In a separate interview on MLB Home Plate, baseball veteran Pete Rose criticized Canseco for his accusations of steroid use among former teammates, saying, "No one needs the money that bad to capitalize on your teammates."

An encore broadcast of the Canseco interview will be aired on XM Channel 175 tonight at 9 pm ET and again at 12 midnight ET. The interview originally aired live on XM at 4:30 pm ET during the program "The Show," hosted by Kennedy and former Cincinnati Reds pitcher Rob Dibble.

Canseco, the author of the controversial new book "Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big," claimed that he was forced out of baseball by league executives who had previously "turned a blind eye" to steroid use, then decided to make him an example to other players.

Canseco told XM: "Everybody wants to blame the players. You know what? The owners knew. They didn't care, as long as they were making money. The players' association knew. They just turned a blind eye to it and said, 'Hey, the game's developing again. It's growing.' You know, the Sammy Sosa-Mark McGwire show. They were both juiced. No 'ifs,' 'ands,' [or] 'buts' about it."

"I introduced steroids to Major League Baseball," Canseco said. "I changed the face of baseball as we know it today... The owners in Major League Baseball lost control of the steroids issue. Eight out of ten players were taking it. Records were being demolished, broken left and right. Owners said, 'Listen we have a problem. And the individual that changed this game ... and educated these players was Jose Canseco. Let's blackball him. Let's make it look like he's injured all the time. And little by little, let's suffocate his career. We know [Canseco] is the godfather of steroids. We know he's known as a chemist. He helped make the game as powerful as possible. Let's send a signal to the other players: You better stop the steroid taking, or we're going to get rid of you, too.'"

Canseco said concern among players about punishment for steroid use is the reason "home run percentages are coming down," but he said league management will not fully address the problem "until Congress comes and steps in."

Following Canseco's in-person interview at a Los Angeles studio, Pete Rose phoned into the program and said Canseco was ousted from baseball simply because he "couldn't play anymore," not because of a conspiracy. Rose criticized Canseco's decision to identify and accuse former teammates of using steroids, asserting that the decision was driven by money.

"No one needs the money that bad to capitalize on your teammates," Rose said. "I just don't understand, now he's talking about doing a movie, and being a producer of a movie, so you know, Jose makes it sound more and more like a money deal."

"The Show," hosted by Kennedy and former Cincinnati Reds pitcher Rob Dibble, is a fast-paced afternoon program airing weekdays on XM's MLB Home Plate from 3-6 PM ET, with high-profile guests, previews of upcoming games and listener call-ins.

Today marked the inaugural broadcast of MLB Home Plate, the nation's first 24-hour radio channel devoted solely to Major League Baseball. In March XM will add a suite of 15 channels devoted to live play-by-play coverage of games for every Major League Baseball team. Game programming on XM runs from Spring Training through the World Series. The channels are part of XM's 11-year broadcasting and marketing agreement with Major League Baseball.

About XM Satellite Radio

XM (NASDAQ: XMSR) is America's number one satellite radio service with more than 3.2 million subscribers. Broadcasting live daily from studios in Washington, DC, New York City and Nashville at the Country Music Hall of Fame, XM's 2005 lineup includes more than 150 digital channels of choice from coast to coast: more than 65 commercial-free music channels, featuring hip hop to opera, classical to country, bluegrass to blues; more than 60 channels of premier sports, talk, comedy, children's and entertainment programming; and 21 channels of the most advanced traffic and weather information for major metropolitan areas nationwide. XM was named Best Radio Service at the 2004 Billboard Digital Entertainment Awards. Popular Science recently chose XM products for two prestigious "Best of What's New 2004" Awards. As the Official Satellite Radio Network for Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Exclusive Satellite Radio Service for NASCAR, as well as the Official Satellite Radio Service for ACC, PAC-10 and Big-10 collegiate football and basketball, XM Satellite Radio is the industry leader in sports radio programming, offering thousands of live sporting events each year.

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