Joseph Dion, currently a Miami-based personal trainer, told two Sports Illustrated reporters that he was the individual identified as “Max” in Jose Canseco’s book Vindicated. Canseco claimed that Max was a steroid dealer who provided baseball player Alex Rodriguez with steroids.
Dion has refuted Canseco’s claims and told Sports Illustrated that he is completely anti-steroid (”The man behind the Max,” April 18).
“That’s really, really funny because I am the one person that hates steroids,” Dion said. “I’m against it 100 percent. And, A-Rod, at the time that I trained him — and this I swear to God — was 100 percent against steroids. He was one of the hardest working guys, and most natural guy, that I’ve met in my life. He hated steroids. We talked about it.”
It remains to be seen how this latest revelation will affect the steroid witch hunt in baseball. Federal investigators are scheduled to meet with Jose Canseco on Tuesday to discuss steroids in baseball; investigators are expected to ask Canseco about Joseph Dion, Alex Rodriguez, Roger Clemens, and other Major League Baseball players.
When he meets with investigators on Tuesday, he could be in a vulnerable position, said Daniel C. Richman, a professor of law at Columbia University and a former federal prosecutor.
“It sounds like the government is looking at Canseco as just a witness,” Richman said. “But a witness who proves uncooperative can easily turn into a subject or even a target if the government wants to push hard. And the range of statements that Canseco has already made in his book and to Congress will make it easier for investigators to pin him down, forcing him to either reaffirm past claims or explicitly deny them. He has far less wiggle room than witnesses who can fairly claim not to remember.”
In the case of Canseco, federal authorities are hoping that his unapologetic use of steroids will lead them not only to Max, but to other suppliers, according to the lawyer familiar with the case, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Canseco’s lawyer, Greg S. Emerson, plans to ask federal authorities for immunity so that Canseco does not risk incriminating himself. If a grand jury convenes in the Roger Clemens’ perjury case, Canseco may be subpoenaed to testify under oath.
“We trusted each other, we played a lot of golf together,” Canseco said. “His family knew my family. His wife and my wife at the time talked a lot and we shared private information, and, yeah, we kind of jested and joked about using steroids, but I never injected him, never supplied him, never saw anyone give him steroids and he never tried to acquire steroids from me. And I would try to actually give him information about myself, but he never seemed like he used it at all.”
Canseco then goes on to tell about the wonderful comraderie and high morality in Major League Baseball by explaining how Alex Rodriguez may have slept with his wife at the time.
“I started realizing that he somehow acquired her beeper number and her phone number and started calling her,” Canseco said. “I definitely believe and I know that something happened after that … “
“But you said, ‘You believe and you know,’ so which is it?”‘ Letterman asked. “You know for a fact or you believe something happened?”
“I know for a fact, but I think my ex-wife Jessica could answer that better,” he said. “You should probably have her on the show.”
Canseco re-visits Rafael Palmeiro’s testimony before Congress; Canseco believes there was a conspiracy between Rafael Palmeiro and Major League Baseball to cover up and suppress Palmeiro’s positive steroid test result in order to allow Palmeiro to credibly testify against Canseco before Congress. Watch the video at the Late Show with David Letterman website.
Jose Caseco is writing “Vindicated,” a new book about anabolic steroids in baseball. It is the sequel to the bestselling book “Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ’Roids, Smash Hits and How Baseball Got Big” that ignited the steroids in baseball scandal. It has sorta become a historical document in baseball for its role in baseball’s steroid scandal. Canseco claims he will include information about additional baseball players, such as Alex Rodriguez and likely Roger Clemens, not included in his original expose of steroid use. Canseco identified several professional baseball players as users of anabolic steroids in Juiced including Mark McGwire, Jason Giambi, Rafael Palmeiro, Iván Rodríguez, and Juan González.
The new steroid book, scheduled to be released on Opening Day of the Major League Baseball season, was originally to be co-authored by former Sports Illustrated reporter Don Yaeger. He was the ghostwriter for Canseco’s Juiced. After Yaeger took a look at Canseco’s materials, he quit the project telling the NY Daily News:
I’m passing… I had a chance to review the Jose Canseco (material) that he provided me. I don’t think there’s a book there. I don’t know what they’re going to do. I don’t think he’s got what he claims to have, certainly doesn’t have what he claims to have on A-Rod… There’s no meat on the bones.
Officially, the publisher has diplomatically cited “editorial delays” as the reason for not publishing the book.
By mutual agreement with José Canseco, we have decided not to publish his book ‘Vindicated…’ After much consideration, we have agreed to part ways due to editorial delays that made it impossible to maintain our original publishing schedule.
So, Jose Canseco has been forced to changed publishers and find a new ghostwriter selecting Pablo F. Fenjves, a former National Enquirer writer; Fenjves was the ghostwriter for O.J. Simpson’s book outlining how he would have killed Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman.
. Canseco says that baseball player Alex Rodriguez received steroids from “Max” (”
