In the annals of Major League Baseball's steroids legend, much has been made of the books of former player and current professional scumbag Jose Canseco. Those books -- the first, Juiced, especially so -- managed to blow the lid off of MLB's as-yet-quiet performance-enhancing drugs story. They also managed to make Jose Canseco look like a terrible person. One imagines it will be much the same with steroid dealer Kirk Radomski's tome, "Bases Loaded" -- the titles of steroids books are not renowned for their subtlety -- which comes out next week on Hudson Street Press. The New York Times was given a copy of the book to review for a story today (what, no copy for FanHouse?) and Times sportswriter Michael S. Schmidt summarizes the book nicely, preventing either you or I from having to actually buy and read something written by a creepy steroids dealer. Win-win:
The 256-page book does not appear to make any startling assertions about drug use in baseball. It spends a considerable amount of time describing how Radomski, a onetime Mets bat boy, became a key figure in baseball's steroids era. In one of the more interesting passages, Radomski described how he first encountered the federal agent Jeff Novitzky. On an early morning in December 2005, Radomski opened the front door of his Long Island home while in his underwear and found Novitzky standing there, holding a search warrant.Ah, yes. The life and times of Kirk Radomski. That's exactly what I want to read.
Still, there is one passage that will attract attention: Radomski asserts that MLB investigator, Senator George Mitchell, prompted him on certain names. Mitchell denies this. I have absolutely no idea who to believe, which, given Radomski's record, is probably not a check in Mitchell's favor. Anyway, don't buy the book. Now you know everything. Don't you feel more educated?
