Except, of course, this one works in reverse. He won't sing if you pay him off.

José Canseco, the former major league slugger and admitted steroid user who exposed other players in his 2005 best-selling book “Juiced,” offered to keep a Detroit Tigers outfielder “clear” in his next book if the player invested money in a film project Canseco was promoting, according to a person in baseball with knowledge of the situation.

Four people in baseball confirmed that referrals were made from Major League Baseball to the F.B.I. regarding Canseco’s actions relating to the six-time All-Star outfielder Magglio Ordóñez, who was not mentioned in Canseco’s earlier book or in any other report on performance-enhancing drugs in baseball. All four insisted on anonymity because they said they didn’t have authority to speak about the events.

The F.B.I. did not open a formal investigation because Ordóñez said he did not want to pursue the complaint.

Canseco denied that he — or any associate of his — ever asked Ordóñez for money to keep his name out of a book titled “Vindicated.”

“Absolutely not,” Canseco said in a telephone interview Wednesday. He also said he had not been told about being the subject of F.B.I. referrals.

This strikes me as the sort of thing that should be pursued by the FBI regardless of Ordóñez desire to pursue the matter. Given some of the disputes that have gone on recently over steroid abuse allegations, there ought to be some clarity as to the accusers and their motives. It seems that there are some credibility problems at work here. And with no fewer than four different sources bringing the information to the attention of the government, I think that we have a prima facie case that something happened.

Posted by: Greg at 10:44 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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