Canseco calls MLB "mafia"

07-04-06

CHICO, Calif. — Jose Canseco wrote the book that helped persuade baseball to toughen its steroids policy, and he insists there's much more damaging information to come.

"I think what we're seeing is just the tip of the iceberg," Canseco said Monday before he took the field for the first time with the San Diego Surf Dawgs in the independent Golden Baseball League. "I know for a fact that's what we're seeing."

Canseco called Major League Baseball "the mafia" for the way it has handled the game's steroids scandal and suggested that the sport will discipline only certain players and might even hide the truth when it comes to big-name stars and positive tests. He plans to fight baseball to bring out the truth.

"They're mafia, point blank, they're mafia," Canseco said. "I don't think Major League Baseball is enthused about finding out the truth. There needs to be a major cleanup in Major League Baseball. I think they are treading on very thin ice, and [commissioner] Bud Selig has to be very careful what he's doing because his job is on the line."

In March 2005, Canseco testified before the House Government Reform committee that he used performance-enhancing drugs as a player.

He also said Monday that New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez told him after Dan Marino's Pro-Am golf tournament about six years ago that Canseco was being "blackballed" by baseball.

"I challenge him in a polygraph test to say no," Canseco said. Canseco is working on a movie and two more books, saying he intends to "rectify" his tarnished image.

"The movie is going to be devastating, no ifs and buts about it," he said.

Canseco said he will meet with former Sen. George Mitchell, the former Senate majority leader appointed in March by Selig to head the sport's investigation into steroids.