Jose Canseco is mad as hell, and he’s not going to take it anymore.
The 1988 American League MVP aired his grievances Thursday on Twitter following the announcement that Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz has been elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year on the ballot.
“If ortiz is in the hall of fame so should the other guys who use PED,s again MLB screws it up again talk about hypocrisy”
OK, a few things to unpack here:
1. Canseco was a self-admitted PED user during his 17-year MLB career. So was his tweet some sort of self-serving message trying to restore his credibility?
2. Ortiz only tested positive for PEDs once, and it came before MLB had a policy in place. Once testing went mainstream in baseball, Ortiz tested clean every time for more than a decade.
3. Canseco presumably is talking about Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens as the other PED users. Both fell off the Hall of Fame ballot after going 10 straight years without reaching the 75% threshold needed for induction. This year, Bonds was named on 66% of ballots, Clemens 65.2%.
4. The only players on the Hall of Fame ballot who were actually suspended for PED use are Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramirez. Rodriguez, in his first year of eligibility, was named on 34.3% of ballots. Ramirez was named on 28.9% of ballots.
Canseco, a six-time All-Star, juiced his way to 462 career home runs. He picked up a World Series ring with the New York Yankees in 2000, hitting six home runs in 37 games.
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Mike Rosenstein may be reached at mrosenstein@njadvancemedia.com.
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