With the 2017 baseball Hall of Fame announcement set for Wednesday, Jose Canseco took to Twitter to share his reaction.
Back in 2005, Jose Canseco effectively blew the lid off steroid use in baseball with his book Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids and How Baseball Got Big. He named names throughout the book, including his own, and suggested he was something of a pioneer for performance-enhancing drug use.
Canseco also wrote a sequel, titled Vindicated, which was released in 2008, with more former teammates named as steroid users.
Canseco quickly fell off the baseball Hall of Fame ballot, after getting just 1.1 percent of the vote in 2007. But ahead of Wednesday’s announcement of the 2017 class, and the renewed debate about known and suspected performance-enhancing drug users, Canseco has taken to Twitter to offer some thoughts.
The Hall of Fame voters have no idea what they're talking about they need me on the panel to explain the ped era. What are they afraid of
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) January 18, 2017
I could easily clean up the Hall of Fame voting system if they would just contact me what are they afraid of the truth
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) January 18, 2017
These so-called Hall of Fame voters need me to educate them on the the ped era and how to figure out the voting by inside information
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) January 18, 2017
There's going to be more drug users in Cooperstown then The YArd at San Queintin
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) January 18, 2017
Former MLB commissioner Bud Selig is going into Cooperstown this year, in his first year of eligibility via the oddly (or appropriately?) labeled Today’s Game Era Committee. The so-called “Steroid Era” was the most prominent feature of his tenure as commissioner, and Canseco offered a thought about Selig, too (NSFW):
bud selig gets an honorary needle in the ass as the leader of the ped era. Put that on his plaque
— Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) January 18, 2017
Next: MLB 2017: One prediction for each team
Canseco’s 462 career home runs, two World Series titles and status as the first 40-40 player in MLB history (42 home runs, 40 stolen bases in 1988) would be enough to make him a Hall of Famer. But he made himself the poster boy for an era that’s considered a black mark on the game, and his eligibility for Cooperstown came and went before a different view on players from that era could arrive.