USA TODAY International Edition
AS ANALYST, CANSECO REVIVES MLB DREAM
Steroid- stained ex- player savors part- time job
LAS VEGAS Jose Canseco sits at one of the two long poker tables in the living room of his Las Vegas home, his massive biceps bulging through his tank top, and he’s ready to take a swing at any topic thrown at him.
His perceived banishment from the game? He’ll give you chapter and verse on that.
Regrets about writing the book that made him a pariah in baseball? Plenty.
Do steroid users belong in the Hall of Fame? Hell, yeah, and there are some in there.
His chances of managing in the majors? Better than zero.
Blowing through the $ 46 million he made as a player? Easier than you think.
His choice of attire — tank top and skull cap — on his TV appearances? Fans love it.
Through a good portion of his 52 years on this planet — and some might suggest he belongs on another one — Canseco has earned a reputation for speaking his mind, and he did so for more than an hour in an interview with USA TODAY Sports.
His outspoken nature is part of what made Canseco attractive to the Oakland Athletics and their TV partner, NBC Sports California, who hired him to do pregame and postgame analysis on 25 of the team’s games this season.
This is his first job in the majors since, he thinks, being forced into early retirement after the 2001 season at 37 when no team would offer him a contract, even at the minimum salary.
Canseco is convinced he could have played another five years but was blackballed because of his links to performance- enhancing drugs, which he chronicled in the 2005 book Juiced. He went down swinging, accusing big stars including former teammates Mark McGwire, Roger Clemens, Rafael Palmeiro, Juan Gonzalez, Ivan Rodriguez and Jason Giambi of using steroids. Many of his claims were later confirmed.
Canseco didn’t envision the day he would return to baseball’s good graces — he doesn’t think his current gig meets that description — but the A’s saw their ex- slugger as a great fit.
Coming off consecutive lastplace finishes and bereft of stars, the A’s are not exactly a ratings magnet. New team President Dave Kaval saw in the onetime American League MVP a chance to liven up broadcasts and create buzz while rekindling among fans thoughts of a happier past.
“I thought it was a joke when they first called me. I’m going, ‘ C’mon, this is a bad joke. Is it April Fool’s? Who is this?’ ” Canseco said. “If you look at my history, I wrote the book Juiced and I was kind of excommunicated from Major League Baseball. Nobody would hire me in the baseball world, whether in coaching, whether as an analyst, batboy, nothing.”
So far the A’s are glad they took a chance. They’re even promoting his appearances on social media.
Canseco is not as polished as Dallas Braden, who along with fellow ex- pitcher Dave Stewart has joined the broadcasts as an analyst this season, but he brings a self- deprecating sense of humor and particularly keen observations on hitting.
He’s also not afraid to rip the A’s when they perform poorly, comparing them to a Class AAA team during a lousy spell in April.
In a Bay Area sports landscape that includes two NFL teams, the hugely popular Golden State Warriors and the San Francisco Giants, anything that helps the A’s separate themselves represents a plus.
If Canseco likens a long game to sexual foreplay and an A’s walk- off win to climax, as he did last week, well, that’s part of the package.
“People have been impressed by his knowledge of the team, the players and the league,” Kaval said. “So he’s providing a lot of insightful commentary. At the same time, there’s a shock value to some of the things he says, but there are some kernels of truth to them as well.”
The self- proclaimed “Godfather of Steroids,” Canseco did plenty to draw the ire of baseball during and after his playing days.
All those incidents — along with the home run ball that bounced off his head and the unsavory post- baseball appearances in a mixed martial arts fight and celebrity boxing matches — combined to sully a career that featured six All- Star Game spots and 462 home runs, turning Canseco into a caricature. That image was exacerbated by the 2014 gun accident in which he shot his left middle finger and his stream-ofconsciousness tweets on topics from robots to women to bodily functions.
Canseco’s path back to the game started taking shape three years ago when he attended a reunion at Oakland Coliseum to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the A’s 1989 World Series title. Known for his bravado and imposing physical presence as a player, the 6- 4, 240- pounder was so worried about the reception he would get from former teammates and fans that he could hardly sleep the week before. He was greeted warmly by both camps, though it bears mentioning that McGwire — with whom Canseco has tried to mend fences, unsuccessfully — was not there.
“He was nervous as hell,” said Stewart, the staff ace during their years together in Oakland. “I don’t think I’d ever seen him nervous, not where you could visibly see it. Josey’s always been very, very composed. It was actually refreshing to see the nervousness and a little bit of the shyness, timidness.”
The nervousness resurfaced in Canseco’s early TV appearances, broadcast from a studio set up in his house, but has diminished as he has grown more comfortable in a role he never thought he’d perform.
Although he enjoys the gig, Canseco would much rather be on the field in uniform as a coach or, preferably, a manager. “I’ve gone through so many ups and downs that I believe there’s a chance I might be a major league manager one day,” he said. “No matter how small it is, I believe there’s a chance. I truly do. And that’s my dream, to eventually do that. Because I love baseball. I’ve always loved baseball. That’s the best job in the world to me, to be a manager. I would rather be a manager of a baseball team than to win the lottery.”
The odds of either of those events happening appear fairly similar, though perhaps they’re more likely than Canseco entering the Hall of Fame. In his first year of eligibility, 2007, he received 1.1% of the vote, considerably below the 5% required to stay on the ballot.
“I don’t have the stats. I was injured all the time and I didn’t play enough,” he said. “But other players that used PEDs? Hell, yeah. The Mark McGwires, the ( Barry) Bonds, the Clemens, the Palmeiros, the Juan Gonzalezes, the Sammy Sosas. Are you kidding me? Those guys with those legendary stats, how can you keep them out of the Hall of Fame?
“And on that subject, it’s simple: If you let one PED user in the Hall of Fame, you have to let them all in. Don’t be a hypocrite.”
So which players in the Hall used PEDs? Canseco says he knows, but this time he’s not naming names. He learned from the damage inflicted by his book, which forced baseball to confront its PED problem but tarnished the reputation of several peers.
“The one who took the worst beating was me, the death threats was me, excommunicated by Major League Baseball was me,” he said. “Even other players who they knew at the time were using PEDs are inducted in the Hall of Fame, are being taken care of by MLB. I regret deeply hurting some of my friends, I do. But I think people have to understand I took the major blow, and everyone else got, I guess, protected by MLB.”
MLB officials declined to comment but apparently did not oppose his joining the A’s broadcasting crew. The job represents a new source of income for Canseco, who makes his living through personal appearances, speaking engagements, home run derbies and hawking products.
Canseco lives with a cat and two dogs in a large but unremarkable house at the foot of the Sunrise Mountains, in a neighborhood about 12 miles from the Las Vegas Strip. He and twin brother Ozzie still go bowling and play softball together.
Abusing steroids left Jose Canseco incapable of producing enough natural testosterone and forced him into a replacement-therapy program, but he says his real drug was the game — and withdrawal was difficult.
“My addiction was never PEDs. It was baseball.”
“I’ve always loved baseball. That’s the best job in the world to me, to be a manager.” Jose Canseco