Why Jose Canseco Started Using Performance-Enhancing Drugs

Four years after home-run king Jose Canseco walked away from Major League Baseball, he published a tell-all memoir that sent shock waves across the sport. Juiced told the hidden story of performance-enhancing drugs, which Jose claimed were in widespread use long before you saw them in the news. He even accused his Oakland Athletics compatriot Mark McGwire of steroid use.

Jose, however, didn’t always use drugs to boost his game. It wasn't until 1984, when he watched his mother dying in the hospital, that he decided to take extreme measures to launch his career forward.

"My mother had never seen me play baseball," Jose says. "I promised her right there on the spot that I was going to become the best player in the world for her no matter what it took. And people that know me know that when I make a promise, it's kept."

Here, Jose opens up about this critical juncture in his life.