4:12
Speaker 1: the exit, still nervously tapping on the cast. That's when
4:15
Speaker 1: he noticed the sound of the helicopter getting louder. It
4:19
Speaker 1: wasn't just passing by, it was hovering in place, right
4:23
Speaker 1: outside of the building. Jose wanted no part in the
4:27
Speaker 1: circus it was about to happen. It didn't matter what
4:29
Speaker 1: it was. He had no business being anywhere near some
4:33
Speaker 1: batshit news story. Everyone would just want a piece of him,
4:36
Speaker 1: try to rope him in like they always did. He
4:39
Speaker 1: moved fast out of the hospital, hustling now back toward
4:43
Speaker 1: a souped up jag, remembering shit that the gun was
4:46
Speaker 1: still on the floor. Got to pick that up and
4:49
Speaker 1: put it back, but do it quick, because it was
4:52
Speaker 1: time for jose Can Sako to do what he did best,
4:54
Speaker 1: blow off some steam and push the convertible to its
4:57
Speaker 1: living Miami. Two months earlier, the highway patrolman flipped on
5:05
Speaker 1: his lights and sired, and then sunk his foot into
5:07
Speaker 1: the gas pedal. The Porsche wasn't just speeding, it was
5:11
Speaker 1: flying clock doing one hundred and twenty. Now the cop
5:15
Speaker 1: was in hot pursuit, doing everything he could to keep
5:17
Speaker 1: up his patrol card. Gripped the world tight up ahead.
5:21
Speaker 1: Inside the porch, jose Canseco gripped the wheel. He couldn't
5:25
Speaker 1: believe the fuel was working. This shit was supposed to
5:28
Speaker 1: be for airplanes only. Hell, he could have hit two
5:30
Speaker 1: hundred miles per hour if he wanted. The top was
5:33
Speaker 1: down and the wind blew back his hair, bigger, better, faster,
5:39
Speaker 1: mister forty forty here that's forty bases stolen in forty
5:42
Speaker 1: home runs in a single season, fast on the road,
5:46
Speaker 1: fast as anyone in the bigs power to spare MVP.
5:49
Speaker 1: After just three years, he was the best player in
5:53
Speaker 1: Major League Baseball. Jose Canseco was invincible. His oversized muscles rippled,
6:00
Speaker 1: especially when he gripped the wheel of his chariot like
6:02
Speaker 1: a Greek god as he was currently doing muscles he
6:05
Speaker 1: got from using, mind you, legal steroids, well legal in
6:12
Speaker 1: his mind, legal in the sense that Major League Baseball
6:16
Speaker 1: didn't give you more than a slap on the wrists
6:18
Speaker 1: if they found you tested positive for them. Kensecho ignored
6:22
Speaker 1: all that, just like he ignored the jeers of the
6:25
Speaker 1: crowds and opposing stadiums, even the racist ones that attacked
6:29
Speaker 1: his Cuban heritage. He flexed at them when they alleged
6:32
Speaker 1: he was using juice. The Washington Post, for one, claimed
6:36
Speaker 1: in an unsubstantiated piece that it was the juice that
6:39
Speaker 1: made him great. That was bullshit. Steroids didn't make Jose
6:44
Speaker 1: Canseco great. Jose Canseco made Jose Canseco great. What did
6:49
Speaker 1: he care about their opinion of the sanctity of the game,
6:52
Speaker 1: or whatever that was. Anyways, he was sick of opinions,
6:55
Speaker 1: sick of questions, sick of the lack of privacy, of
6:59
Speaker 1: living like what he called to quote unquote zoo animal.
7:02
Speaker 1: He wanted to lose the target on his back. But
7:05
Speaker 1: after the best year of his career in nineteen eighty nine,
7:08
Speaker 1: that target wasn't going anywhere. He tried to ignore it
7:12
Speaker 1: as he gave the people what they really wanted. And
7:14
Speaker 1: what did the people want, not morals, not getting steroids
7:19
Speaker 1: out of baseball. What they wanted was drama, just like
7:24
Speaker 1: the drama out here on this Miami Highway. Those blue
7:27
Speaker 1: lights would never catch him. He was going so fast
7:31
Speaker 1: he barely knew he was even being chased. But Jose
7:34
Speaker 1: Canseco couldn't run forever. Back in the University parking lot
7:41
Speaker 1: in San Francisco, he made a bee line for his car,
7:45
Speaker 1: not the Porsche, but the candy apple red Jaguar, the
7:48
Speaker 1: one parked in the handicapped spot with a loaded gun
7:51
Speaker 1: on the floor. And then Jose Canseco froze. It wasn't
7:56
Speaker 1: just a helicopter hovering overhead. There was a swap van nearby.
8:01
Speaker 1: The place was swarming with cops, all of them closing
8:04
Speaker 1: in on him on his car. There was no outrunning
8:08
Speaker 1: this one. He let them read him his rights and
8:11
Speaker 1: slapped the cuffs on him. Turns out some college kids
8:14
Speaker 1: have been checking out his less than conspicuous whip and
8:17
Speaker 1: spied the gun on the floor inside. They called nine
8:19
Speaker 1: to one one and now this a huge problem. Not
8:24
Speaker 1: just the fact that the piece was loaded, It was
8:26
Speaker 1: unregistered and found on university property. Jose said he carried
8:33
Speaker 1: the gun for protection. It was the same excuse he'd
8:35
Speaker 1: given when a member of his entourage responts now for
8:38
Speaker 1: bringing a piece onto a plane. But the cops didn't
8:41
Speaker 1: give a shit about that. They didn't care about Jose
8:43
Speaker 1: Canseco's busted wrists either, or about what he was going
8:46
Speaker 1: through they warranted his carrying a gun, or about what
8:49
Speaker 1: it was like dealing with fame every day of your life.
8:53
Speaker 1: None of that mattered. Now Jose Canseco wasn't just a target.
8:57
Speaker 1: He was the antagonist of the entire sports world. This
9:01
Speaker 1: wasn't about morals. It was about whether or not he
9:04
Speaker 1: was dangerous or a threat. It was, at least in
9:07
Speaker 1: his mind, all about the authorities making an example out
9:11
Speaker 1: of him and It was, as he would say years later,
9:14
Speaker 1: all about entertainment, about giving the people what they wanted,
9:18
Speaker 1: and in that department, Jose Canseco never disappointed. Nineteen ninety two,
9:51
Speaker 1: Southwest Dade County, Jose Canseco was pissed. He was yelling
9:57
Speaker 1: at his estranged wife Esther, inside a shell Station convenience store.
10:03
Speaker 1: He snatched the purse from her hands and pulled out
10:05
Speaker 1: a pager. The attendant behind the counter just wanted both
10:09
Speaker 1: of them to leave. He didn't necessarily see a famous
10:12
Speaker 1: person doing famous person things. He saw an oversized dude
10:16
Speaker 1: with a mullet in a supermodel who were making him
10:18
Speaker 1: more than a little uncomfortable. But the couple continued to
10:22
Speaker 1: argue this shit was bad for business. The attendant wondered
10:26
Speaker 1: if he should interfere. What was the protocol for trying
10:29
Speaker 1: to mellow out a famous ballplayer who looked like a
10:31
Speaker 1: pro wrestler. Four bucks an hour wasn't worth an inevitable
10:35
Speaker 1: right hook to the face. So he stood by and
10:38
Speaker 1: watched nervously as Jose Conseco scrolled through the pager, asking
10:43
Speaker 1: Esther who the hell she had been talking to and
10:46
Speaker 1: what were all these numbers? It was nothing. She told
10:49
Speaker 1: him he was overreacting, blowing it all out of proportion,
10:52
Speaker 1: like another rocket sent into the stands at the Oakland Coliseum.
10:57
Speaker 1: Conseko seethed. He shoved the purse back into her hand,
11:00
Speaker 1: but there was no way she was getting the pager
11:02
Speaker 1: back fine. Esther just wanted to get out. She turned
11:07
Speaker 1: and headed straight for her white BMW. Jose watched from
11:11
Speaker 1: inside the Shell station as she turned the engine over
11:14
Speaker 1: and then she tore ass out of the Shell parking lot.
11:19
Speaker 1: Jose Canseco and his wife Esther had been trying to
11:22
Speaker 1: fix things for over a year now, and it's not
11:25
Speaker 1: like he was completely free from blame. Though. He had
11:28
Speaker 1: to say that whole thing with Madonna the year prior
11:31
Speaker 1: went down when he and Esther were technically separated. He
11:35
Speaker 1: was young, twenty six, but he knew what he was
11:38
Speaker 1: getting into. That the material girl wanted more than his autograph,
11:43
Speaker 1: that she wanted to have a Cuban baby with a
11:45
Speaker 1: virile Cuban guy, or at least that was the rumor. Regardless,
11:50
Speaker 1: Kenseko accepted her invitation to hang out at her Manhattan apartment,
11:54
Speaker 1: and he brought his agent with him. He figured nothing
11:57
Speaker 1: would happen, which is mostly true. Madonna took him into
12:01
Speaker 1: her bedroom alone, drew the shades, and then she put
12:04
Speaker 1: her new documentary Truth or Dare on the television, specifically
12:09
Speaker 1: the scene where she simulates masturbation on stage while singing
12:12
Speaker 1: like a virgin. Kinseko sat there on the bed, his
12:16
Speaker 1: pulse quickening, his palms sweaty. He turned to look at Madonna,
12:21
Speaker 1: sitting next to him. Well, she asked, what do you think?
12:26
Speaker 1: What did Jose Canseco think? He thought of a lot
12:29
Speaker 1: of things. Most importantly, however, he thought it was time
12:33
Speaker 1: to leave, which it actually was. He had a game
12:36
Speaker 1: in town at seven o five that night, and it
12:38
Speaker 1: was now rush hour. He barely made it to the
12:41
Speaker 1: stadium in time, missed batting practice completely, and was nearly
12:44
Speaker 1: wiped from the roster. The humiliation brought down on him
12:48
Speaker 1: by his manager Tony LaRussa that night was bad, But
12:51
Speaker 1: it wasn't as bad as a few months later. When
12:53
Speaker 1: the Athletics were back in town to play in the Bronx.
12:56
Speaker 1: The Yankees fans were brutal. Where's Madonna, they led at
13:00
Speaker 1: him from the outfield stands. Where's Esther? Where's your piece? Jose?
13:05
Speaker 1: But The worst was that fucking blow up doll they
13:07
Speaker 1: tossed onto the field, fitted with a blonde wag and
13:10
Speaker 1: wearing a T shirt that read I Love Jose. He
13:13
Speaker 1: could hear the entire stadium laughing at him. He saw
13:17
Speaker 1: red just like he was seeing red now, standing inside
13:21
Speaker 1: a twenty four hour shell station, looking at his estranged
13:24
Speaker 1: wife's pager in his hand, one with phone numbers he
13:27
Speaker 1: did not recognize. Seconds later, he was in his red Porsche,
13:32
Speaker 1: chasing after that white BMW, a heat seeking missile intent
13:36
Speaker 1: on inflicting retribution. He moved fast, like he always did,
13:41
Speaker 1: and he came up on Esther's car quickly, too quickly.
13:44
Speaker 1: He slammed on the brakes, but it was too lague.
13:47
Speaker 1: The Porsche went into a skid. A Jose spun the
13:50
Speaker 1: wheel to avoid what was about to happen. But what
13:52
Speaker 1: was about to happen was already in motion, and the
13:55
Speaker 1: Porsche slammed into the side of the BMW, pushing it
13:58
Speaker 1: off the road and the car split in opposite directions.
14:01
Speaker 1: Tires squealed, metal shrieked. Both vehicles came to an ear
14:05
Speaker 1: splitting halt. Adrenaline was pumping through Jose's veins, the same
14:13
Speaker 1: adrenaline that coursed through his body every time he ripped
14:16
Speaker 1: the fastball out of the ballpark. Blue lights were already
14:20
Speaker 1: flickering as he crawled out of his smashed up convertible
14:22
Speaker 1: and staggered toward the wrecked beamer. He reared back and
14:26
Speaker 1: spat across the window, just as a cop caught up
14:28
Speaker 1: to him and carted him off to a jail cell.
14:33
Speaker 1: By nineteen ninety two, jose Canseco wasn't just a one
14:36
Speaker 1: season phenomenon anymore. He was making a living, feasting on
14:40
Speaker 1: every pitcher the big leagues had to offer. He was
14:43
Speaker 1: the best hitter the majors had seen for years, and
14:46
Speaker 1: he sustained his success through his dedication to the craft.
14:50
Speaker 1: Dedication that saw him make multiple All Star Game appearances
14:54
Speaker 1: and earn Most Valuable Player votes every season that he
14:56
Speaker 1: was healthy. He even won a World Series that took
14:59
Speaker 1: place during an earthquake, and jose Canseco was an earthquake.
15:05
Speaker 1: He shook the Very League to its foundations. For six
15:09
Speaker 1: seasons in Oakland, he set the Majors on fire. But
15:13
Speaker 1: then just as quickly as he rocketed to the top,
15:16
Speaker 1: things began to unravel. It didn't start quietly. There was
15:21
Speaker 1: that helicopter assisted swat arrest in San Francisco, the car
15:25
Speaker 1: ramming marital spat that left him in cuffs, a litany
15:28
Speaker 1: of speeding tickets, multiple instances of near fights with fans.
15:32
Speaker 1: He was even traded in the middle of a game.
15:35
Speaker 1: I swear to God, look it up. He was literally
15:37
Speaker 1: told he was being traded while standing in the on
15:40
Speaker 1: deck circle before his second at bat during a game
15:42
Speaker 1: against the Baltimore Orioles. But these were only the things
15:46
Speaker 1: the public could see. Bubbling under the surface was a
15:49
Speaker 1: horrible truth that would not only blacklist Conseco from the
15:52
Speaker 1: game that he loved, but would change the very fabric
15:55
Speaker 1: of Major League Baseball forever. Steroids. Jose Canseco claimed he'd
16:03
Speaker 1: taken them his entire career, initially just to pack on
16:06
Speaker 1: a few extra pounds and build his body up for
16:08
Speaker 1: the long grind of the season. He remembered how terrifying
16:11
Speaker 1: that first injection was, wondering how they would change him,
16:15
Speaker 1: whether they might kill him. But they didn't. In fact,
16:19
Speaker 1: he claimed they didn't do much of anything at all.
16:23
Speaker 1: Did steroids make someone great? No, but they sure did help.
16:28
Speaker 1: They gave you a little extra edge if you were
16:30
Speaker 1: already performing at a high level. They helped with recovery
16:34
Speaker 1: time from injuries, which became more and more important for
16:36
Speaker 1: an injury prone Jose Canseco. And they'd never been explicitly
16:41
Speaker 1: taboo by big league standards. That's what Jose said anyway.
16:46
Speaker 1: He was a self proclaimed godfather of steroids. Guys in
16:49
Speaker 1: the club I was dubbed him the Chemist. The code
16:52
Speaker 1: name Kinseco Milkshake became accepted shorthand for juice. Rumors of
16:57
Speaker 1: him injecting teammates in back rooms and bathroom stalls ran
17:00
Speaker 1: wild throughout the majors. He later claimed the managers knew,
17:05
Speaker 1: the staff knew, and the players, of course knew. Jose
17:08
Speaker 1: Canseco said it was no secret at all. And while
17:12
Speaker 1: Jose Canseco was enjoying a potentially steroid assisted renaissance in
17:16
Speaker 1: the summer of nineteen ninety eight, years after his divorce
17:19
Speaker 1: from Esther was final, his old Oakland A's teammate Mark
17:23
Speaker 1: McGuire was racing yet another alleged steroid user, Sammy Sosa,
17:28
Speaker 1: toured the single season home run record during their time
17:32
Speaker 1: in Oakland. Jose Canseco and Mark McGuire were dubbed the
17:36
Speaker 1: Bash Brothers due to their superhero physiques and trademark celebration.
17:41
Speaker 1: The whole thing was also, as Jose claimed, fueled by
17:44
Speaker 1: steroids for the better half of a decade. Now, Mark
17:48
Speaker 1: McGuire was firmly in the spotlight, while Jose clung to
17:51
Speaker 1: the shadows, and McGuire and Sosa's race had revitalized the sport.
17:57
Speaker 1: People who didn't even watch baseball were paying attention. But Konseko,
18:01
Speaker 1: McGuire and Sosa weren't the only thin waisted, barrel chested
18:05
Speaker 1: tree trunks for arms players swinging bats either. The sustained
18:10
Speaker 1: run of explosive offense in the second half of the
18:12
Speaker 1: nineteen nineties was not random. Jose Canseco knew the truth.
18:17
Speaker 1: He knew it was entertainment manufactured. Entertainment created a trend
18:23
Speaker 1: numbers up, while Jose Canseco's career was trending in the
18:26
Speaker 1: opposite direction. His body was breaking down, and soon that
18:30
Speaker 1: old familiar target once again appeared on his back. As
18:34
Speaker 1: Mark McGuire was being touted as baseball shiny golden icon,
18:38
Speaker 1: Jose Canseco was becoming a pariah, and once again he
18:42
Speaker 1: was made an example, if the game had become dirty,
18:45
Speaker 1: they said it was jose Canseco who infected it, and
18:49
Speaker 1: things were about to get a whole lot worse. Blacklisted
18:53
Speaker 1: behind bars, and soon the focal point of a congressional
18:58
Speaker 1: hearing We'll be right back after this. We're we're We're
19:16
Speaker 1: inside the Opium Garden nightclub. The music vibrated off the walls,
19:21
Speaker 1: strobe lights in every direction. The place was packed capacity,
19:25
Speaker 1: crawling with scantily clad ghules and goblins. All Hallows Eve
19:30
Speaker 1: in Miami had more skin than your standard monster mash,
19:34
Speaker 1: and two tourists were taking it all in a long
19:38
Speaker 1: day rubbing shoulders with doctors and research fellows at a
19:41
Speaker 1: cancer research convention was to be balanced out by a
19:45
Speaker 1: sampling of the Miami nightlife, and the Miami nightlife meant
19:48
Speaker 1: that maybe you got lucky. Maybe a few cocktails had
19:53
Speaker 1: the pair feeling good, real good. Costumed freaks made their
19:58
Speaker 1: way across the dance floor. Some hung off barstools, others
20:02
Speaker 1: slipped into dark corners of the club for a little privacy.
20:05
Speaker 1: The entire scene was one big, intoxicating delight for the eyes.
20:10
Speaker 1: That's when one of the tourist's eyes fell on her
20:13
Speaker 1: The intricate feathered skirt of her native American costume fell
20:17
Speaker 1: softly around her waist, and she moved right toward him.
20:22
Speaker 1: Was this really happening? Nope, She turned and walked past
20:27
Speaker 1: hold On. The tourists reached out and grabbed at her feathers,
20:31
Speaker 1: and maybe that would initiate some small talk. But it
20:35
Speaker 1: didn't initiate small talk. It initiated something else. From the
20:40
Speaker 1: darkness behind the woman appeared two hulking men, two men
20:44
Speaker 1: who were well over six feet tall, dressed as vampires,
20:48
Speaker 1: now lumbering toward the taurus. All the tourists could see
20:51
Speaker 1: were massive arms protruding from sleeveless vests. At the end
20:55
Speaker 1: of those arms were hands bearing long black fingernails. I
21:00
Speaker 1: could tease eyes like an apex predator. What the fuck
21:04
Speaker 1: do you think you're doing, buddy? Before the tourist could
21:08
Speaker 1: even think, fists began to fly. The muscled vampires moved
21:12
Speaker 1: with precision and purpose, practically superhuman and execution. First an
21:17
Speaker 1: open palm punched to the chest with all the force
21:19
Speaker 1: of a locomotive, then a shoved backward, which provided a
21:22
Speaker 1: steady dose of whiplash, and then a blow across the face.
21:27
Speaker 1: The pain was immediate and excruciating, more painful than having
21:31
Speaker 1: every drop of blood sucked from your body by a vampire.
21:34
Speaker 1: But these two guys weren't actually vampires. They were Jose
21:38
Speaker 1: Canseco and his twin brother Ozzy, And like everything else
21:43
Speaker 1: in Jose Canseco's life, the whole thing in the Opium
21:46
Speaker 1: Garden nightclub, having way too fast look his date, the
21:50
Speaker 1: one wearing the Native American ghet up. She got hit on,
21:53
Speaker 1: and Jose took it personally. He rushed in as he
21:56
Speaker 1: always did, and the next thing he knew, he was
21:58
Speaker 1: in handcuffs. Haters were going to say it was roid rage,
22:02
Speaker 1: He just knew it. Either way, the tourist who took
22:05
Speaker 1: the brunt of the beating would end up needing seventeen
22:07
Speaker 1: stitches in his shop. The guy pressed charges. Even after
22:11
Speaker 1: Jose was released from jail later that evening, and even
22:14
Speaker 1: after he went to trial and lost, he maintained that
22:17
Speaker 1: the guy tried to reach up his date skirt and
22:19
Speaker 1: got what was coming to him. He also claimed that
22:22
Speaker 1: his brother did all the pummeling. Jose knew that no
22:25
Speaker 1: matter what actually happened that night, the bloodsuckers would try
22:28
Speaker 1: to milk him dry in court, just like the fans
22:31
Speaker 1: who heckled him endlessly, the tabloids that jumped on every
22:35
Speaker 1: story involving him, and just like the league and the
22:38
Speaker 1: teams that brushed him off because they thought he carried
22:40
Speaker 1: too much baggage. Jose Canseco knew he was an easy
22:44
Speaker 1: target and that was nothing new. What he didn't know
22:48
Speaker 1: was that he had played his final Major League Baseball
22:50
Speaker 1: game just a month prior to that Halloween in two
22:53
Speaker 1: thousand and one. From the judges perspective, Jose Canseco was
22:57
Speaker 1: out of control and he needed to be realed. In
23:01
Speaker 1: the event of the Miami Nightclub earned Jose court mandated
23:04
Speaker 1: anger management courses as well as community service, and he
23:08
Speaker 1: skipped out on both. The next year, he failed to
23:12
Speaker 1: make the Montreal Expos opening day roster, and then another
23:15
Speaker 1: blow when he violated his probation by testing positive for steroids,
23:20
Speaker 1: a test he claimed was a blatant set up by
23:23
Speaker 1: Major League Baseball. He was intentionally busted because the powers
23:26
Speaker 1: that be didn't want him back in the game. At
23:29
Speaker 1: least in his mind, that's what happened, and that probation
23:32
Speaker 1: violation was just another part of a downward spiral that
23:35
Speaker 1: bottomed out in two thousand and three with a stint
23:38
Speaker 1: in Broward County jail. His defense said the failed drug
23:41
Speaker 1: test was a medical issue, that he was addicted to steroids. Addicted.
23:47
Speaker 1: There was no sympathy for the so called godfather of steroids.
23:52
Speaker 1: Jose Canseco received a two month sentence. This was in
23:56
Speaker 1: two thousand and three, and if two thousand and three
23:59
Speaker 1: was the floor, then two thousand and four was the
24:02
Speaker 1: sub basement. Jose Canseco attended an open tryout for the
24:06
Speaker 1: LA Dodgers and was offered nothing. He knew he could
24:09
Speaker 1: still play and contribute to a big league ball club,
24:12
Speaker 1: but now he couldn't even get on a roster boxed
24:15
Speaker 1: out by the league. That made him or maybe he
24:18
Speaker 1: was simply a thirty six year old with a body
24:20
Speaker 1: that was constantly breaking down. Regardless, he was pissed why
24:25
Speaker 1: because he was only doing what eighty five percent of
24:28
Speaker 1: the league was also doing. Everyone was on steroids. It
24:32
Speaker 1: helped with recovery time. It made the game more exciting,
24:35
Speaker 1: and that's what the league wanted, right. Better TV ratings,
24:38
Speaker 1: better ticket sales, better entertainment. Steroids helped make all that happen.
24:44
Speaker 1: And as the Los Angeles reporters swarmed Jose Canseco after
24:47
Speaker 1: his Dodgers trial asking questions about his ability to pass
24:50
Speaker 1: a drug test, about how many players might be fellow users,
24:54
Speaker 1: he had only one response. Read the book. The book
25:01
Speaker 1: Juiced Wild, Times, Rampant Roids, Smash Hits and How Baseball
25:06
Speaker 1: Got Big was released to great interest in two thousand
25:10
Speaker 1: and five. The autobiography followed Jose Canseco's rise from just
25:14
Speaker 1: another kid in Cuba to a certified megastar in professional sports,
25:19
Speaker 1: and it covered a wide swath of his personal life.
25:23
Speaker 1: It lives up to the hype of a celebrity pened account,
25:25
Speaker 1: with the scales heavily tipped, of course, toward Jose himself.
25:30
Speaker 1: Most importantly, the book revealed the truth about steroids, first
25:35
Speaker 1: all about how they could actually improve the game if
25:37
Speaker 1: used correctly, and second all about the players Jose said
25:41
Speaker 1: were taking them names. This book wasn't just a vehicle
25:46
Speaker 1: to share a vision of super athletes spelting dingers and
25:49
Speaker 1: creating a breakneck pace of offense. It was a means
25:52
Speaker 1: for Jose Canseco to get even with the league that
25:55
Speaker 1: he'd given seventeen years of his life to and that
25:57
Speaker 1: he now felt was giving him nothing. He called out
26:01
Speaker 1: star players including Mark McGuire, Rafael Palmo, Jason Giambi, Sammy Sosa,
26:07
Speaker 1: and Yvonne Rodriguez. He claimed the MLB was dirty and
26:12
Speaker 1: had been for a long time. People bought the book
26:15
Speaker 1: and now they were asking questions, what if Jose Kenseko
26:18
Speaker 1: was actually telling the truth. A month later, he found
26:23
Speaker 1: himself center stage at a congressional hearing broadcast live by
26:26
Speaker 1: c SPAN. He sat apart from his former colleagues McGuire, Palmeo, Sosa,
26:32
Speaker 1: Kurt Shilling. They all denounced steroids and claimed there was
26:36
Speaker 1: no place in the game for them. The first three
26:39
Speaker 1: denied Konseko's accusations that they were culpable, which meant that
26:43
Speaker 1: Jose Canseco was lying. But months later, Rafael Palmaro tested
26:49
Speaker 1: positive for performance enhancing drugs. He said it was a
26:53
Speaker 1: B twelve supplement, but was nevertheless suspended. Two thousand and
26:56
Speaker 1: five would be his final season. Four years later, in
27:00
Speaker 1: two thousand and nine, the MLB revealed a list of
27:03
Speaker 1: players who had tested positive for steroids in two thousand
27:06
Speaker 1: and three and Sammy Sosa was on that list. In
27:10
Speaker 1: twenty ten, Mark maguire admitted using steroids during his playing
27:14
Speaker 1: days in years after he was dragged through the mud
27:18
Speaker 1: in front of the entire world. It seemed Jose Canseco
27:21
Speaker 1: was getting some vindication, but before that could happen, there
27:25
Speaker 1: was still the specter of the juice that haunted him.
27:29
Speaker 1: He couldn't escape it. It was a constant source of
27:32
Speaker 1: questioning during his playing days, and it was a scandal
27:36
Speaker 1: just after Jose Canseco became synonymous with the stuff, and
27:41
Speaker 1: it soon became clear just how much the drug had
27:44
Speaker 1: consumed his life. Two thousand and eight, San Diego, Jose
28:15
Speaker 1: Canseco tapped the steering wheel of his BMW. His eyes twitched.
28:21
Speaker 1: He was as high, strong as he'd never been in
28:22
Speaker 1: the batter's box, ready to turn on a ninety five
28:25
Speaker 1: mile per hour heater and go yard. But this anticipation
28:28
Speaker 1: had nothing to do with hitting a baseball. The anxiety
28:32
Speaker 1: that was starting to set in was a direct result
28:34
Speaker 1: of the agents combing through the other cars around him,
28:38
Speaker 1: their trained dog searching for the slightest stench of something illegal.
28:42
Speaker 1: Just a few years removed from his latest legal entaglement,
28:45
Speaker 1: Jose Canseco couldn't afford another bust. He leaned his foot
28:50
Speaker 1: on the gas as the car in front of him
28:51
Speaker 1: rolled on, grimacing in pain as he did so. His
28:55
Speaker 1: knee was killing him. He couldn't wait to get past
28:58
Speaker 1: the inspection booth over the border back into the States.
29:02
Speaker 1: He also couldn't wait to get the contents of those
29:05
Speaker 1: vials he had tucked safely away in his car into
29:07
Speaker 1: his body, thus delivering some much needed sweet relief. The
29:13
Speaker 1: jelly'd been using did absolutely nothing for him. He had
29:16
Speaker 1: enough experience with chemicals to know that this new shit
29:19
Speaker 1: would mellow out the pain, and not just in his
29:21
Speaker 1: knee either, because Jose Canseco was bruised and battered in
29:26
Speaker 1: more waste than one. By this point in two thousand
29:31
Speaker 1: and eight, taxes and divorce proceedings had carved out such
29:34
Speaker 1: a large chunk of his finances that he'd had to
29:36
Speaker 1: foreclothes on his house earlier in the year. In March
29:40
Speaker 1: of that same year, his assault on the MLB continued
29:43
Speaker 1: with a second book, calling out even more superstars Alex Rodriguez, Maglio, Ordonias,
29:50
Speaker 1: Roger Clemens. All that got him was further alienation from
29:53
Speaker 1: the men he'd once shared the field with. In May,
29:57
Speaker 1: he challenged a former NFL player, foot nine Vi Sikahema
30:01
Speaker 1: to a fight, and Vi came in hot with a
30:04
Speaker 1: left hook that put Konseco on his ass, and as
30:07
Speaker 1: soon as Konseco got back up, Vi went at him again,
30:09
Speaker 1: his two fists like a flesh tornado, and Konseko was
30:12
Speaker 1: knocked out in the first round. And in October, A
30:17
Speaker 1: and E released a documentary detailing jose Canseco's struggles to
30:20
Speaker 1: get off steroids, at which he showed remorse for the
30:23
Speaker 1: way he'd exposed fellow players. Revenge didn't wind up happening
30:28
Speaker 1: the way jose Canseco imagined it would. The only revenge
30:31
Speaker 1: that was successfully carried out was by the juice. Twenty
30:35
Speaker 1: years of steroid use had ravaged jose Canseco's body, a
30:39
Speaker 1: body that wasn't producing testosterone anymore. Pile that problem on
30:44
Speaker 1: top of the mountain a shitt he was dealing with
30:45
Speaker 1: in an all amounted to just a deeper and deeper depression.
30:49
Speaker 1: He needed proper chemical intervention. Whether he knew it or not.
30:53
Speaker 1: That kind of thing was illegal without a prescription, and
30:56
Speaker 1: a prescription from a proper doctor would take forever. SI.
31:00
Speaker 1: Who the hell was going to give Jose Canseco a
31:03
Speaker 1: script for steroids. He didn't have time to wait. He
31:07
Speaker 1: had to get right, so he had to go international.
31:11
Speaker 1: And the laws in Mexico are, let's just say a
31:14
Speaker 1: little more relaxed when it comes to drugs, specifically fertility drugs,
31:19
Speaker 1: and that's what Jose Canseka was looking for. Human choreonic gandodotripin.
31:24
Speaker 1: Did I say that correctly? I'm not even sure. It's
31:27
Speaker 1: typically used to help produce progesterone during pregnancy, but it
31:31
Speaker 1: also helps increase testosterone, which is what Jose needed. It
31:36
Speaker 1: was available at a pharmacy just over the border in Tijuana.
31:39
Speaker 1: Within a few hours, Jose hit the pharmacy and he
31:42
Speaker 1: was on his way back north with six vials of
31:44
Speaker 1: Sweet Salvation in his whip and at the inspection booth,
31:48
Speaker 1: he threw his car into park and handed over his license.
31:52
Speaker 1: The border patrol officers smile widened. He looked at the
31:55
Speaker 1: picture and then back at the giant man in the BMW,
32:00
Speaker 1: Jose Canseco. The officer told Jose to step out of
32:05
Speaker 1: the vehicle, and then the US Border patrol went to
32:08
Speaker 1: work for Jose. This was a devastating swing and miss.
32:16
Speaker 1: After finding the vials of hCG, a Schedule three drug
32:19
Speaker 1: banned by the World Anti Doping Agency and without proper prescription,
32:23
Speaker 1: no less, the officers placed Jose Entertainment. He sat there
32:28
Speaker 1: for nearly ten hours negotiating his next steps, and was
32:32
Speaker 1: only released when he signed a waiver allowing ICE agents
32:35
Speaker 1: to search his LA home. It was hard not to
32:39
Speaker 1: feel like a target. It was hard not to be
32:42
Speaker 1: bitter and angry that he was being persecuted for transporting
32:45
Speaker 1: what his lawyer would later call an incredibly harmless drug
32:49
Speaker 1: that was intended only for personal use. Jose Canseco was
32:53
Speaker 1: out of options. He pleaded guilty. Another court appearance, another probation,
33:00
Speaker 1: another headline. The hall of fame career that Jose Canseco
33:03
Speaker 1: had once approached on the Diamond was matched by a
33:06
Speaker 1: hall of shame career off of it. In the years
33:09
Speaker 1: since the bust, he continued his celebrity boxing career, tried
33:13
Speaker 1: his hand at MMA, appeared on Celebrity Apprentice, played his
33:18
Speaker 1: way onto various minor league baseball rosters, petitioned for jobs
33:22
Speaker 1: in the big leagues, on Twitter and was banned by
33:25
Speaker 1: a Mexican league for refusing to take a drug test.
33:28
Speaker 1: He made public displays of apology to his former Bash brother,
33:31
Speaker 1: Mark Maguire, wrote columns for Vice magazine and eventually opened
33:36
Speaker 1: a car wash in Las Vegas, where he still signs
33:39
Speaker 1: autographs on Wednesdays. Jose Canseco doesn't know how to be
33:44
Speaker 1: anyone but jose Canseco. He can't slow down, always taking
33:49
Speaker 1: a lead that's way too big, always running early, always
33:53
Speaker 1: daring people to pick him off, to throw them out.
33:57
Speaker 1: And if they get him once, well that's why you
33:59
Speaker 1: play nine, isn't it. They get a shot at redemption
34:02
Speaker 1: before you leave the game. Total disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan
34:10
Speaker 1: and this is Disgraceland. Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly
34:27
Speaker 1: and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for
34:30
Speaker 1: this episode can be found on the show notes page
34:32
Speaker 1: at disgracelampod dot com. If you're listening as a Disgraceland
34:36
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35:19
Speaker 1: He've a bed down man,