The evolution of social media has made it possible to interact with celebrities on a different level. Since NYBD has been on Twitter I had a chance to interact with Roger Clemens and Doug Mientkiewicz.

Yesterday, Jose Canseco took a crack at answering one of my questions. He is still relatively new to Twitter, but over the last two weeks he has been responding to critics, talking steroids, and baseball.

Yesterday he was telling fans how he is 100% clean, in great shape, and could still hit a baseball 500 feet. It spurred me to ask him a simple question: Does he still think he can play big league ball as a designated hitter? Canseco had this to say:

Absolutely. Too many politics so it will never happen.

His last active season was 2001 where he put up an .843 OPS at the age of 36. The following spring he was in camp with Montreal, but was cut before the season. He tried out for the Dodgers in 2004, and played in the Golden League in 2006. Canseco is currently 45 years old. Hey, if Julio Franco can pinch hit till age 48 why not Canseco?

I watched an A&E special about Canseco last year. It’s sad how he seems to be punished for his honesty about steroids in the game. Everyone pegged him as crazy when he first came out with “juiced”, but he has been right thus far. Compare that to the delusional Clemens and how he has behaved throughout the last 15 years. I have to agree that politics have kept him out of the game. How else can you explain him not making the 2002 Expos? Bud Selig wanted nothing to do with a vociferous Canseco.

I am not saying Canseco is a Hall of Fame player. Forget steroids for a minute, but the back half of his career was filled with half seasons, great numbers have you, but lots of 90-100 game performances. Regardless, he was the best player in baseball at one point and meant a lot to the Oakland franchise back in the eighties. When Canseco was marketable the league went out of their way for him, but now that he represents one of their mistakes they want nothing to do with him. In some ways they should be thanking him for starting the fight against steroids. His comments were the beginning of the end to the steroid era.

This type of phony behavior shouldn’t be a surprise. It’s corporate politics at its best and what baseball has been good at during the Selig regime. Hopefully the statue they build of him in Milwaukee is as empty as the suit Bud has worn throughout his tenure as commissioner.

Seeing Canseco try to make a comeback would be a great baseball story- at least in my opinion. Even if you don’t like him, you have to admit that he may go down as saving baseball for exposing the lies and cover up with respect to performance enhancing drugs.

I know Canseco is far from perfect- he made life difficult for himself with his choices- but to treat him like a pariah is wrong, especially when you have the narcissistic Clemens counting down the days till his Cooperstown election. Hey, maybe it’s just me, but I think Jose Canseco is a sympathetic figure that we can root for.

Tags: Doug Mientkiewicz, Los Angeles Dodgers, Montreal Expos, New York Yankees, Oakland A's, Roger Clemens