Did Boone Juice?

In his long-promised tell-all book, former American League MVP and self-proclaimed steroid guru Jose Canseco is naming names. Some, like Mark McGwire and Jason Giambi, he claims to have injected with steroids. Others, he implies, were likely using. Mariner second baseman Bret Boone is among this latter group. The Seattle Times published this excerpt from Canseco's Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits and How Baseball Got Big, in which Canseco relates an incident from a 2001 spring training game.

"I hit a double, and when I got out there to second base, I got a good look at Boone," Canseco writes. "I couldn't believe my eyes. He was enormous.

" 'Oh, my God,' I said to him. 'What have you been doing?'

" 'Shhh,' he said. 'Don't tell anybody.'

"Whispers like that were a sign that you were part of the club — the bond of a secret code or handshake. You were united by the shared knowledge and the experience of unlocking so much more of your body's natural potential. Still, though, sometimes you just had to laugh — and it was that way with Bret Boone. Sure enough, Bret used his hulking new body to go crazy that season."

Boone called the allegations "absolutely ridiculous." The facts, however, do not support this assessment. In 2001, Bret Boone was a 32-year-old middle infielder coming off of a sub-par year who had taken a pay cut to join the Mariners. His career was, it appeared, nearing its conclusion. But Boone arrived at 2002 spring training noticeably larger, and proceeded to slug 38 home runs that season: 14 more than his previous career high, and more than double his career average. After coming into the 2001 season with 125 career homers, Boone has slugged nearly that number (121) in the four seasons since. All this while playing 81 games in Safeco Field, a notoriously difficult park to homer in. Was Boone juiced? We may never know…but the idea isn't ridiculous. Accusing Shawn Bradley of using steroids would be ridiculous. Canseco's book goes on sale today. Don't look for Amazon to bundle it with his drug-free 1990 how-to, Strength Training for Baseball.