When Jose Canseco opened up about PED use as it helped him keep last promise to his mother: "I'm gonna become the best player in the world"

Jose Canseco collected All-Star appearances, a Silver Slugger Award and an MVP Award during his career, but this was all marred by performance-enhancing drugs.

In a VladTV interview, Canseco discussed his life and his career.

In the first couple of years, 1982, 1983, and 1984, he struggled. Then he played in the Florida State League as a 17-year-old. This is a league with a bigger proportion of older players in their 20s. In that league, he got 11 bats.

Canseco went to Madison Wisconsin where he got demoted, as the weather was so cold he couldn't play. The same year he went to Medford Oregon and improved.

In the interview, Jose Canseco discussed his mother's death and how that led to him to taking PEDs:

"The next year after that, 1984, I went to Modesto California. I struggled there a lot. Then my mom passed away, and I think that was a huge turning point, because my mother had never watched me play professional baseball.

"I promised her right there, something kind of switched to me. The switch went off and I said: 'Mom, for you I am gonna become the best player in the world.'"

"And right then and there, literally two or three days later, I found steroids and I started using PEDs and I was obsessed with becoming the best player in the world."

The steroids started in 1984 and by 1985 Jose Canseco was the Minor League Player of the Year.

After winning the Minor League Player in 1985, Canseco won the Rookie of the Year and American League MVP as a member of the Oakland Athletics.

Background on Jose Canseco

Jose Canseco is a Cuban-American former MLB outfielder and a designated hitter. During his time with the Oakland Athletics, he established himself as one of the premier power hitters in the game.

Canseco is a two-time World Series champion with the Oakland Athletics in 1989 and the New York Yankees in 2000. In 1988 Jose became the first player in MLB history to hit 40 home runs and stole 40 bases in only one season.

However, his career was marred by PED use, and as such he remains a polarizing figure in baseball.