Hey Canseco fans...

There were some more good articles in the press this week. See below...

-Mark

==========
From the Ottawa Sun
Canseco no white Knight
May 1, 2002
By Dave Gross

Jose Canseco plunks himself down on the chair in front of his locker and
proceeds to make a pretty good argument for himself.

"Give me 500 at-bats and I'll hit 40-50 home runs...How many guys can claim
that?"

Not many.

Tugging on his Charlotte Knights' practice jersey yesterday at JetForm
Park, the 37-year-old continues.

"My gut feeling on getting back to the majors? Very rare. Things are
developing internally ( in baseball) regarding my situation...There are a
lot of players coming up and telling me I'm being blackballed out of
baseball. I wish I knew the reason why...look at Reuben Sierra, they kept
him out of the game for three years before letting him back.

"Am I being blackballed? It's too obvious not to accept it."

And Canseco continues to make his case a solid one.

"You can't tell me somebody in the American League can't use me as a DH
(designated hitter) ...Every DH in the American League can do better than
me? Hmm?

Obviously Canseco's gift for talk hasn't slowed down. Neither has his bat.

Signed by the Chicago White Sox organization to a minor league deal two
weeks ago, Canseco is coming off a season with the parent club that saw him
whack 16 homers in just 256 at-bats.

But interest in the career 462-home-run man was limited this past winter.

A free agent initially signed by Montreal, Canseco left the organization
after being told to report to Ottawa. From that point, Canseco said the
only club showing any kind of interest was Chicago.

His thinking? If he ever does get another major league offer, it will be
as a DH. Hence the thank-you-very-much-but-no-thanks to the National
League Expos.

He's been with Triple-A Charlotte for less than a week and has already made
a splash, connecting for three homers in just five games.

Still Canseco maintains no matter how good the numbers become, the chances
for a return to big league ball are remote. His reputation as a baseball
bad boy-valid or not- he believes keeps him on the outside.

The former Sporting News and Associated Press player of the year (1988) had
trouble follow him in Miami recently. Reports say Jose and brother Ozzie
were involved in a bar fight. A court case is pending.

"Every individual has a preconceived notion about me," he said. "Some
people think I have motor oil in my veins... I'd like to know what the
issue is. Still he smiles. Nods. Smiles again.

"You know what though? Maybe I will become like that guy in Bull Durham, a
minor league legend. Maybe I'll set records for home runs down here."

Canseco contends he'd be setting records up in the majors if it wasn't for
a slew of injuries. At the very least, he'd be chasing them. Among active
players only Barry Bonds (575) has more homers.

Again it is hard to argue.

Canseco's gone through two major back injuries, an abdominal injury, a
banged up rib, several knee injuries and to cap it off threw his shoulder
out while "pitching" for Texas in 1993.

"It's cost me big, probably about 300 home runs."

"But you know what? There's no crying in baseball."

Just another smile from the 17 year major league veteran hoping for another
opportunity.

An opportunity to be an 18 year veteran.

"It's baseball," he said with a shrug. "It's what I do."

==========
From the Charlotte Observer:
Knights' victory spurred by rally in 6th
May 2, 2002

OTTAWA - Joe Borchard's one-out home run to left field opened a four-run
sixth inning Wednesday to key the Charlotte Knights' 6-4 victory over the
host Ottawa Lynx.

It could have been more.

Former major-league slugger Jose Canseco accounted for two outs in the
sixth -- including a bases-loaded strikeout to end the inning -- as the
Knights sent 10 men to the plate. Eric Battersby and Willie Harris each
doubled to drive in a run in the inning....

==========
From the Syracuse Post-Standard:
Right now, majors off limits to Canseco
May 03, 2002
By Matt Michael

Why did the Ottawa Lynx fan cross the road?

To chase a foul ball hit by Jose Canseco out of Ottawa's JetForm Park and
onto Coventry Road, roughly 500 feet from home plate.

Even at 37, Canseco still has the power that made him one of baseball's
most celebrated sluggers in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Now the
question is this: Will a major-league team give Canseco another chance, or
is he destined to finish his career making jaws drop in minor-league cities
like Ottawa?

"Maybe I'll become like that guy in 'Bull Durham,' a minor-league legend,"
Canseco said. "Maybe I'll set the records for home runs down here."

Canseco is playing for the Charlotte Knights, the Chicago White Sox's
Triple-A team that just finished a series in Ottawa. Canseco and the
Knights open a four-game set against the Syracuse SkyChiefs at 6 p.m. today
at P&C Stadium.

"Down here" is not where Canseco thinks he belongs. Cut by the Montreal
Expos at the end of spring training, he signed with Chicago because it was
the only team that offered him a place to play.

Some of his friends, in and out of baseball, are telling him that
major-league teams are blackballing him. And Canseco, who had 16 home runs
and 49 runs batted in in 256 at-bats for the White Sox last season, is
starting to wonder if his friends are right.

"You can't tell me somebody in the American League can't use me as a DH
(designated hitter)," Canseco said. "Give me 500 at-bats and I'll hit 40,
50 home runs. How many guys can claim that?"

Not many, which is why Canseco's 462 career home runs rank second to Barry
Bonds among active players and 22nd on the all-time list. But at the same
time, Canseco is a full-time DH these days, and the trend in the American
League is for teams to rotate players between the field and DH (the
National League does not use the DH).

Canseco is seven years removed from his last .300 batting average, and
people have long stopped thinking of him as one of the game's best hitters.
Instead, they see a one-dimensional player who'll break open a few games
with a home run, but also kill a lot of rallies with a strikeout.

But that's not the kind of hitter who showed up in Charlotte last week,
according to Greg Walker, the Knights' batting coach. Walker, a former
first baseman for the White Sox and Baltimore Orioles, said Canseco is not
a "freelancer" who goes up to the plate trying to hit the ball 500 feet on
every pitch.

In his first eight games for the Knights, Canseco hit .231 (6-for-26) with
three home runs, five RBIs, seven walks and six strikeouts.

"You don't hit 462 home runs on just raw talent," Walker said. "He's got a
plan every time he goes up there. Like everybody else, it doesn't always
work. But he's got a plan."

Unfortunately for Canseco, the White Sox do not have any plans for Canseco
in the major leagues, unless DH Frank Thomas is injured again (that's why
Chicago signed Canseco last year out of the independent Atlantic League).
Canseco does have the freedom to leave Charlotte, but his options are limited.

He said the White Sox will let him join another team as long as that team
is not in Chicago's division and it's not contending with the White Sox for
the wild-card playoff berth. In the American League, that eliminates the
four teams other than Chicago in the Central Division, and the two playoff
contenders from the other two divisions (Boston and New York in the East,
and Seattle and Oakland in the West).

That leaves Baltimore, Tampa Bay, Toronto, Texas and Anaheim in the AL,
plus the National League if a team wants to use Canseco in the outfield.
Tampa Bay and Toronto are in youth movements, Texas doesn't need another
slugger, Anaheim released Canseco at the end of spring training last year,
and Baltimore declined to sign Canseco over the winter. So when Canseco
says he'll stay in Charlotte all season if he has to, we may find out if he
means it.

"There's no telling what might happen," Charlotte manager Nick Capra said.
"Somebody gets hurt up there and they think he's the guy to go, then I'm
sure he'll get the call. There's 29 other teams out there and if an
opportunity arises, I'm sure he'll be more than ready to go."

Naturally, Canseco wants a chance to reach 500 career home runs. Without a
string of injuries - Canseco has been on the disabled list 11 times -
Canseco believes he would have been able to challenge Hank Aaron's all-time
record of 755 homers.

Except for the two players who are not yet eligible (Bonds and Eddie
Murray), every player who hit 500 or more home runs has been inducted into
the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

"I've been playing for so long, and I've been through so many injuries, you
want to be considered for the Hall of Fame," Canseco said. "I'm so close
that I can easily do it (reach 500) if I get back up to the major-league
level."

But Canseco swears the Hall of Fame is not the only reason he has accepted
the life of a baseball nomad. Canseco said he still loves playing the game,
even if the game is not loving him back.

"The politics of the game are horrible," Canseco said. "But the game in its
simplest form, between the white lines, is still a great game."

==========
From the Syracuse Post-Standard
Dismissed Canseco just wants a chance
May 04, 2002
By Bud Poliquin

Though he didn't realize it at the time, Jimmy Dean once sang about this
fellow. Only, he called him Big John. Or more specifically, Big Bad John,
who was wide at the shoulder and narrow at the hip ... and now lies dead at
the bottom of a caved-in mine shaft.

But make no mistake that when he took pen to paper once upon a time to
write his country verse, ol' Jimmy had a certain baseball player in mind.

''I am an unusual-looking person,'' Jose Canseco said Friday evening. ''I
am that entity that's out of the ordinary.''

One imagines that there are no shortages of mirrors in Jose's house. Why,
the guy probably has one on his bathroom ceiling so he can watch himself
gargle. But who could blame him? Those old Greeks, the ones who forever
ruminated about gods and such, used to chisel statues out of marble in
tribute to lesser bodies than the one Canseco now spills into his Charlotte
Knights uniform.

He'll be 38 in July, but no matter. If you do something with his hair,
shove him into a loincloth and put a sword in his hand, you've got The
Rock. Yeah, that's it. The Scorpion King as designated hitter. And Jose,
whose eyes are still good, knows it.

''When people see me out in malls or in the crowd,'' he said, ''they look
at me like I'm some kind of freak.''

Well, the 4,769 gawkers in the joint got their fill at P&C Stadium where
Canseco - who stands 6-foot-4, weighs some 250 pounds and has a back that
could serve as a kitchen table - flexed and swung ... and went hitless in
four at-bats as the SkyChiefs knocked off the Knights 4-1 in the opener of
a four-game series that will conclude on Monday.

Strange? Of course, it was strange. This was the former Most Valuable
Player, by unanimous vote, in the American League. This was baseball's
first 40-40 man and, for a while, the highest-salaried performer in the
history of the sport. This was, for crying out loud, the one-time main
squeeze of Madonna.

And yet, there he was, in Charlotte togs, taking his hacks on the north
side of our little burg. And doing so, a bit sheepishly.

''I wish I knew why I was here,'' said Jose, who did belt one through a
fierce wind and to the edge of the center-field warning track against the
Knights. ''You never think it would come to this. Being 38 home runs short
of 500. Only being 37 years old. And knowing that if you were given the
opportunity, you could easily hit 40 home runs in the big leagues. I never
thought it would come to this, no. I never thought this would happen.''

He's been tossed on baseball's heap is what has happened to him. Jose
Canseco, who was big enough and bawdy enough and bashed baseballs far
enough to be considered a kind of Cuban Babe Ruth back when he was in his
20s, has been pretty much forgotten.

No, wait. That isn't accurate. He hasn't been forgotten. He has been dismissed.

''Very few athletes can say they were once the best athlete in the world at
what they did,'' said Canseco, who is one of them. ''And at this point in
my career, I am being considered a washed-up athlete that is not being
given the opportunity to play again.''

It is true, you know. All true. Jose was, indeed, baseball's greatest
property in the late '80s and early '90s when he drove in 117, 113, 124,
101 and 122 runs for the Oakland Athletics while jacking 33, 31, 42, 37 and
44 homers. He was the circus star coming to town - the strongman with the
bulging biceps, the happy wink and the massive swing. And so, a whole lot
of folks in a lot of places plunked down their money to peek under the tent.

But then the other stuff happened. The cartoon stuff. The buffoonery that
accompanied the fame and fortune.

Jose rammed his first wife's car. Jose was ticketed for driving his Jaguar
125 mph and his Porsche, the one filled with aviation fuel, 104 mph. Jose
was nabbed for packing a loaded handgun in violation of California law.
Jose had a ball bounce off his head near the outfield fence for a home run.
Jose blew out his arm while pitching during a rout in Fenway Park. Jose
married a Hooters waitress and then divorced her. Jose landed on the
disabled list 11 times, was released three times and was traded three times
including once, he said, ''to Ethiopia for a box of Fruit Loops and a camel
to be named later.'' Jose dropped into the independent Atlantic League,
suiting up for the Newark Bears.

And so, the oohs and ahs turned into chortles and wise cracks. And the guy
who was paid more than $45 million through the years to play in the big
leagues and was the first batter since Ted Williams to drive in 750 runs in
his first 1,000 games has his regrets.

''Of course, I do,'' Canseco admitted. ''Don't we all? Definitely, I wish,
'Darn, I should never have done that.' Or, 'Maybe I should never have said
that.' If people haven't learned from my career, then they haven't learned
from anything.''

For his part, Jose - who is as charming as he is gigantic - seems to have
learned that wishing may make things so.

''If I'm given the chance to play two or three more years at the
major-league level and stay healthy, could I hit 600 home runs?'' mused the
largest of the Charlotte Knights.

''Yeah. No ifs or buts about it. I wasn't lucky enough to be a Cal Ripken,
Jr., and play 20 years without getting injured. If I could have done that,
I'd have well over 700 home runs right now. My physical ability is still
there. My bat speed hasn't diminished, nor my foot speed. My arm is coming
back now as an outfielder. I think I still have a lot to offer to this
game. I'm no quitter. I'll keep going for as long as it takes. I'll go 100
years. I don't age.''

His mirror keeps telling him that. However, what it hasn't yet told Jose -
that is, Big Jose ... Big Bad Jose, who remains wide at the shoulder and
narrow at the hip - is that his baseball career just might be at the bottom
of its very own caved-in mine shaft. And nobody who matters is expected to
wander by with a shovel.

Bud Poliquin is a columnist for The Post-Standard. His column appears
regularly on these pages. He can be reached via telephone at 315-470-2213
or via e-mail at bPOLIQUIN@....

==========
From the Charlotte Observer:
Canseco homers, but Knights lose

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Jayson Werth hit a grand slam to lift Syracuse to an 11-5
win over the Charlotte Knights on Sunday.Werth drove a two-out, 3-2 pitch
deep to right in the fifth inning. Werth had five RBIs in the game, a
season high for the SkyChiefs (13-15), and doubled home Brian Lesher in the
second.

Charlotte's Jose Canseco, who came into the game with one hit in his past
11 at-bats, doubled and scored in a two-run fourth inning for Charlotte
(10-20) and homered to right-center field in the eighth. It was his fourth
homer of the season.

==========
From www.billy-ball.com:
May 6, 2002

Top of the 7th
FOR THOSE OF YOU KEEPING TRACK
When the amazing Sammy Sosa hit his 13th homer of the season on Saturday it
enabled him to pass Jose Canseco and move into 22nd place on the all time
HR list with 463. Sunday, Canseco hit his 4th of the season for the
Charlotte Knights.