Hi everyone...

As you know, Jose had a tryout with the Dodgers on Monday. I'll get right
to the point - they did not make him an offer. As far as I know, that was
his last attempt, and he is retiring for good now. The next time you see
Jose might very well be in the movies - he now lives in L.A. full time and
wants to get into acting.

Vero Beach is about an hour from here, so I drove down to see the tryout
for myself yesterday. I could probably type pages and pages about the day,
but I'll try to keep it brief. I apologize in advance if this seems jumbled...

After I arrived at Dodgertown, I made the hike to the practice fields where
the open tryout was being held. There were maybe a dozen reporters and
photographers in attendance, along with probably 20 fans or so (if I had to
guess). Jose signed autographs for every single person there when he had a
chance in between practice sessions. I didn't ask for an autograph, but I
did get a photo taken with him. I met a couple of fans from this list,
which is always fun - Ryan and his girlfriend, and Beth and her friend. I
also met Jose's agent, Doug Ames, Doug's brother Jim who has been helping
Jose sell all his old memorabilia, Jose's sister Teresa, and Jose's
"friend" Laura. Everyone was very friendly and it was really nice talking
to them all. Laura (personal trainer/fitness model) is funny - she had no
idea who Jose was when she met him at her gym last year, and to top it off,
she hates baseball.

Ok, back to my story... When I first got there, Jose was in the field,
waiting for his turn to take batting practice. I missed his 60 yard dash,
but was told he ran it in 6.7 seconds, which is pretty fast. I found out
later it was actually 6.9 seconds, which is still good. After a lot of
standing around, Jose finally got his chance in the cage. He looked ok,
but certainly not spectacular. He saw 18 pitches and put one ball over the
fence. The wind was blowing in, and Jose was the only player to
homer. After BP, the Dodgers staff made the first round of cuts, sending
over half of the 100+ players in attendance home. Jose #521 was the last
number called - he made the cut.

After the cut, Jose met with a bunch of reporters and answered their
questions. I talked my way into joining them (I told the woman in charge I
didn't bother to get press credentials, because I didn't know I was going
to be there, but I was writing an article for Canseconet.com, blah blah
blah). Anyway, I got there just in time to hear Jose answer three or four
questions the same way: "Read the book." "It will be in the book." "Read
the book" and so on. He also said he would not accept a AAA assignment if
the Dodgers offered him one: "Been there, done that." Then the discussion
turned to steroids. Jose said there was a "difference between steroid use
and steroid abuse." Jose also said the urine sample where he tested
positive for steroids while under house arrest had been tampered
with. You'll need to "read the book" to find out who he thinks was
responsible for this. The book is due out in September, but if I remember
correctly, we've heard that for the previous two Septembers as well, so who
knows? I'm trying to think what else was discussed, but I don't think it
was anything you haven't read before, and I'm sure it will all be covered
in the articles below.

After lunch, the remaining players took part in a simulated game. Jose
alternated at first base with another player, and he batted every
inning. In my opinion, he looked ok at first - nothing spectacular, but
nothing horrible either. At the plate, he looked decent, but
understandably a little rusty. I saw him walk, hit two solid singles, line
out to left, pop up (way up) in the infield, and strikeout twice.

I took a bunch of photos throughout the day and even shot a few videos of
Jose at the plate. I'll try to get them posted on the site by this weekend
(I have one there now). Those pictures might very well be of the last time
Jose swings a bat in a professional setting...

I didn't talk to Jose much - I didn't want to bother him - but I did
briefly. Before I left, I told him it was good to see him swinging a bat
again and wished him luck. He responded with two genuine sounding "Thanks."

Let's see - what else? Tommy Lasorda was there... So was Shawn Green,
dressed in street clothes (and flip flops, in fact). I joked with Shawn,
"Hey, shouldn't you be at work?" I briefly discussed his friendship with
Jose when they played together in Toronto, and asked him about his four
homer game. He told me it was a combination of having a good day and
getting a little bit lucky. He was friendly enough, but didn't seem to
really want to talk, so I didn't bother him for long. When Jose came over
to talk to him, I could tell by what they were saying that they haven't
spoken in a while.

What else can I tell you? When I left, I stood beyond the left field fence
for two of Jose's at bats. I was REALLY hoping he'd homer, since I was the
ONLY person back there, and that ball might very likely be the last one
Jose ever puts over a fence... but, no such luck.

Well, I guess that's about it. Sorry I rambled on for so long, but I know
a lot of you would want to know all the details :)

All the latest news is below. I have a feeling Jose won't be in the news
again for a while, but don't worry, as soon as he is, I'll let you know.

-Mark

==========
Canseco waits for elusive call
By MARC TOPKIN
St. Petersburg Times
Feb 22, 2004.

Vinny Castilla got his old job back as Rockies third baseman. Greg Vaughn
got invited to the Cardinals camp with a shot at the leftfield job. And
when Fred McGriff got a chance to come to camp on a minor-league deal with
the Devil Rays, the remaining member of Tampa Bay's failed Hit Show could
only chuckle.

And sigh.

"I've got to get me anywhere," Jose Canseco said.

Canseco, 39, has been out of the game since 2001, an exile that was not
choice but not necessarily devoid of his own doing either, given his legal
problems, steroid-related issues and threats to write a tell-all book.

He says he is happy McGriff got another chance to come home and extend his
career, but he sure sounded jealous, too.

"I thought maybe they'd give me a chance," Canseco said.

Canseco desperately wants one. He has been saying he'd like to go back to
the Rays, claiming he'd play for the minimum and donate the money to
charity and insist on going into the Hall of Fame as a Ray after he got the
38 homers he needs for 500, but that's not going to happen. He can make
similar pleas to other teams, but doesn't know if they're listening.

"It's out of my hands," he said.

Until then, he waits. His legal problems apparently resolved, Canseco has
left Miami and moved to Encino, Calif. He is getting heavily involved in
martial arts training. He supposedly has signed a lucrative deal to star in
a series of action films. He is still hosting "Spend-a-Day-With-Jose"
events. He is still working on the book, but says he'll withhold
publication if he gets signed.

He has been working out feverishly in Los Angeles and claims to be in "the
best shape" of his career. He is even taking ground balls and says - no
kidding - he could step in and play first or third base. ("Come check it
out," he boasts.) He says he has a tryout with the Dodgers on March 1 in
Vero Beach. He is 100 percent sure he could again be an impact player in
the big leagues.

"There's absolutely no doubt," he said, "I could hit 50 homers."

==========
From Fox Sports:
KENNEDY: Canseco still has game
Kevin Kennedy

You can see the video from this interview here:
http://www.foxsports.com/content/view?contentId=2190952

Jose Canseco and I have a relationship that dates back to 1992, when he
played for me when I managed the Texas Rangers. In the four years I had
him, he was always good in the clubhouse. He was never late to anything.
There was not one issue with Jose Canseco. He was great to have on the club.

So when his agent called me Monday to tell me he was working out, I was
curious to see whether he still has something to offer. People get second
chances in this country after doing worse things than Jose Canseco has done.

I saw everything I needed to see to say, 'I'd give him a chance.' Not only
can he still compete, he can excel.

I was not surprised that he was in great shape. He's doing four different
forms of martial arts. His flexibility is amazing. I was watching him swing
the bat with his left hand only, and the ball was just jumping off the bat.
He hasn't missed a beat. The bat speed is there, and his technique has
never been better. I watched him throw, and his arm strength is tremendous.
If I were a scout a GM or manager, there isn't any reason I wouldn't give
him a chance.

Jose works out for the Dodgers on Monday morning. To me, you've got nothing
to lose if you're the Dodgers, and absolutely everything to gain. The
Dodgers have a desperate need for some power and run production. He can
provide those things.

I don't how anybody from a baseball standpoint can say no. At 39, it's not
about age. Barry Bonds is 39. If he doesn't make it, it won't be about
ability. It'll be because of other issues, not because of talent.

He knows there are issues out there regarding his past. He said, "It's not
like I haven't made mistakes. But the perception about me is wrong." I
agree with that. I've always said this about Jose: whatever you want to
think about him, he's not a liar. He speaks from the heart.

Jose has a book coming out in September, and he told me there were some
things he couldn't share with me because they're covered in the book. But
he did have some interesting things to say about the circumstances that put
him in jail for a violation of his probation. He said that his lawyers
found out that the urine test he took while under house arrest in 2002 was
switched -- that someone wanted to see him test positive for steroids. He
said someone wanted to make sure he wouldn't get back in the game.

(Editor's note: Canseco was released from a Florida jail in August of 2003
after serving two months. Prosecutors dropped charges alleging that he had
violated the terms of his probation by taking steroids while under house
arrest as a result of charges stemming from a nightclub fight.)

He moved from South Florida after that and lives in L.A. fulltime, taking
acting lessons, working out and doing martial arts. I know he'd like to
have a chance to get his 38 home runs (Canseco has 462 career homers). I
know he could help a team.

If he doesn't get the chance, it won't be because of ability.

FOX Sports baseball analyst Kevin Kennedy is a regular contributor to FOX
Sports.com

==========
From the AP:
Canseco book due for release in September

VERO BEACH, Fla. -- Jose Canseco better hope the book he claims to be
writing is more successful than his performance in an open tryout with the
Los Angeles Dodgers.

Canseco probably wrote his final chapter in baseball at Monday's tryout,
looking anything like the slugger who intimidated opposing pitchers in the
late 1980s and '90s.

"I think he swung the bat good, he hit a couple balls good," former Dodgers
manager Tom Lasorda said afterward.

Now a senior vice president with the Dodgers, Lasorda seemed to realize he
was being overly kind.

"He thought that coming out here and hitting off these guys wouldn't be too
much to do," he said.

Matt Slater, the Dodgers' director of professional scouting, said he
expected one or two of the 108 players who attended the workout would be
signed, with a decision announced Tuesday.

Slater said Canseco was told several days ago there was a 99 percent chance
the Dodgers wouldn't sign him.

"This is probably going to be my last attempt -- see you in the movies,"
Canseco told reporters afterward as he signed autographs.

Now living in the Los Angeles suburb of Encino, Canseco claims to have
Hollywood connections.

"It could have gone better -- technique's a little off," he said. "I wish I
had a little more time to get ready. I'm not going to hold my breath on it.
It's basically out of my hands -- just being realistic."

The players took batting and fielding practice in the morning, with the
group cut down for an intrasquad game in the afternoon.

A six-time All-Star who has 462 career homers, Canseco hit one ball over
the fence in 18 batting practice swings and wasn't particularly impressive
otherwise against pitcher Juan Bustabad, the hitting coach for the Dodgers'
Vero Beach farm team.

Canseco had two singles in six official at-bats with a walk and two
strikeouts in the intrasquad game.

Again, he didn't appear to be anywhere close to top form despite the fact
that his representative, Doug Ames, said his client had been working out at
UCLA for several weeks.

Canseco said he was serious about trying to get back into baseball and
thought he could be successful.

"I think in three or four weeks I could be back to 100 percent," he said.
"I'm excited to be here -- maybe they need some right-handed power hitting,
a first baseman."

The Dodgers scored a big league-low 574 runs and have been in the market
for a right-handed power hitter.

But it would be a shock if they signed Canseco, who played first base in
the intrasquad game -- a position he's never played in the big leagues.

Now 39, Canseco last played in the majors in 2001, when he hit .258 with 16
homers for the Chicago White Sox.

Canseco and Mark McGwire teamed in Oakland as the "Bash Brothers," leading
the Athletics to three straight World Series appearances from 1988-90,
including the 1989 title.

Canseco won the 1988 AL MVP award and ranks 26th on baseball's career home
run list.

He spent more than two months in jail last summer for testing positive for
steroids while on probation -- a charge he denied. Prosecutors later
dropped the charge, prompting his release from custody. He had been on
probation since the previous November when he pleaded guilty to aggravated
battery for a 2001 nightclub fight with two tourists.

Canseco smiled and said hello to Lasorda while registering for the tryout.
He was handed No. 521, which Ames taped on the back of his T-shirt.

"I feel like I'm back in jail -- I've got a number on my back," Canseco said.

"It's a shock to me, to see him here for a tryout," Lasorda said.

Canseco said he believes he has been blackballed from the majors. When
asked why, he replied: "Issues; the book I'm writing."

He said the book would be entitled: "Dare to Truth," and answered most of
the questions posed by reporters by saying, "Read the book."

Ames said a book deal has been finalized, with a September release date.

Canseco said he stood behind his allegation of a couple years ago that 80
percent of major leaguers had taken steroids, but added: "I think the
numbers may have changed. Who knows? Maybe the numbers have diminished."

He also said there was a big difference in using and abusing steroids.

"Steroids don't give you hand-eye coordination," he said. "I think there's
too much emphasis put on it -- too much negativity."

Canseco was one of six former big leaguers who took part in the tryout. The
others were pitchers Bryan Rekar, Jeff Sparks and Rusty Meacham, infielder
Alex Arias and first baseman-outfielder Doug Jennings.

==========
From MLB.com:
Jose Canseco tries out for Dodgers
By Ken Gurnick

VERO BEACH, Fla. -- The circus came to Dodgertown on Monday.

In what doubled for the first stop on a promotional tour for a book that
isn't yet written, Jose Canseco joined a handful of former Major Leaguers,
released minor leaguers and beer-league weekend warriors in an open tryout
for the Dodgers.

With a couple dozen reporters, including ESPN's Peter Gammons, watching,
the former Bash Brother sought a return to the Major Leagues for the first
time since 2001 and said he could be the answer to the club's lack of offense.

"Maybe they need a right-handed power hitter, maybe a first baseman," said
Canseco, who had No. 521 pinned to the back of his shirt.

He appeared fit for age 39, but time has eroded the MVP's baseball skills.
The bat wasn't as quick. He was timed in 6.9 for the 60-yard dash, but
appeared to have jumped the gun. He threw sidearm from the outfield during
drills and played first base during a game in which he had two singles in
six at-bats with two strikeouts. Canseco never played first base in a
17-year Major League career.

General manager Paul DePodesta did not watch the tryout, but vice president
Tom Lasorda and minor league field coordinator Terry Collins did. Matt
Slater, the club's professional scouting director, said it was possible one
or two players would be signed out of the tryout. But there was no
indication Canseco would be one of them.

The Dodgers made it clear they were not interested in signing Canseco when
his agent approached them last month, but he flew out from his new home in
California anyway. The agent, Doug Ames, said Canseco will publish his
much-discussed tell-all book in September, co-written by Chris Myers of Fox
Sports. Meanwhile, according to Ames, Canseco has three movie deals on the
table, including one with action star Steven Segal.

Canseco said he came to the tryout because it was "the only route" back to
the Major Leagues, that he would give it "one last shot to see what
happens," and that he had no desire to accept a minor-league assignment and
work his way back.

He also fielded questions about steroids in baseball, but deflected
follow-up questions by telling reporters to "read the book." He said his
tryout will be included as a chapter.

He said he has a contract with publisher Judith Regan. The book, to be
released in September, is titled "Dare to Truth," a play on the album/movie
titled "Truth or Dare" released by Madonna, once a Canseco acquaintance.

Although allowed to try out, Canseco said he had been "blackballed" by
baseball and was "curious" how the Dodgers would respond to his tryout. He
said there are many players "well into their 40s," and that he was "not
exactly in baseball condition" because he only began baseball workouts five
weeks ago.

"My bat speed, my legs, they're not where I want them to be," he said. "In
three or four weeks I'll be back to 100 percent."

Canseco, 39, last played in the Major Leagues in 2001, when he hit 16 home
runs in 256 at-bats for the Chicago White Sox. The AL 1988 MVP, 1986 AL
Rookie of the Year and six-time All-Star has 462 home runs, 1,407 RBIs and
earned nearly $50 million.

But he was known nearly as much for his off-the-field run-ins with the law
as his on-the-field run producing. He also generated controversy by saying
80 percent of Major League ballplayers use steroids.

Other former Major Leaguers who attended the tryout were pitchers Bryan
Rekar, Rusty Meacham and Jeff Sparks; outfielder Doug Jennings and
infielder Alex Arias.

Ken Gurnick is a reporter for MLB.com. This article was not subject to
approval by Major League Baseball or its clubs.

==========
From the AP:
Dodgers tell Canseco 'no thanks'
By JOHN NADEL

VERO BEACH, Florida (AP) - The Los Angeles Dodgers informed former slugger
Jose Canseco on Tuesday that they weren't interested in his services.

Canseco, 39, participated in an open tryout with the team on Monday. He
said he wouldn't play in the minors, which probably ended any chance he had
of being signed by the Dodgers.

Matt Slater, the team's director of professional scouting, said a couple of
players who participated in the workout will be offered contracts - but
Canseco wouldn't be one of them.

Canseco, who hasn't played in the majors since 2001, was told beforehand
there was a 99 percent chance the Dodgers wouldn't sign him, but he
participated anyway. He certainly didn't look prepared.

"This is probably going to be my last attempt - see you in the movies,"
Canseco told reporters as he signed autographs.

A six-time All-Star who hit 462 career homers in the major leagues, Canseco
claims to be working on a book that will be released in September.

He spent more than two months in jail last summer for testing positive for
steroids while on probation - a charge he denied.

Prosecutors later dropped the charge, prompting his release from custody.
He had been on probation since the previous November when he pleaded guilty
to aggravated battery for a 2001 nightclub fight.

==========
From the Globe and Mail:
Canseco keeps steroids in spotlight
By JEFF BLAIR
Tuesday, March 2, 2004

VERO BEACH, FLA. -- The final chapter of Jose Canseco's baseball career was
likely written yesterday on a two back fields in the middle of pine trees
and a tiny orange grove, far removed from the Los Angeles Dodgers'
major-league and minor-league clubhouses.

Baseball's worst nightmare was given a piece of paper with the number 521
on it and told to join the 106 other players of all shapes, sizes,
histories and mismatched uniforms at a Dodgers open tryout.

Canseco in any uniform is the last thing the game needs when the White
House wants to hold a sports summit to deal with steroid use, when
superstar Barry Bonds has been accused of using steroids by his peers and
he and Jason Giambi and other players have appeared before a grand jury
investigating a Bay Area steroids laboratory.

Canseco's contention that 80 per cent of major-league players use steroids
helped create the climate that led to drug testing in baseball. Canseco has
never come clean about his steroid use, but he spent time in jail last year
for a positive steroid test (he claims his urine sample was switched),
violating terms of his parole stemming from his part in a nightclub brawl
in 2001.

He says now that he could pass a steroid test, then volunteered that: "No
one knows if in the past I would have been able to pass, because no one
ever tested me.

"I've always stood by my numbers," said Canseco, who is 26th on the career
home run list with 462 and hasn't been in a major-league uniform since
failing to make the Montreal Expos out of spring training in 2002. "But I
think the numbers may have changed. That was a while back. Who knows? Maybe
they have diminished.

"[Talking about steroids] is not as taboo as it used to be, and the players
who aren't taking now are voicing opinions. Especially pitchers."

Looking smaller in the lower body but with a chiselled, V-shaped upper
body, Canseco said this would be his only tryout because he wants to be
near his seven-year-old daughter, Josie, who lives in Los Angeles with a
former wife with whom he is trying to reconcile. He is not interested in a
minor-league contract.

"I'm surprised anyone is even looking at me now, considering all the
issues," Canseco said. "The book I'm writing . . . when you're blackballed
from baseball . . . let's just say my curiosity level is very high. Why
now? Why the Dodgers?"

Canseco said his book will be titled Dare To Truth ("You know, like
Madonna") and said it will be "amazing . . . completely truthful as far as
it concerns anybody involved with my life or my career."

Although Dodgers vice-president Tommy Lasorda was not ashamed to ask
Canseco to autograph a baseball, the team kept Canseco's appearance low-key.

"We told [Canseco] there was a 99-per-cent chance that we would not offer
him a contract," said Matt Slater, the Dodgers' director of pro scouting.
"But it's an open tryout and anyone can attend. We'll give them a call
[today]."

Canseco survived the morning cut and was 2-for-6, with a walk and two
strikeouts, in an afternoon game. The Dodgers made him bat every inning.
Former major-leaguer Bryan Rekar had one of the strikeouts, and the next
batter after Canseco, former New York Yankees farmhand Adam Shorts, drilled
a home run against Rekar.

Canseco was fashionably late and fashionably attired, wearing a designer
sweatsuit and a grey cap with the words Black Belt emblazoned on the front.
He spent the morning stretching and schmoozing, skipping infield drills,
and making weak throws from the outfield.

"It went pretty decent, I just wish I had more time to get ready," said
Canseco, whose agent, Doug Ames, claimed Canseco has three action-movie
proposals. "If it doesn't work out . . . see you guys in the movies."

==========
From the NY Daily News:
Jose's last bash
Dodgers' open tryout figures to close book

Jose Canseco, No. 521 on your scorecard, tries to muscle in at Dodgers'
annual audition... ...but finds his chances as slim as his new physique.

VERO BEACH - The presumed last official day of Jose Canseco's professional
baseball career - and first official day of his forthcoming book promotion
tour - began with the poster boy for baseball's raging steroids debate
arriving a fashionable seven minutes late for sign-in at the Los Angeles
Dodgers' annual March 1 open tryout.

He was bedecked in a navy blue designer sweat suit and a gray baseball cap
bearing the logo "Black Belt," which he naturally was wearing backwards.
Although this has always been one of those "Come one, come all, bring us
your tired, your poor and your eternal dreamers" events, Canseco, through
his publicist, had made certain to put out the word he was attending the
tryout with utmost intentions of restarting his major league career after
three years away from it, 67 days of which were spent behind bars in a
Miami slammer.

By the same token, Dodger officials took pains say that in no way should
the 39-year-old Canseco be perceived as the righthanded power hitter they
have been vowing to acquire all winter.

"He's here," said one of them, "because he asked to come here and this is
an open tryout. We couldn't very well say no."

Canseco, however, didn't quite see it that way. As far as he's concerned,
he's been blackballed from baseball because of his link to steroids and his
intentions to write a tell-all book, due out in September, in which he
promises to name names and blow the lid off baseball's underside of drugs
and sex.

And for starters yesterday, he didn't back off his charges that the vast
majority of baseball players are on steroids.

"'Eighty percent,' is what I said," Canseco asserted. "It may be diminished
a little since then, who knows? If you ask me, there's been too much
emphasis on (steroids) in a negative way. There's a great difference
between using steroids and abusing steroids."

As for himself, Canseco again refused to say whether he had used steroids,
although his incarceration in the Miami jail last summer was due to
prosecution charges that he'd violated his probation (stemming from a
nightclub brawl in which he and his twin brother Ozzie pleaded guilty to
aggravated battery) by taking steroids. He was released because the state
could not determine when he had taken the muscle-enhancing drug.

"Read the book," he kept repeating. "Nobody knows because I was never tested."

He looked noticeably thinner yesterday - but then doesn't just about
everyone this spring? - and after signing in, he was assigned the No. 521
that his agent, Doug Ames, pinned on his back. (It was for sure the highest
baseball number he'd ever had but probably not nearly as high as the one
he'd worn on his back in Miami last summer.)

From there, it was out to the practice field where the Dodger instructors
had Canseco and the 106 other walk-ons (including fellow ex-major leaguers
Doug Jennings and Alex Arias) begin by running 60-yard dashes. According to
Bill Pleis, the ex-Twins pitcher who is now a Dodger area scout, Canseco
was timed at 6.9 seconds. In retrospect, that may have
been the highlight of his day.

He looked rusty and rag-armed in the outfield drills and in 20 batting
practice swings against Dodgers minor league batting coach Juan Bustabad,
he hit one fair ball over the fence and four other flies to the warning
track. And while Ames reported Canseco had been working out at third base
and first in workouts with the UCLA baseball team in recent weeks, the
onetime American League MVP eschewed the infield drills.

As Canseco stood on the sideline casually observing the drills, one of the
walk-on infielders who stood out (for all the wrong reasons) was a short,
fat 30-something fellow with a pronounced limp, and a glove that still had
the price tag on it. His name, he said, was Richard Vergara, and he was a
retired Army mechanic from Jacksonville who hadn't played ball since high
school.

"I'm just going to keep trying," he said as he headed out the gate with all
of the first cuts. "I got nothing else better to do."

Was he aware, he was asked, that he'd been working out with Jose Canseco?

"No," Vergara replied. "I never heard of him."

On the surface, it must have seemed a very humbling experience for Canseco,
this erstwhile baseball superstar with 462 career homers, to be reduced to
having to display what remaining skills he had left against a bunch of
sandlot players who could only dream of the ability he threw away.

At least he was asked to stay around for the game, in which he played first
base and went 2-for-6 with two singles and a walk, afterward acknowledging
he was probably "3-4 weeks away" from being in real playing shape. With
Canseco, however, it's always been a big con and this didn't seem to be
anything different.

What you saw was all he really had left. For anything else, one supposed,
you've got to read the book.

Jose Canseco: Highlights
-1986 Rookie of the Year.
-Won 1988 AL MVP and became majors' first 40-40 player.
-Hit 462 home runs, 26th all-time.
-Won 1989 World Series with Oakland.
-Hit numerous tape-measure HRs, including one off of restuarant roof at
SkyDome.

Jose Canseco: Lowlights
-Missed 30 games or more 10 times after MVP season.
-Fly ball by Cleveland's Carlos Martinez in 1993 bounced off of head for
home run.
-Suffered season-ending elbow injury in 1993 after making lone career
pitching appearance.
-Sentenced to two years' house arrest for his part in a 2001 nightclub brawl.
-Claimed that 80% of players used steroids.

==========
From the San Francisco Chronicle:
Canseco goes deep, but not that deep
By Tom FitzGerald
Tuesday, March 2, 2004

FoxSports.com promoted "an extensive one-on-one interview'' from a
45-minute conversation that baseball analyst Kevin Kennedy had with Jose
Canseco, who played for Kennedy with the Rangers and Red Sox from 1993
through '96. Extensive interviews, it seems, aren't quite as wide ranging
as they used to be.

Canseco, 39, who was trying out for the Dodgers on Monday, might have
chattered at length about Iraq, Haiti and the high price of jet fuel, for
all we know. But all we come to learn is that 1) he hasn't gotten baseball
out of his blood, 2) if he makes any club, he'll donate his salary to
charity, 3) "It's not like I haven't made mistakes. But the perception
about me (that he's a bad guy) is wrong,'' and 4) that somebody wanted to
make sure he didn't get back into baseball and rigged a urine test that he
took while under house arrest in 2002 so that he would test positive for
steroids.

The rest will have to wait for Canseco's long-awaited book, which Kennedy
says is "coming out in September.'' Oddly, nobody seems to want Jose, but
somebody's always out to get him. Who is it? He has said he would name
names in the book. So does the phone book.

==========
From the AP:
Canseco: 'See you in the movies.'

VERO BEACH, Fla. -- Jose Canseco can now focus on being an actor or an
author rather than a baseball player.

As expected, the Los Angeles Dodgers informed the former slugger Tuesday
that they weren't interested in his services.

Canseco, 39, participated in an open tryout with the team Monday. He said
he wouldn't play in the minors, which probably ended any chance he had of
being signed by the Dodgers.

Matt Slater, the team's director of professional scouting, said a couple of
players who participated in the workout will be offered contracts -- but
Canseco wouldn't be one of them.

"We called him to give him the news," Slater said.

Canseco was told beforehand there was a 99 percent chance the Dodgers
wouldn't sign him, but he participated anyway.

He certainly didn't look prepared.

"This is probably going to be my last attempt -- see you in the movies,"
Canseco told reporters as he signed autographs.

Now living in the Los Angeles suburb of Encino, Canseco claims to have
Hollywood connections.

A six-time All-Star who hit 462 career homers in the major leagues, Canseco
also claims to be working on a book that will be released in September. He
last played in the majors in 2001.

He spent more than two months in jail last summer for testing positive for
steroids while on probation -- a charge he denied.

Prosecutors later dropped the charge, prompting his release from custody.
He had been on probation since the previous November when he pleaded guilty
to aggravated battery for a 2001 nightclub fight.