Book Review #13: Vindicated

Vindicated: Big Names, Big Liars and the Battle to Save Baseball (2008)

I really didn't have a desire to read this because based on his ego from his first book Juiced and the title of his follow up Vindicated, I knew what was in store. Sure enough, Jose Canseco's ego is out of control. I don't know who has a bigger ego, Gene Simmons or this meathead. I will let Gene slide since he can actually back up his achievements. Jose, not so much. How can you really take this guy serious when he says that "Cal Ripkin has played for a thousand years, but does he have more home runs than me?" 

Dude. Stop embarrassing yourself. Comparing yourself and saying your better than Ripkin is just asinine on your part.

I do believe that Canseco should have called this book "Nah nah nah nah, I was right and you were wrong, so you can go fuck yourself for doubting me". This pretty much sums up the entire book in a nutshell. The reason why this book exist is obviously to cash in on the first one by also promising to name even more players here: Roger Clemens and A-Rod. 

These two guys are the only reason why this book was eventually turned into a book. The rest of Vindicated is a rehash of Juiced and stroking his ego ad nauseum. The book was a pretty fast read, but not very entertaining though. If you want a drinking game while reading this one, then I have a drinking game just for you. Every time Jose mentions his achievements in baseball regarding his 40-40 club, down a shot of hard whiskey. By the end of Chapter 4, you will be fucked up. By the end of the book, you will be dead if you continue playing this game and drinking.

About 3/4th of this book is a waste because he literally uses whatever means necessary to pad the book to make it appear bigger than it really is. Reprinting his congressional speech word for word or both his lie detector test and a good chunk of the Mitchel Report is not what I call good writing. It's a cop out if anything.

And the Epilogue at the end is another wasted chapter to add more pages to fill in for the fact that after the Roger Clemens and A-Rod chapters, there is no need for the book. Here's what you get in the Epilogue. You get to hear what Jose does now days. He likes to bowl. He likes to ride his motorcycles. He likes to play poker. And if that isn't enough, he launches into the virtues of playing poker. Oh brother.

I'm being very generous giving this book 2 stars, one for each Chapter on Clemens and A-Rod. I absolutely do not recommend this book.

Rating: 2 Stars out of 5

Review by Chiprocks1

Book Review #6: Juiced

Juiced (2005)

Taking a break from reading music related books and changing gears a bit to read about another passion of mine....Baseball.

Before I dive head first into reviewing this book, I have to prefaced it by saying that I am a huge fan of Baseball. So back in the day when this cat Jose Canseco exploded onto the Baseball stage, I, along with everyone else, saw the ungodly things he was doing to a baseball.

I can't say that I was ever a fan of his as a player or a celebrity personality. But he definitely couldn't be ignored with what he was doing at the time. So, that brings us to his book...

...Juiced. I never really felt the need to read the book. Everything has pretty much been laid out there by news media for all who are fans of Baseball or sports in general. But I decided to go ahead and give this book a shot at long last and see what all the hype surrounding it was. Good and bad.

Having just finished reading the book yesterday, my immediate thoughts were that this was a really fast read. I blew through it in just a day and a half. I couldn't put the book down. Does this mean that the book itself was that good? No. It was a page turner because it reads like that of a gossip magazine when dropping names of some of the biggest stars in the sport that didn't think twice about shooting up to give themselves an unfair advantage over those that chose not to do steroids.

The other thing that came across my mind at the end of the book was in how funny it was. Unintentional of course. I couldn't stop laughing at the man's stupidity and ignorance about steroids and himself. I knew he had an ego. What I didn't know was just how inflated his ego was *insert steroid joke here*.

Hearing him talk about what a stud he was/is and how awesome he is and how all the women want him was just a bit too much to take. I love how he says that he rejected Madonna. Uh huh. Okay, bub. Sure you did. I found it very humorous in that Jose was pissed that MLB, i.e. the commissioner didn't approach him specifically. Had he done so, Jose would have single handily stopped the strike of 1994. Delusional? Perhaps.

As for his writing skill, he is extremely repetitive throughout the entire book going on and on about the merits of steroids. And the way the pages were constructed, it came off disjointed at times, not being able to fully flesh out what he was trying to say. 

I can recommend the book if you have it at your local library and want a good laugh and a fast read. But I certainly wouldn't pay for this book. I was lucky to have it at my library as I would have been pissed to spend money on this one.

Rating 3 1/3 Stars out of 5

Review by Chiprocks1