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The Vindicated Excerpts About Alex Rodriguez

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GROUND RULE DOUBLE TEAM? A-Rod, Jose (Photo: Getty Images)
Vindicated, cheesy former MLB slugger Jose Canseco's follow-up to his 2005 best-seller Juiced, doesn't come out till next week, but Deadspin has already landed its grubby paws on the most controversial bits, wherein Canseco dishes about New York Yankee third baseman Alex Rodriguez's alleged steroid use and attempts to sleep with Canseco's wife.

The story isn't exactly what you'd call rock solid. According to Canseco, the "skinny, talented" A-Rod came over to his Florida house for gym sessions in the late '90s; the creepy comments about Canseco's wife came almost immediately: "Man, your wife is the most beautiful woman I've ever seen!" A-Rod eventually started visiting the Canseco household more frequently—"partly to work out, and party to stare at my wife," notes Canseco—until one day A-Rod bluntly asks him, "The 'roids: Do they fuck you up?"

Canseco presumably answers no, and goes on to introduce A-Rod to his personal trainer, a "known steroid supplier" he calls Max. Max and A-Rod start training together, and the next time Canseco sees A-Rod he mentions that he's "looking pretty buff." A-Rod shows his gratitude to his mentor by calling Canseco's wife's cellphone to hit on her again, though nothing ever comes of it.

While the stuff about A-Rod and Canseco's wife isn't all that unbelievable—he's nicknamed "Stray-Rod" for a reason—the story does have one glaring weakness: Canseco never actually saw A-Rod take performance enhancing drugs. For that matter, he never even asked the trainer about his regimen with A-Rod. Still, he remains convinced: "I may not have seen him do the deed, but I set the whole thing up for him, just like he wanted. I saw the changes in his body in a short time. Hell, if you ask me, I did everything but inject the guy myself." (To this end, Canseco rather comically includes the results of a lie detector test, though that obviously doesn't really prove anything.)

We don't really see anything coming of this unless "Max" comes forward to either corroborate or deny Canseco's account. A-Rod, for his part, has wisely declined to address Canseco's accusation head-on, saying only, "I really have absolutely no reaction."

By Neel Shah   03/26/08 3:15 PM
Related: Alex Rodriguez, Beef of the Week, Jose Canseco, Scandal
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