New York ? Jose Canseco made the most of his closeup Sunday night, telling “60 Minutes” correspondent Mike Wallace that the national pastime is “juiced” and that some of its biggest stars — Mark McGwire, Jason Giambi, Rafael Palmeiro, Ivan Rodriguez and Juan Gonzalez — have used steroids.

Canseco’s Bash Brother immediately fired back, denying he ever had used performance-enhancing drugs.

“Once and for all … I did not use steroids or any other illegal substance,” McGwire said in a statement to the New York Daily News.

Canseco’s national television appearance came a day before the official release of his tell-all book, “Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Big.” Canseco’s claims of rampant drug use in major-league baseball, first reported last week by the New York Daily News, ignited a firestorm in baseball circles.

Canseco, who says in his book that he shared his knowledge of steroids with players and trainers throughout the game, credited illegal drugs with making him a major-league-caliber player.

“A lot of it is psychological,” said Canseco, who hit 462 home runs during his 16-year career and was the American League MVP in 1988. “I mean, you really have an edge. You feel the strength and the stamina.”

He also downplayed widespread evidence that steroids can cause serious health problems.

“I don’t recommend steroids for everyone, and I don’t recommend growth hormones for everyone,” Canseco added. “But for certain individuals, I truly believe, because I’ve experimented with it for so many years, that it can make an average athlete a super athlete. It can make a super athlete incredible. Just legendary.”

Canseco denied that his off-field problems — he has been arrested several times, including a 1992 aggravated battery bust for allegedly ramming his then-wife’s BMW with his Porsche and a 2001 aggravated battery charge for a nightclub fight — were due to ‘roid rage.

“Are we to say that any individual who’s on steroids that has an angry moment is due to steroids?” he asked Wallace. “What about the individual who gets angry and kills someone who’s not on steroids. What do we blame it on now?”

Canseco acknowledges that he and McGwire — a strong Hall of Fame candidate who electrified baseball by hitting 70 homers in 1998 to shatter Roger Maris’ single-season record — weren’t particularly close.

“Mark and I weren’t really in a sense of buddy buddies,” Canseco said. “But there are certain subjects that we could talk about like obviously steroids and so forth.”

Canseco claimed in the interview that he had used steroids with Giambi, Palmeiro, Rodriguez and Gonzalez.

Those players have all vociferously denied the charges leveled in Canseco’s book.

Canseco’s book also suggests that Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Miguel Tejada and other players used steroids, although he admits his charges are not based on first-hand knowledge.

Canseco told Wallace he did steroids not only to become the best player in the game, but because he had to keep up with his competitors.

“I tried to do everything possible,” Canseco said, “to become the best player in the world.”