Williams fires back at Canseco's claims

DETROIT -- When Frank Thomas tore the triceps in his right arm less than two months into the 2001 season, White Sox general manager Kenny Williams went looking for a new designated hitter.

The search took Williams to the Independent League, the Newark Bears to be exact.

That was Jose Canseco's team, and the former "Bash Brother'' played in obscurity while wondering about the lack of interest from major-league teams.

With Thomas out for the season, Williams signed Canseco on June 21. Nearly seven years later, the White Sox' GM can only shake his head.

"It's very ironic because Mr. Canseco was in baseball obscurity, and over the years when I heard him talk about baseball blackballing him, I never thought he was talking about me,'' Williams said Saturday. "I brought him back and gave him that opportunity. And I guess this is his way of saying, 'thank you.' ''

Williams was responding to a report in Saturday's Chicago Sun-Times. In town to promote his latest book, "Vindicated,'' Canseco was asked whether Williams and others in the White Sox' front office knew he was injecting former White Sox right fielder Magglio Ordonez with steroids.

"Of course they knew,'' Canseco said in the report. "They didn't care. They all knew. (Williams) was a player (in the past). He knew.''

Williams responded to that claim on Saturday, threatening to sue Canseco in the process.

"I don't take too kindly to being called a liar,'' Williams said. "I'm pretty consistent in how I answer questions and do business. So I need to take a look and see from a legal perspective if I want to see how damaging those comments were. I'm not the guy that you want to go down that road with, because I'm more likely to come out swinging and I'll swing a (heck) of a lot harder than any punch you'll throw at me.''

In late March, White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko and starting pitcher Mark Buehrle told the Daily Herald they never saw or heard about Ordonez taking steroids during Canseco's brief stay on the South Side.

Konerko and Buehrle are the only current players who were with the Sox in 2001.

Ordonez, now with the Tigers, told the Detroit Free Press: "I didn't have anything to do with Jose Canseco.''