Hey Cansecoites,

I'm way behind on creating new Photo Galleries, but I'm still adding photos
to Canseconet.com all the time. The newest ones are at the bottom of the
main page of the Photo Galleries. I added about a dozen new ones a couple
of days ago.

Overall, I would consider this season disappointing for Jose. That heel
injury really slowed him down during the first half, and now that he's not
playing full time, his numbers are a lot lower than I expected. Jose's got
15 homers in over 300 at bats this season, less than half homers he had
after 300 at bats in 1999. Sadly, Jose has only surpassed ONE person's
predictions in the 2000 Jose Canseco Home Run Contest. If he hits 1, 2, 4,
or 7 more homers before the regular season ends, there actually won't be a
winner of the contest. Don't worry, I'll give away the bat and rookie card
next year. You can check out all this year's predictions at
http://www.canseconet.com/entries.htm.

There are a bunch of good articles below - lots of talk about Jose's
future. Enjoy!

-Mark

P.S. I'm on an airplane on my way to Phoenix right now. I'll be at all
three of this weekend's Diamondbacks/Braves games. If anyone from the
Phoenix area would like to meet me there, let me know.

==========
From the AP:
Canseco Swings Yankees to Another Win

NEW YORK (AP) -- Jose Canseco went 3-for-3, hitting his 446th career home
run to lead Denny Neagle and the New York Yankees over the Toronto Blue
Jays 10-2 Tuesday night.

Canseco drove in three runs and scored three as the Yankees won for the
10th time in 13 games. The Blue Jays, who had won three in a row, were
blunted in their bid to move up in the AL wild card race....

...Canseco hit an RBI single in a three-run second that put the Yankees
ahead 4-1 against Joey Hamilton (2-1). In the fourth, he lined a two-run
homer into the left-field seats.

Canseco's 15th homer of the season, and sixth for the Yankees, put him six
behind Carl Yastrzemski for 22nd place on the career list.

After singling in the sixth, Canseco drew an intentional walk that loaded
the bases with two outs in the seventh. Ryan Thompson, making his first
start of the season in center field for ailing Bernie Williams, greeted
reliever Roy Halladay with a three-run double.

==========
From ESPN.com:
Neagle gets 7th win with

NEW YORK (AP) -- With each big swing, the cheers at Yankee Stadium get
louder for Jose Canseco. So do the compliments from his New York teammates.

Canseco again showed why he might be a force in October, going 3-for-3 and
hitting his 446th career home run to lead Denny Neagle and the Yankees over
the Toronto Blue Jays 10-2 Tuesday night.

Denny Neagle received a standing ovation for giving the Yankees 7 2/3 solid
innings. He's 7-4 with New York and 15-6 overall.

"This team is very offensively explosive," Canseco said.

Canseco drove in three runs and scored three as the Yankees won for the
10th time in 13 games. New York trimmed its magic number for winning the AL
East to 13 over second-place Boston and 11 against Toronto.

"It's nice to have him on our side," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "Sure,
he's got some holes. But if you make a mistake against him, it's not a
single. He can light it up for a while if he gets going."...

...By then, Canseco had done most of his damage.

Canseco was obtained on waivers from Tampa Bay on Aug. 7. Torre, who been
surprised by the acquisition, recently talked to the 36-year-old slugger.

"I remember I called in Jose and said, 'Just stay with it.' "

Now, Canseco is getting a more regular turn at designated hitter because
Glenallen Hill has been slumping.

"I came into a difficult and delicate situation," Canseco said. "I'm the
type of hitter who likes to play every day, but whatever Joe has in store
is OK."

Canseco hit an RBI single in a three-run second that put the Yankees ahead
4-1 against Joey Hamilton (2-1). In the fourth, he lined a two-run homer
into the left-field seats.

"Anytime you can just have the threat of Jose Canseco in your lineup, it's
a big addition," Neagle said.

Canseco's 15th homer of the season, and sixth for the Yankees, put him six
behind Carl Yastrzemski for 22nd place on the career list. The shot also
earned Canseco a huge ovation.

"As a New York Yankee, the crowd has been great to me. I feed off that," he
said.

After singling in the sixth, Canseco got an even bigger cheer as stepped up
in the seventh. He drew an intentional walk that loaded the bases with two
outs and Ryan Thompson, making his first start of the season in center
field for ailing Bernie Williams, greeted reliever Roy Halladay with a
three-run double.

==========
From Yankees.com
Canseco Leads Yankee Rout Of Jays

BRONX (Ticker) -- Jose Canseco created mayhem even when the Blue Jays chose
to avoid him.

Canseco went 3-for-3 with a homer, three runs scored and three RBI and Ryan
Thompson followed an intentional walk to the slugger with a bases-clearing
double as the first-place Yankees pounded the Blue Jays, 10-2.

Canseco, a former Blue Jay, snapped a 1-1 tie and put the Yankees in front
for good with an RBI single in the second. He belted his 15th homer, a
two-run shot in the fourth to give New York a 6-1 cushion and singled to
left in the sixth.

With runners at second and third and two outs in the seventh, Toronto
manager Jim Fregosi decided to intentionally walk Canseco and Thompson made
his former team pay, drilling a double into the gap in left-center for a
10-2 lead.

==========
From the NY Post:

...Canseco belted a two-run shot into the left-field seats to make the
score 6-1 in the fourth, pausing briefly after he hit it to stare at his
bat and make sure it was not cracked. Like Knoblauch, Canseco is another
piece the Yankees need but have not had all season. Like Knoblauch,
Canseco's body is still healing after a long stint on the disabled list.
There is a different feeling when Canseco bats at the Stadium, and the fans
booed as he was intentionally walked in the seventh. Ryan Thompson followed
with a three-run double.

==========
From Newsday:
Jose Canseco went 3-for-3 and smacked a two-run homer, his sixth since
coming to the Yankees, in the fourth inning, and Ryan Thompson, who started
in centerfield for Bernie Williams (calf), drilled a three-run double that
sealed it in the seventh. Canseco was 5-for-32 before last night, but one
blast can make up for a bunch of misses. "With him, anything can happen,"
Torre said. "It's nice to have him on our side."

==========
From NJ.com:

NEW YORK (AP) -- Jose Canseco already has carved out a place with the
crowd. Now he's trying to earn an everyday spot in the New York Yankees'
lineup.

Canseco, whose acquisition in August was met by skepticism from Yankees
fans and surprise from manager Joe Torre, showed Tuesday night why he might
be able to help his new team toward another title.

Canseco went 3-for-3, hitting his 446th career home run and drawing a
couple of loud ovations as Denny Neagle and the Yankees beat the Toronto
Blue Jays 10-2.

"We've got a pretty strong team. It looks very well-balanced, comparing it
to the Oakland A's days," Canseco said.

Those Oakland clubs reached the World Series from 1988-90, led by Canseco
and his Bash Brother, Mark McGwire. These Yankees are trying to win their
third straight championship.

"This team is very offensively explosive," Canseco said.

Canseco drove in three runs and scored three as the Yankees won for the
10th time in 13 games. New York trimmed its magic number for winning the AL
East to 13 over second-place Boston and 11 against Toronto.

"It's nice to have him on our side," Yankees manager Joe Torre said. "Sure,
he's got some holes. But if you make a mistake against him, it's not a
single. He can light it up for a while if he gets going."

==========
From CNN/SI:
Playing the field

It's no secret that Jose Canseco wants to hang around baseball long enough
to hit 500 home runs. He needs 55 more. But now Canseco says he wants to
play the outfield almost every day next season, something he hasn't done
since 1992. Canseco says he will revamp his offseason workouts, with much
less emphasis on weight lifting and more on running and stretching. He
hopes to report to spring training at 230 pounds, down from his current 260.

==========
From the Daily News:
Rocket, Jose Number Among Best

He sits among his Yankee teammates an admittedly humbled man. Baseball,
says Jose Canseco, can do this to a man and it has most surely done it to him.

"I've been through everything a player can go through in this game," he was
saying last night, "more than any other athlete. I've been on top, the
bottom, through divorces, releases, everything. It's a book. I've been
considered the best player in the game and I've been called a bum."

He'd have to agree when he came here, plucked off the waiver wire as he was
in August, his status in everyone's eyes was far closer to the latter than
the former. He was hurt again and now even the attendance-challenged Tampa
Bay Devil Rays had deemed him expendable. At the same time, the Yankee high
command candidly admitted it was a waiver claim gone wrong.

Jose Canseco plans to stick around the Majors to reach number 500. To a far
lesser degree, Roger Clemens found baseball to be humbling when he came
over to the Yankees. In fact, it was not until this recent winning streak -
which reached nine last night with yet another vintage effort against the
Blue Jays - that Clemens has been able to convince the Yankee faithful he
hadn't left the best of his Cy Young goods in Toronto and Boston.

But if Clemens has managed to re-establish his star quality for the
longterm (as in the $30.9 mil over the next three years), Canseco at least
has begun to change some minds over the short term.

"He is," said Joe Torre, "exactly what Darryl (Strawberry) was here in
that, Jose's as much of a weapon just being on the bench as he is in the
lineup. What makes him that is his ability to go up there and get a walk -
like Darryl did against (Greg) Maddux in the first game of the World Series
last year - or hit one out without even swinging hard."

Of course, from his standpoint, Canseco doesn't feel he's contributed
anything when sitting on the bench. By the same token, however, he
understands the wealth of designated hitting talent at Torre's disposal -
which presumably has added to his growing baseball humility.

When asked if he felt he was in an audition to be on the postseason roster,
he was clearly taken aback.

"I don't know," Canseco said. "I never really thought of it like that. I
don't think of anything in the longterm sense. I never expected to play
every day here, and there was never any discussion as to whether I'd be on
the postseason roster. I never really thought about it."

Presumably, neither did the Yankees at first. Their initial thoughts after
unwittingly assuming Canseco's contract were what to do with him and how to
get rid of him. Their thinking is quite different now. It is clear Torre
looks at him as another Strawberry and while there is still a whole lot of
baseball to be played this season - and therefore more opportunities for
Canseco to be felled by another injury - it is conceivable his term in
Yankee pinstripes will be extended.

In any event, Canseco, who hit his 446th career homer Tuesday night against
the Blue Jays, does not intend to leave the game without getting to the
magic number 500. And Clemens, clearly buoyed by his renaissance since
coming off the disabled list July 2, is now thinking and talking seriously
about the prospect of 300 wins. Last night's win was No. 260 which tied him
with Hall of Famer Ted Lyons for 34th on the all-time list.

"Three hundred is still a ways away," Clemens said. "But what's most
enjoyable to me is the guys I'm passing. You just never know, though. I
might have had 5-6-7 more wins here, while I maxed out in Toronto. It's a
challenge, especially when you hear that Maddux and I might be the last to
do it."

"I've been through so much," Canseco said, "if I quit now it would be all
for nothing. Do I want 500 homers? What do you think? When you think of all
the time I've missed, to get 500 homers would be incredible. If nothing
else, I would hold the record for most time on the disabled list by a
player who hit 500 homers."

He is 36 now, two years younger than Clemens, and some would say it is an
old 36, if only because all the leg and back injuries have so eroded his
once above-average outfielding and baserunning skills. For a brief time,
over a decade ago, he was the best player in the game and a plaque in
Cooperstown seemed as much a lock as Clemens'. As he concedes, though,
nothing is certain now.

Home run No. 500 is at least two seasons away as is win 300 for Clemens.
But while Clemens can feel secure at both his place in Cooperstown and with
the Yankees, Canseco can only look at baseball as a day-to-day proposition.
For what it's worth, at least, his place in pinstripes - the only place a
player of his magnitude and sense of theatre should ever want to be - is
far more certain than it was five weeks ago when he arrived here as an
unwanted vagrant off the waiver bus.

==========
From the Daily News:
Rocket Still Flying High
By OHM YOUNGMISUK

Roger Clemens was answering a question last night when Jose Canseco
interrupted Clemens' postgame interview.

"Don't let (opponents) score and you'll be all right," Canseco blurted from
the locker stall next to Clemens.

"Yeah, get a hit," Clemens said to his old buddy.

"I keep telling you, you don't need a hit," Canseco shot back.

The way Clemens has been pitching, Canseco might not be that far off. The
Rocket gave up only a run and eight hits to Toronto in seven innings as the
Yankees beat the Blue Jays 3-2....

==========
All Yank Pieces Starting to Fit
September 14,2000

OUTSIDE the batting cage, Derek Jeter flipped through the four cards as the
man with the camera filmed the commercial. Each card offered one word
written in thick black letters. Every ... game ... a ... hero.

The pregame message was simple and powerful. The Yankees can only hope that
is their postseason destiny again.

There were heroes again last night in a thrilling 3-2 victory over the Blue
Jays at the Stadium, none bigger than Roger Clemens, who won his ninth
straight. The Retro Rocket is roaring and so are the Yankees.

"He's led our club since the middle of the season," manager Joe Torre said
after Mariano Rivera made it interesting while recording the final five
outs, leaving runners at the corners to end the game. "He's taken the ball
and done a hell of a job for us. What El Duque's been doing for the last
year and a half, Roger has picked it up from there."

There's little doubt the Yankees are picking up their game again, having
won five of their last six at the most vital of times. October is coming.
Torre sat in the dugout before Clemens took the mound and talked about his
incredible postseason lineup possibilities.

In front of him stood Jose Canseco, Jeter, Chuck Knoblauch, who has
returned with zest, David Justice, Glenallen Hill, Tino Martinez and Paul
O'Neill. If they ever film another one of those "Major League" movies, this
is the cast of opponents a producer would assemble to challenge those
lovable Indians. The Yankees are the deadliest of combinations right now,
talented and loose. They got off to a two-run lead when Martinez homered in
the first and never trailed. They are what every team aspires to be in
September. And never forget they have won 12 straight World Series games.

The postseason lineup is not finalized, but listen closely to Torre and you
see which way he is leaning. Clemens seems certain to be the Game 1 starter
in the playoffs, and last night's performance continues to build his case.
The right-hander has not lost since June 9, and last night he allowed just
one run over seven innings.

At 38, the same age as Patrick Ewing, Clemens is back to being his Cy Young
best, although he was advancing Andy Pettitte's case after the game.
Justice will spend his October nights in left field, leaving the DH role to
two right-handers, Canseco and Glenallen Hill. They are not in competition
for DH duties, Torre said, but are working in tandem.

This is Torre's solution to the situation come October. "One's a DH and one
would be a pinch-hitter," he said. "We've been doing it a lot easier than I
anticipated."

When Canseco first arrived, Torre was not sure what to do with the
behemoth. He learned that Canseco fits in perfectly with his squad of
superstars on the field and in the clubhouse, and that was evident as
Canseco had Knoblauch doubled over in laughter during batting practice with
some self-effacing humor. Laughter is a good thing. Knoblauch last night
produced three hits, scored one run and was on base four times.

"The only downside I anticipated is not playing David Justice all that much
in the outfield," Torre said of Canseco's arrival. "But when you come to
the postseason your catcher catches every day and your outfield plays every
day. It's not a consideration anymore."

Torre followed with a sentence that only he could get away with. "My
concern was David Justice seeing too much time in the outfield in more of a
prophylactic manner," he explained, "not wait for something to happen but
try to keep it from happening as far as coming up with a tweak here or there."

In other words, Torre did not want Justice to get pregnant in left. In this
case, pregnant is coming up with a pulled hamstring or some other nagging
injury. In the postseason, Justice is in left every day. Case closed.

"I've gotten to know him quite a bit here," Torre said of Justice. "He's
not the fastest guy in the world, but he knows how to play the outfield and
he knows how to play the game. The thing we have benefited from is that he
has given us a big power guy against left-handed pitchers. I guess that's
surprised me a little bit. I knew he wasn't a platoon-type player, but I
didn't realize how successful he would be against left-handers, power-wise."

Canseco gives Torre that Darryl Strawberry edge on the bench, meaning
Canseco - even when not in the lineup - is a weapon who keeps the other
manager honest. Besides the new punch, both men love the spotlight. "They
like to win, that's the spotlight they like," Torre said. "And the fact
they both had a taste of it and they are both wearing championship rings,
going through that keeps you hungry for it. It's something you never tire of."

These Yankees, new and old, never tire of winning. October is waiting and
they are looking for heroes.

==========
From the NY Times:
INSIDE PITCH

JOSE CANSECO has started six straight games for the Yankees and has six
homers in 27 games, but Canseco does not think he is guaranteed a spot on
the postseason roster. "I don't take it for granted," Canseco said. But JOE
TORRE indicated that GLENALLEN HILL and Canseco were not competing for one
designated hitter spot and that both would probably be on the roster, with
DAVID JUSTICE in the outfield on a full-time basis. Canseco said he has a
relaxed attitude about his status because he has matured. "I've been the
best player in the world to a bum," Canseco said. "I've been through more
in this game than any other player."

==========
From the Fresno Bee:
Yankees, Canseco made for each other

In a corner of the New York Yankees' clubhouse, Jose Canseco got up from
his chair, and made a proclamation.

"I'm going for the record," he said. "Most DL trips with 500 home runs."

Canseco, who has 446 homers and 11 stints on the disabled list, is hitting
.278 with six homers and 18 RBI in 79 at-bats since Aug.7, when the Yankees
claimed him on waivers from Tampa Bay.

"I didn't expect to play today. I don't take it for granted," Canseco said
before Wednesday's 3-2 Yankee's win. "You have players here who are
everyday players and do a great job at it."

Yankees manager Joe Torre was surprised when his general manager, Brian
Cashman, claimed Canseco, a move made to prevent him from going to a team
the Yankees could later battle for the American League pennant.

It's turned into a pleasant surprise, adding pop to an offense that's
slumped in several stretches. Canseco says he doesn't know if he'll be
picked for the 25-man postseason roster, but Torre made it sound as if the
36-year-old player is a shoo-in -- because he's a power threat.

==========
From the AP:

..."You want to reach the 500-homer plateau and go from there," he said.
"I've been through so much, if I quit now, it would be for nothing. You
definitely want to reach that. I've been through so much in baseball, so
many surgeries, so much time off, so many ups and downs."

The Yankees hold an option for 2001, and it's unclear what the future holds
for Canseco. He just wants to play.

"I'm 36, but I don't consider myself your average 36-year-old athlete," he
said. "I take care of myself way too much. If anybody's noticed, the
at-bats per home run are better than when I was younger."