Cheers, Jeers as Canseco Visits N.Y.

New Yorkers defended A-Rod but turned out to get Canseco book signed anyway.

ByABC News
April 2, 2008, 5:04 PM

April 3, 2008 — -- Fans and fanatics came out to meet Jose Canseco at a book signing in New York, offering the former major leaguer more handshakes and good wishes than the Bronx cheers some had expected.

Signing copies of his second book "Vindicated," at a Barnes and Noble in Manhattan on Wednesday, Canseco, 44, met with a generally warm response, though a few in the crowd said they were dubious about the book's controversial claims and were there to "bust his chops."

In "Vindicated," the follow-up to his 2005 memoir "Juiced" in which he admitted using steroids and alleged their widespread use in professional baseball, Canseco again named names, this time claiming he introduced hometown hero and Yankee Alex Rodriguez to a steroids supplier named "Max."

Canseco told ABC News that he was not surprised by a New York reception he described as "positive," because even Yankee fans know "I'm telling the truth."

"Everyone has been very receptive and positive. People are coming around and realizing again that I'm telling the truth," he told reporters at the book signing.

Dressed in a blue blazer, jeans embroidered at the cuffs with multicolored Chinese dragons, and wearing wraparound sunglasses he removed only briefly for a photograph, Canseco gamely signed autographs and chatted with fans.

But this being New York after all, meant two things for Canseco -- Yankee fans and, shall we say "colorful characters."

John Feliciano, 24, of Staten Island, N.Y., fell into the former category.

"Sure, I came here to bust his chops," said Feliciano. "He is making money by throwing a lot of people under the bus. He's become a millionaire by exposing people, who does that?"

Feliciano said he believed many of Canseco's claims about steroid use, but the lifetime Yankee fan wasn't ready to accept the player's allegations about Rodriguez, known as A-Rod.

"I think he is telling the truth about a lot of stuff. A lot of what he said about steroids after the first book was true. But I don't know about A-Rod. Maybe A-Rod did do something with his wife, and he's just jealous. But when you look at A-Rod and you look at Barry Bonds, A-Rod didn't get nearly as big as quickly as Bonds did."