Baseball Greats - Jose Canseco

Jose Canseco Capas, Jr., better known as simply Jose Canseco, was born July 2, 1964, in Havana, Cuba, and played Major League Baseball as both a designated hitter and an outfielder. His family left Cuba when he and his twin brother, Ozzie, were still infants, and Canseco grew up in Miami. He never attended college, signing with the Oakland Athletics in 1982 and moving into the major leagues in 1986. He was named the Rookie of the Year for the American League after hitting 33 homers. Mark McGwire joined his team the following year (1987), and when Mark hit 49 home runs, the pair were nicknamed the “Bash Brothers”.

In 1989, Canseco was his first wife, Esther Haddad (since November of 1988), accused him of domestic violence, claiming that he rammed his car into hers. This was the start of a run of accusations that put Canseco under scrutiny in the media. In 1991, he and Haddad finally divorced, and Canseco remarried in 1996 to Jessica Sekely (he was arrested the following year for allegedly hitting her). After being sentenced to probation and counseling in 1997, they divorced in 1999.

Also in 1991, Canseco’s career hit a plateau, partly due to several injuries and the problems in his personal life. Finally, in 1992, he was traded to the Texas Rangers (in the midst of several moves in the league). In 1993, he had an incident in a game where he lost track of a fly ball in the glare of the lights. After hitting him in the head, the ball bounced over the wall, ending in a home run. He injured his arm pitching later in the season and had to have surgery, taking him out of play for the rest of the season.

In 1998, as a Blue Jay, he made a comeback to the game, hitting 46 home runs and stealing 29 bases, but most of the fans missed this because they were too busy following the home run race taking place between Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire. Canseco again changed teams, moving to Tampa Bay, and had a great home run season. He continued playing, with a bried stint as a Yankee in 2000, then playing a bit with the Chicago White Sox in 2001. He was signed by the Expos in 2002 but was let go prior to the beginning of the season. Having injured himself several seasons in a row, Canseco retired in May of 2002, though he made a brief comeback attempt in 2004 (but was not offered the spot he tried out for with the LA Dodgers).

Most recently, Canseco is noted for his book, released in 2005, where he admitted to steroid use and alleged that 85% of all major league players also took steroids and went on to name the names of several of them. This led to a major controversy and Congressional hearings.