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Last night, the New York Times reported the feds would ask Jose Canseco who this "Max" character was -- the dude in Jose's latest book he linked as a steroid supplier to Alex Rodriguez. The meeting is slated for Tuesday. However, according to Sports Illustrated, they've already tracked down "Max." His name? Joseph Dion.

And he's not buying what Canseco is selling.

"That's really, really funny because I am the one person that hates steroids," Dion said. "I'm against it 100 percent. And, A-Rod, at the time that I trained him -- and this I swear to God -- was 100 percent against steroids. He was one of the hardest working guys, and most natural guy, that I've met in my life. He hated steroids. We talked about it."

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On Friday, Canseco returned a call from SI regarding Dion's claim but said, "Ask him to call me. I want to talk to him before I comment on it." An associate close to Canseco confirmed that Dion is "Max" in the book.

Now, just because Dion is vehemently denying Canseco's claims doesn't mean the words contained within Vindicated aren't true. But unless cold, hard evidence is brought forth: pay stubs, checks, vials, photographs, etc. etc. Canseco comes out on the wrong end here. What's interesting is that Canseco has gone right out and said, "I injected this guy, I gave 'roids to this guy" and he's been right on those accords most often than not. But the way he skirted around A-Rod, how he said "well, I never saw him do any, never gave him any, BUT I hooked him up with a guy, so maybe, probably" always seemed a little suspect. (Not that everything the guy says isn't suspect.)

Sorry Jose: A-Rod looks clean ... for now.