Canseco's claims are overshadowing the new season

Greenwell told the New York Daily News that finishing second to Oakland's Canseco in the MVP vote cost him contract bargaining leverage and millions of dollars over the rest of his career.

"It cost me my legacy," Greenwell said. "Nobody remembers who finishes second. There are only so many guys who can walk around saying 'I'm an American League MVP.'

"It bothers me to lose to a guy who was using steroids."

In a controversial new book, Canseco admits taking steroids and claims he helped other baseball stars with performance-enhancing drugs.

Having immediately jumped on to the bestsellers' list, it has cast a shadow over spring training which began this week.

"It's not going away," said Yankees manager Joe Torre. "I'm looking to baseball to sort of override any of the other stuff. But that's reality."

Steroids were not officially banned by Major League Baseball before a testing programme began last season.

The programme has been toughened up ahead of the 2005 campaign but remains lenient by World Anti-Doping Agency standards.

Chicago Cubs pitcher Mike Remlinger said: "It's a big issue. We hope we can put it behind us and move forward.

"The way things are something (new) keeps popping up every other week, but hopefully it's part of the past of the game."

Team-mate Mark Prior added: "It's going to be a tough year for baseball dealing with this issue - it's troubling.

"This is my fourth season and I'm still pretty young in the league. But ever since my second year, this cloud of steroid use has been hanging over us.

"This is still a great league, still a great game, and still a game that's deeply rooted in this country's history.

"So if we can get to the root of this, really clean it up and get the integrity back, this game will thrive again."