Jose Canseco brought the fans back to Oakland for baseball. I used to be a huge A’s backer, right after they disemboweled the team and sold off all its assets. The situation for baseball in Oakland was kinda bleak. But the scouting department went on a rampage that has not been seen in quite some time. With the drafting of Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, and Walt Weiss, the foundational core for the A’s in the early 90’s was born.
This team had a swagger about it. It went in knowing that it could beat you in a variety of different ways. Dave Stewart was one of my all time favorite baseball players when he got to Oakland. He had that fatherly like stare… you know, the one you would get when you were about to get the sermon/lecture, or he was about to tell you to go cut a branch off, since he was going to use it to beat your ass. He would routinely beat your number one pitcher, no matter who it was. Roger Clemens? He totally owned your ass, like you wife would if she divorced you. (Why should she, when she was depending on Roger to be the middle man so she could juice up and look good for the cover of SI)
But, this is about Jose Canseco. He and Mark McGwire formed the Bash Brothers, two dudes who hit a lot of home runs. I can still remember when Jose broke though and hit that mythical number of 40-40, 40 homeruns and 40 steals. People could do one, or the other, but not both and certainly not in one season. With the help of hard work and shots in the ass, he was one of the most exciting players in the mid 80’s and early 90’s.
Now kids, this is where the “Don’t do DRUGS” part of the story happens. Steroids break your body down, since it was not designed to carry so much muscle/weight. The A’s dealt him for a hill of beans from Texas, but he was cursed there too, since he had to have Tommy John surgery. He got it because he convinced the manager that he could pitch, and they let him. After throwing way to many pitches, something happened and his ligament was torn and needed surgery.
Now, where does the title fit in? Well Biggie went from ashy to classy or from 10g’s from blow to 30g’s a show, but Jose went from hitting homeruns to being homeless (or outta home)
LOS ANGELES — Jose Canseco, the former AL MVP who made millions during his baseball career, has had his home foreclosed.
Canseco told the syndicated TV show “Inside Edition” that he walked away from his $2.5 million, 7,300-square foot home in suburban Encino because it didn’t make sense to continue making payments.
“I do have a judgment on my home and it to me is very strange because it didn’t make financial sense for me to keep paying a mortgage on a home that was basically owned by someone else,” he said in an interview that aired Thursday.
“You know my life, this financial thing, is a very complicated issue. Obviously, when you make all that money, people think, `OK, let’s assume it is $35 million.’ People have to understand that $35 million, you’re paying the government 41 percent. That leaves you with about $17 or $18 million, not even. Then you’re taking care of your whole family.”
He added that a couple of divorces cost him $7 million or $8 million.
Canseco said his top earnings year was $6 million and that his financial situation obviously is different than most people who are losing their homes.
“What about other families that we’re hearing on TV, that they’re saying, `We have nowhere else to go,’” he said. “I mean, that is amazing. I’ve got books (he’s put out two expose-type books on drug use in baseball), we’re now trying to produce the movie to both.
“Like I said, my situation was a little more different than most. I decided to just let it (the house) go, but in most cases and most families, they have nowhere else to go.”
Calls by The Associated Press to Canseco and to his attorney, Greg Emerson, were not immediately returned.
Well, all we here at Too Old can hope for is that the book and movie of Juiced 2 isn’t a swing and a miss
Dave Stewart. Nuff Said.