NEW YORK – Former Red Sox outfielder Mike Greenwell, the runner-up to Jose Canseco for the 1988 American League Most Valuable Player award, says the admitted steroid user should surrender the award he won by using performance-enhancing drugs.
Greenwell said his second-place finish in the AL MVP vote probably cost him contract bargaining leverage – not to mention millions of dollars over the rest of his career in salary, endorsement deals and other opportunities. “Nobody remembers who finishes second,” Greenwell told the New York Daily News on Wednesday.
“It cost me my legacy,” Greenwell added. “There’s only so many guys who can walk around saying “I’m an American League MVP.’ It bothered me to lose to a guy who was using steroids.”
As the Daily News first reported earlier this month, Canseco says he used steroids throughout his career in his just-released tell-all book, “Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant “Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big.”
Canseco also says he used the drugs with some of the biggest names in the game, including Mark McGwire and Jason Giambi.
“For him to come out and accuse other guys of using steroids, if you’re going to do that, you should be willing to suffer the consequences,” Greenwell said.
Greenwell said he knew Canseco was using steroids back in 1988. “I knew I wasn’t playing on a level playing field,” he said. “But that’s life.”
He said he never thought about going public with the information because ballplayers are reluctant to bad-mouth each other. “It’s an exclusive group. You back each other whenever you can.”
Greenwell said trainers, coaches, managers, club executives and league officials also probably had their suspicions. “How could so-and-so come in to spring training weighing 30 pounds more and it looks like it’s all muscle?” he asked.
Baseball Writers Association of America national president T.R. Sullivan says Greenwell raises an excellent point. He said the organization should consider changing its rules to address baseball’s steroid scandal and its effects on awards and Cooperstown balloting.
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AP-NY-02-17-05 0117EST
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