Canseco Suspected Clemens, Bonds, Sosa

In a book in which he claims to have witnessed and assisted players such as Mark McGwire and Jason Giambi inject steroids, Jose Canseco also writes that he suspected Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Miguel Tejada and Bret Boone, among others, of using steroids.

Canseco bases some of his allegations on what he describes as private conversations and observations during his 17-year career. He says he personally injected Wilson Alvarez and Dave Martinez when all three played for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, and that pitcher Tony Saunders, attempting a comeback with Baltimore after twice breaking his arm, also apparently used steroids. Alvarez pitched the last two seasons for the Dodgers, with whom he signed a two-year, $4-million contract this off-season. A Dodger spokesman declined to comment.

In “Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits and How Baseball Got Big,” Canseco admits his own steroid use and accuses some of the biggest names in baseball, including former Texas Ranger teammates Juan Gonzalez, Rafael Palmeiro and Ivan Rodriguez, of the same.

He says he believed Clemens had taken steroids because he showed “classic signs” of the drug’s effects, among them late-career success. Clemens, 42, won his seventh Cy Young Award last season.

Canseco writes that he had not seen Clemens, Bonds, Sosa, Tejada or Boone take steroids, and none told him they had. He says he had conversations with Tejada about steroids and that Boone, when asked about steroids by Canseco, replied, “Shhh, don’t tell anybody.” When Sosa appeared to become larger in the late ‘90s, Canseco says he came to believe Sosa was aided by performance-enhancing drugs.

Randy Hendricks, Clemens’ agent, told New York Newsday in an e-mail, “Roger says it is all nonsense. Roger takes vitamin B-12 shots, took them last year, has passed every test, will take them this year, and will pass every test. Roger says the fact that he and Jose talked about something does not mean he ever said he [Clemens] took anything. It is just preposterous for Canseco to say/write this.”

Of Bonds, Canseco writes, “The simple fact is Barry Bonds was taking steroids,” basing it in part on Bonds’ grand jury testimony in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative investigation.

Other than Canseco, Giambi has come closest to publicly admitting steroid use and reportedly told the BALCO grand jury he did, though on Thursday he called Canseco “desperate ... to make a dime.”

McGwire, Palmeiro, Gonzalez and Rodriguez have denied Canseco’s allegations. Sosa has denied taking steroids. Bonds has said he never knowingly took steroids.