Jose Canseco was sitting in the green room at Barnes & Noble in midtown Manhattan a little after noon yesterday, waiting for his book signing to begin, when store security brought him the business cards of two men.
To Canseco’s surprise, the cards belonged to two members of Major League Baseball’s department of investigations.
Canseco told security to allow the men in and then had a 15-minute meeting with the investigators, who asked for Canseco’s cooperation in their quest for information about steroid use in baseball.
“I was really shocked,” said Canseco, who signed his new book “Vindicated” for about 200 fans yesterday at the store. “I’m still trying to get over it.”
MLB and Canseco have not been on friendly terms for most of the last decade. Canseco said he believes he was blackballed from the game and has made his disdain for Bud Selig known. MLB, in turn, dismissed Canseco as bitter, at best, and delusional, at worst, when he wrote his first book “Juiced.”
MLB declined to comment on yesterday’s decision to contact Canseco. The two senior investigators, Victor A Burgos and Edurado Dominguez, traveled a few blocks from their Park Avenue office to see Canseco.
A baseball source said yesterday they wanted to open a line of communication with Canseco.
“His exact words were, ‘Why now?’ ” said Canseco’s lawyer, Robert Saunooke, who attended the meeting. “Why not three years ago, why now? They agreed 100 percent. The point is well-taken and we told them once the book tour is over we will be more than happy to talk with them and see what, if anything, we can do, and whatever we can do to help.”
The timing may seem a bit late, but the Dept. of Investigations was just established in January in response to the Mitchell Report, which was released Dec. 13.
“I don’t really know what to make of it,” Canseco said. “I don’t know what their motives are. I’m definitely willing to help them out as much as possible and we’ll see how it turns out.
“Maybe they are trying everything possible to clean up the sport and maybe I can help them in any way possible. I don’t know. It’s kind of strange. It was a shocker to me.”
Yesterday’s visit is the first acknowledgement by baseball that Canseco possibly could have valid information.
Said Canseco: “We were joking – the next commissioner of baseball, Jose Canseco. Who knows? Stranger things have happened in my life.”