Insider: 'Call me Jose' ... the name-dropping author

Darn right Jose Canseco is vindicated.

Before he found his post-baseball calling, following in the grand American literary tradition of lions such as Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner, few would have figured the guy could put together a subject and verb, much less pen a complete sentence.

Sure, Canseco might hate A-Rod's 'f------ guts,' but it's unknown if Jose is telling the truth about steroids. (AP)

Yet here he is this month, a story to tell and a second book on the shelves. And what are we to make of Vindicated: Big Names, Big Liars and the Battle to Save Baseball?

Maybe you've overlooked this, but Canseco always has been right there on the front lines in the battle, fighting hard.

Before taking up his quill pen and ink bottle in an effort to bring steroids users to their knees, he was trying to save baseball by not wearing a cap during batting practice (might muss the hair) and hosting pool parties at which his and Roger Clemens' wives could compare breast implants.

Saving baseball can be a dirty (and titillating) job, but somebody's gotta do it.

Actually, you won't find that last part in Canseco's new tome. That only came out when Brian McNamee, former personal trainer to Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte, testified to Congress in February.

Authors being the private and sensitive sorts they often are, Canseco not only denied it, but he took the highly principled stand of hanging up on New York's WFAN radio Tuesday when Boomer Esiason and Craig Carton asked about it.

"Now you're talking stuff that never happened," Canseco said on the air. "Guys, if you're going to be attacking me on this book that's the absolute truth, I'll hang up on you right now, so you better start respecting me. As a matter of fact, goodbye."

Click.

Must have been time for his next appointment on the book tour.

The thing with Jose is, nobody took him seriously when, as a rookie author, he produced Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits and How Baseball Got Big. But it turned out much of Canseco's information was on target.

So while it's a mistake to overtly dismiss Canseco's next work, it's also impossible to ignore the fact that the author, once linked to Madonna, always has been a material boy who loves his toys and money. And sources with knowledge of his current situation say he's badly overspent and underearned, leading him into a deep financial hole.