Jose Canseco's interesting threat

The Los Angeles Times caught up with Encino resident and former Oakland A's star Jose Canseco this week and interviewed him about Major League Baseball's steroid investigation, headed by former U.S. Senator George Mitchell.

Canseco told Times staff writer Bill Shaikin that "nothing positive" will result from the investigation. "I think [Baseball Commissioner] Bud Selig has to be very careful what rocks he overturns," Canseco said. "The players, right now, are trying to help Major League Baseball clean up the game. If Major League Baseball pushes too much, the players will talk against Major League Baseball. And that's when Major League Baseball is going to go down."

Canseco said Bud Selig "is treading on very thin ice."

Hmmmm. The players will talk against Major League Baseball and baseball will go down. That's an interesting threat. What could he mean? More about steroids? Gambling? Tax fraud? What is it that the players know and the fine journalists who cover baseball haven't yet found out?

This is especially interesting given that the Major League Baseball Players Association is currently negotiating a new labor agreement with the owners, and if a new contract is not in place by August 1, the players' union has the right to call off the new drug-testing policy. House Government Reform Committee chairman Tom Davis has already written to Commissioner Bud Selig, threatening to revive steroid-testing legislation if baseball reverts to its earlier, weaker regime of drug tests.

Actually, the last thing the lawmakers want to do is revive that legislation. To find out why, read the earlier post, "Barry Bonds' big asterisk."

Even if the threat of steroid legislation is toothless, baseball owners can't be happy at the prospect of televised scrutiny from politicians in the middle of a re-election campaign.

It sounds like the players have enough leverage to get the contract they want without a strike. That's good news for the Republicans. The last time there was a baseball strike, the "angry white male" vote threw the incumbents out of Congress. When there's nothing to read in the sports pages, people read the front page, which is enough to get anybody angry.

Incidentally, Barry Bonds was asked last week if he has been contacted by anyone from Senator Mitchell's investigation, and he said no.

Jose Canseco also said he hasn't been contacted by Senator Mitchell or anyone from his investigation, which shouldn't surprise anybody. The former Senate Majority Leader is not the guy you call if you want to know what happened. He's the guy you call if you know what happened and you don't want anybody else to find out.

If you want to know what happened, the guy to hire is Mark Fuhrman. Be sure to give him Jose Canseco's phone number.


Copyright 2006

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