Hey everyone,

First, let me apologize for not getting those photos from Jose's last
tryout up yet. I have so much going on right now, I wouldn't even know
where to begin. It simply hasn't bee a priority for me. I will get them
up eventually - honest. Thanks for being patient.

Now for the new stuff: Jose is back in the news! Apparently he's going to
be trying out tomorrow (Thursday) for the Long Drivers of America (golf)
Tour. For the details, and some tidbits about Jose's unpublished book and
his possible movie career, see below.

-Mark


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From The LA Times:
He Still Swings for the Fences

As an action movie star in a project that he expects to start shooting this
year, Jose Canseco plays a guy who steals a drug lord's artwork because the
drug lord has kidnapped his niece.

The movie has just about everything, Canseco said. "Car chases, fast
driving, fight scenes."

But no baseball. At 39, Canseco didn't hook up with the Dodgers after a
tryout this spring, but he said he was "tired of all the hypocrisy" anyway
and doesn't miss baseball.

Canseco's movie doesn't have a title, but his book does. He said "Dare to
Truth" should be out in September, by which time he's going to be even more
up to date with his karate, taekwondo and weight training.

Did we mention golf?

The 6-foot-4, 240-pound Canseco has set his sights on winning the
long-drive championship in October in Mesquite, Nev. He already has
AccuFLEX shafts and SMT Golf driver as his sponsors, and Canseco says he
can hit the ball 350 yards regularly while often topping out at 420 yards.

"I see the whole thing as a hobby," said Canseco, who was introduced to
golf by Roger Clemens when they were Boston Red Sox teammates. "Pitchers
are usually golfers because they have so much time off between starts, they
can play all the time."

Canseco had 462 home runs in his 17-year career, but he loves slamming golf
balls instead of baseballs now.

"It's just fascinating. I've already hit baseballs as far as you can hit
them," he said. "I play with guys and they see me hit a golf ball 350
yards, and they freak out."

Canseco, who lives in Encino, says he's at the Balboa driving range four
times a week and is ready now to compete in the long-driving competition.

"Just to crush a golf ball, it's amazing," he said

==========
From Unknown:
Briefly

He's still a power hitter: Former all-star baseball player Jose Canseco
makes his debut on the 2004 Long Drivers of America Tour in Thursday's
qualifier at Tee Town Golf Ranch in Broken Arrow, Okla. Canseco will be
swinging for one of four available spots in the 48-player open division field

==========
From Unknown:

SOUTHLAKE, TEXAS -- Former major league slugger Jose Canseco will make his
debut on the 2004 Long Drivers of America (LDA) Tour in Tulsa on Thursday,
May 20.

Canseco will compete at Tee Town Golf Ranch in suburban Broken Arrow for
one of four available spots in the 48-hitter open division field.
Thursday's qualifier, which features a modified double-elimination format,
begins at 2:30 p.m.

A press conference for Canseco is scheduled for 12 p.m. Tee Town Golf Ranch
is located at 7401 South 209th East Avenue in Broken Arrow. The phone
number is (918) 355-4727.

During his 17-year major league career, Canseco hit 462 home runs and was
named to seven American League All-Star teams. In 1988, as a member of the
Oakland A's, he became baseball?s first 40-40 man (homers/stolen bases).

"Long Drivers of America welcomes Jose Canseco to the sport of professional
long drive," said LDA owner/chief executive officer Art Sellinger.
"Everyone on our tour is eager to see how he will stack up against the
biggest hitters in golf. Obviously, he is a world-class athlete with
tremendous strength and superb hand-eye coordination. He's yet another
great athlete who's been drawn to long drive competition by our sport's
energy and excitement."

Tulsa is the third stop for the 2004 LDA Tour, which features competition
in three divisions -- open, women and senior (45-up) -- and total purses of
$600,000-plus.

Additional information on the 2004 LDA Tour is available at www.longdrivers.com

==========
From the Edmonton Sun
One-hit wonders
Long-drive golfers blasting their way up ladder of respectability
By ROBERT TYCHKOWSKI

Hulk have six-foot-long illegal driver. Hulk will kill it.

Aaaaarrrgh! Hulk hit seven balls OB!

Hulk mad now! Hulk smash Pinnacle!

Aaaaaaarrrgh ... 400 yards!

Hulk going to Worlds in Mesquite!

Aaaaarghhh! Hulk smash Mesquite!

And that, in a nutshell, is the all-too-common perception golf purists have
about long drivers.

They consider it an "extreme'' sport. Extreme, as in stupid. Trash. Not to
be taken seriously. No more a sport than young offenders taking time out
from breaking into garages to slide skateboards down handrails.

"There are some people, like (syndicated radio host) Jim Rome who won't
give us the respect, who think this is a monster sport,'' said Wayne
Paradis, site director for the Re/Max Long Drive world championship
qualifier yesterday in St. Albert. "But it's getting better. We're trying
to conform with the USGA rules in terms of length and size of drivers,
things like that, so people will look at it as a legitimate sport. These
aren't steroid, muscle-bound people; golf is a game of flexibility, not
just strength.''

IS IT EVEN GOLF?

But is long driving even golf? Or is long driving to the PGA what monster
trucks are to Formula One - a poor cousin that folks will watch out of
curiosity once in awhile, but will never take seriously?

"Mainstream publicity? Not as much as we'd like,'' said Russ Pate,
communications director for the Long Drivers of America Tour, where
Sherwood Park's Kevin Blenkhorn is one of the top guns. "Any new sport has
to define itself and figure out what it is and what it's not, but people
are always quick to put labels on.''

Like: Goofy. Freakish. Illegal.

Yet Edmonton and Central Alberta are a hotbed for long driving, the hottest
bed in North America for the last five years if you go by the LDA numbers.
We have more events and competitors here than anywhere else and routinely
place finalists at the worlds. Drayton Valley product Jason Zubak,
four-time world champion and one of the biggest long-driving names on the
planet, isn't even the best in Alberta anymore - Blenkhorn beats him
regularly.

"The development in (Central Alberta) has seen a huge upswing in interest
the last few years. People like Jason Zubak and others can be credited with
that,'' said Pate, who's based in Dallas. "And the fascination golfers have
with distance has a lot to do with it, too. We're in a definite era of
power golf and it's spilled over into our sport.''

Or so we've heard. But aside from the odd feature here and there, long
driving remains on the outside with its nose pressed against the glass of
golf's consciousness. Its reputation as steroid-filled gorillas swinging
illegal equipment and hitting it straight once every 10 shots simply wasn't
winning over fans who've been slaves to golf's tradition for centuries.

"We've taken a lot of steps in the past few years to downplay the extreme
side of it,'' said Pate, adding clubfaces have always conformed to USGA
standards anyway. By next year, the maximum shaft length will be a
PGA-legal 48 inches. As well, competitions now reward overall consistency
rather than one barbaric hit, and the LDA recently implemented a random
drug-testing policy to further clean and legitimize its image.

"We've had guys who were swinging 61-inch clubs and we had a guy in
Mesquite swinging a 72-inch club (using a tent peg as his tee),'' said
Pate. "Those days are gone. That, to me, was more of the extreme, anything
goes, kind of element.''

One that didn't catch on.

"When I first started out in this and told golf pros I was a long driver,
they'd shake their heads and say 'whatever,' '' said Blenkhorn. "They still
don't have any respect for the one-hit wonders, but when they see you go to
the worlds year after year and see that we're using legal equipment and see
there's going to be drug testing, they start to appreciate what we can do.

"Things are slowly improving. If you wanted to watch the World
Championships they'd be on at 11 at night. Now ESPN is doing eight
half-hour shows on the LDA, which will help get us more into the mainstream.''

AN EVENT AT TROON

The LDA Tour is now seven stops a season, plus the Tour Championship, with
a $15,000 first prize for each stop. The Pinnacle Distance Challenge, for
which John Daly is the front man, is ripe with sponsorship dollars and
exposure. And in Scotland, where tradition comes before all else, there's a
long-drive event at The Troon.

"The respect is coming,'' said Paradis. "The application of USGA rules are
making a difference in how people from the media look at the event.''

And now, a PR bonanza if there ever was one: Former Oakland A's slugger
Jose Canseco will compete next week at the LDA Tour stop in Tulsa.

"We're going to see how a major-league home-run king will translate into
long driving,'' said Pate, adding Canseco's swing speed is reportedly off
the charts. "He's interested and we'll see how he does.''

The exposure won't hurt, either.

"It's an evolutionary process,'' said Pate. "One step at a time.''