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C Roy Campanella 1921-1993 American baseball player K nown as “Campy” by his friends, colleagues, and fans, Roy Campanella is considered by many to be the best baseball catcher in the history of the game. He is often mentioned in the same breath as the great catcher Yogi Berra, who played for the opposing professional league, the American League. Named the National League’s Most Valuable Player three times in the 1950s, Campanella was a pioneering African American player at a time of deep racial prejudice that had prevented blacks from playing in the major leagues until only a year before Campanella joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1948. Campanella played on the same team as the first African American major leaguer, Jackie Robinson, who broke the color barrier in 1947. Not only was Campanella one of the first African Americans to play in the major leagues, he also paved the way for other blacks to play in the position of catcher, a spot until then still off-limits to non-white players. As former fellow Dodger Dusty Baker later told Larry Whiteside of the Boston Globe, “In the days when he caught, catching was basically a white position. . . . Catching was a thinking position that most of America didn’t think people like Campanella could handle. He broke the mold. Because of the mentality of the country, the mentality of baseball, to be black and an MVP meant he had to be head and shoulders above anybody else in the league.” Campanella’s career lasted until 1958, when he was paralyzed in an automobile accident. From then on, a total of 35 years until his death, he was confined to a wheelchair. He managed to stay in the game of baseball, however, as a coach and advocate for young baseball players. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969, and he died of a heart attack in 1993. A Born Catcher Roy Campanella was born in Homestead, Pennsylvania on November 19, 1921. His mother, Ida, was African Roy Campanella American, while his father, John, was an immigrant from Italy. As a boy, Campanella worked in his father’s produce business and also helped his brother to deliver milk. He first seriously played the game that was to make him famous while still in high school. The position of catcher was a natural for him even then, since at five feet, nine and one half inches, he was relatively short, and at 190 pounds, was fairly heavy. Also, he discovered when trying out for the Simon Gratz High School team, no one else wanted to play catcher. Campanella was just 15 years old in 1937 when he first played professional baseball. This was when he dropped out of school to become a member of the Bacharach Giants, based in Brooklyn, New York. Not long after, he joined the Baltimore Elite Giants, a team of the Negro National League. He remained with the Negro Leagues for nine years, playing each season for 235 Campanella Notable Sports Figures Chronology It’s Good to Be Alive 1921 1937 Roy Campanella’s autobiography, It’s Good to Be Alive became the basis of a television movie in 1974. Directed by noted television actor Michael Landon (perhaps best known for his starring role on the Little House on the Prairie TV series), the 100-minute movie was broadcast for the first time on February 22, 1974. This first showing featured an introduction by Campanella and his family. 1937 1946 1948 1958 1959 1978 1993 Born on November 19 in Homestead, Pennsylvania Drops out of school to join his first professional baseball team, the Bacharach Giants of Brooklyn, New York Joins the Baltimore Elite Giants, a team of the Negro National League Signs with the National League’s Brooklyn Dodgers, beginning his career with the organization in the minor leagues Joins the Dodgers’ major league team Paralyzed in an automobile accident, which ends his baseball playing career Publishes autobiography, It’s Good to Be Alive Rejoins Los Angeles Dodgers payroll as a coach and Community Services worker Dies of heart attack near his Woodland Hills, California home $3,000 a season. He played an often-grueling schedule with the Elite Giants, once playing four games in a single day. Also in the Negro League, Campanella learned to play in spite of injuries that would have stopped a lesser player. “You didn’t get hurt when you played in the Negro league,” he was later quoted as saying by Robert McG. Thomas Jr. of the New York Times. “You played no matter what happened to you because if you didn’t play, you didn’t get paid.” During the off-seasons, in the winter, Campanella played for Latin league baseball teams in Latin America. His ability to speak Spanish was a major asset there, and he was often called upon to manage the teams on which he played. Campanella advanced to the major leagues in 1948, when he began playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers’ major league team. This was only a year after Jackie Robinson joined the Dodgers, becoming the first African American to play in the major leagues. Campanella had actually been approached by Dodgers president Wesley Branch Rickey about joining the team in 1945. But Campanella had refused the offer, thinking that Rickey was trying to recruit him for a Negro League team he was said to be putting together. In reality, the supposed Negro League team was a cover masking Rickey’s efforts to recruit black players for the Dodgers. Rickey made his offer a little more plain the following season, and this time Campanella accepted. The year was 1946, and Campanella’s first assignment with the Dodgers was on the organization’s minor league Class B farm team in Nashua, New Hampshire, where he was paid about $200 a month. This represented a drastic cut in pay, but the chance it gave him to play for the major leagues was too good to pass up. Campanella quickly became one of the team’s top players, and a favorite of local fans, who often presented him with gifts of chickens when he pitched winning games. Campanella played a total of 113 games with the Nashua Dodgers, scoring a .290 batting average. Dodger president Rickey moved Campanella up to the Class AAA team in Montreal, where, in 1947, he played 236 Paul Winfield plays the part of Campanella, and the movie opens with the 1958 auto accident that ended Campanella’s career as a baseball player. Focusing more on the remarkable process by which Campanella created a new life for himself than on the baseball career that made him famous, the film chronicles the collapse of Campanella’s marriage as a direct result of the accident, his physical rehabilitation, and his return to a productive life as a baseball coach and inspirational speaker. It’s Good to Be Alive remains available on both videocassette and DVD from larger video outlets. catcher for 135 games, hit 13 home runs, and scored a .273 batting average. This was the same year that Jackie Robinson became the first black player to play in the major leagues. Campanella was following in Robinson’s footsteps; Robinson had only the year before played on the Montreal team. An African American First After a brief stint on the St. Paul, Minnesota Class AA team, Campanella was finally moved up to the Brooklyn Dodgers’ major league team in 1948. This made him the first African American catcher in major league baseball, and the fourth African American player in the major leagues. Jackie Robinson had preceded Campanella the year before as the first African American major league baseball player. Robinson was then followed by two other African American players, Larry Doby and Dan Bankhead, before Campanella joined the major leagues. Wearing the number 39 that he was to bear throughout his career, Campanella stepped up to the plate his first night playing as a Brooklyn Dodger, and hit a home run. Also that night, he hit a double and two singles, firmly establishing himself as a force to be reckoned with. Just as he had in the Negro Leagues, Campanella grit his teeth and played through numerous potentially serious injuries during his nine seasons with the Brooklyn Dodgers. For instance, in 1954, an injury rendered two fingers on his left hand immobile, and he played anyway. “I can grip a bat and I can grip a ball, and that’s all that counts,” said Campanella, according to Thomas. In 1951, Campanella was honored with Most Valuable Player status, a designation that was again bestowed upon him in 1953, when he had what some commentators thought of as his best year. In that year, Campanella had a .312 batting average, and broke three records for a catcher. These were: most putouts in a single season (807), most home runs for a catcher in a single season (41), and most runs batted in within a single season (142). Campanella was named Most Valuable Player a final time in 1955. By the end of his career, Campanella Notable Sports Figures Campanella Career Statistics Yr Team AVG GP AB R H HR RBI BB SO SB 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 Brooklyn Brooklyn Brooklyn Brooklyn Brooklyn Brooklyn Brooklyn Brooklyn Brooklyn Brooklyn .258 .287 .281 .325 .269 .312 .207 .318 .219 .242 83 130 126 143 128 144 111 123 124 103 279 436 437 505 468 519 397 446 388 330 32 65 70 90 73 103 43 81 39 31 72 125 123 164 126 162 82 142 85 80 9 22 31 33 22 41 19 32 20 13 45 82 89 108 97 142 51 107 73 62 36 67 55 53 57 67 42 56 66 34 45 36 51 51 59 58 49 41 61 50 3 3 1 1 8 4 1 2 1 1 Brooklyn: Brooklyn Dodgers. had played in five World Series, and had been named a National League All-Star a total of eight times. dent that ended his career prematurely at the age of 36, those numbers would have been much higher. A Career Cut Short A New Life Even at the height of his career, however, Campanella realized that he could not play baseball indefinitely, and so he opened a Harlem, New York liquor store with which he planned to support his family after his retirement from playing baseball. The store was a success, and was soon a prosperous business. The day he was forced to retire from baseball came sooner than Campanella planned, however. Early in the morning of January 28, 1958, as he was driving back to his Glen Cove, Long Island home from the liquor store, the car he was driving skidded on a slick road, crashed into a telephone pole, and overturned. After a ten-month hospitalization, Campanella underwent rehabilitation at New York University-Bellevue Medical Center’s Rusk Institute—a process as grueling as any training in his baseball career. At the end of it, he was able to move his arms, and regained partial use of his hands. Campanella described the crash in a Los Angeles Times interview that was later quoted by the St. Petersburg Times. “It had snowed a little that night, and the roads were a little wet and icy. I was about five minutes from my house when I hit some ice driving around a curve. I hit my brakes and the car slid across the road, hit a pole and turned over. I tried to reach up to turn the ignition off because I thought the car would catch fire, but I couldn’t move my arm.” Although he survived the crash, he suffered two fractured vertebrae. Five surgeons at Glen Cove Community Hospital worked four and a half hours to save his life. They succeeded in this, but his spine was permanently damaged; he remained paralyzed from the shoulders down. He would never be able to walk or swing a bat again. At the time of his accident, Campanella held a .276 batting average in the major leagues. His major league career total was 1,161 hits in 1,215 games, including 627 runs and 242 home runs, and 856 runs batted in. Many later speculated that, had it not been for the racism that had kept Campanella out of the major leagues until he was 26 years old, and for the auto acci- The worst was not yet over. Campanella’s wife Ruthie, unable to cope with the loss of physical intimacy imposed by the accident, left him. Campanella was also forced to sell his house to cover debts incurred as a result of the accident. Only three months after Campanella’s accident, his team moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, California, to become the Los Angeles Dodgers. Campanella said many years later that his one regret in life was that he wasn’t able to go with the Dodgers to their new home. But Campanella persevered, never flagging in his optimism. He rebuilt his life, eventually marrying his nurse, and building up his liquor store business and his career as a television and radio personality. In the process of putting his life back together, Campanella became a tremendous source of inspiration to handicapped and other people around the country. As Thomas of the New York Times wrote, “his gritty determination to make a life for himself in a wheelchair won him even more fame and admiration than he had enjoyed as a baseball star.” Campanella’s many fans showed their appreciation of him on May 8, 1959 at an exhibition game at the Los Angeles Coliseum between the Dodgers and the Yankees dedicated to the former star. Over 93,000 spectators showed up, a baseball attendance record that remained unbroken at the time of Campanella’s death, more than 30 years later. At one point during the proceedings, Campanella was wheeled to home plate, the stadium’s lights were dimmed, and the fans lit matches in Campanella’s honor. More importantly to the star who had fallen on hard times, he netted $75,000 from that night’s proceeds. 237 Campanella Notable Sports Figures Roy Campanella, right Campanella stayed active in baseball by coaching teenagers; in 1967, he took a job coaching boys from housing projects in New York City. Many of those he coached went on to play for college and professional teams. In 1969, Campanella, again following in Jackie Robinson’s footsteps, became the second African American to be inducted in the Baseball Hall of Fame. In a speech on the occasion, he thanked Branch Rickey for starting his major league career. The Chicago Sun Times quoted Campanella, “Mr. Rickey is the one I owe everything to. This election completes my baseball career, and there’s nothing more I can ask in life.” But Campanella’s career in baseball was not over. In 1978, Campanella went back on the Dodgers payroll, selling his liquor store and moving to Woodland Hills, California to rejoin his old team. Among his duties at his new job was coaching Dodgers catchers at spring training in Vero Beach, Florida, and working for the organization’s Community Services department. He remained in the public eye with these activities, and remained beloved of Dodgers fans and players who recognized his positive outlook and ongoing contributions to the sport of baseball. Most of all, he was seen to epitomize the spirit of fun that he felt was essential to playing an organized sport. “It’s a man’s game,” said Campanella, according to the St. Petersburg Times, “but you have to have a lot of little boy in you to play it.” 238 Gone But Not Forgotten Roy Campanella died of a heart attack near his home in Woodland Hills, California, on June 26, 1993. “As well as being a great baseball player,” said Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda in Jet magazine, “he was a great human being.” And, as former Dodger player and later San Francisco Giants manager Dusty Baker recalled in the Boston Globe, Campanella “was a guy who motivated me. He never complained. He would never alibi. Even though his body didn’t function well, he was mentally as sharp as a tack. You could listen to him for hours and hours telling stories about baseball and life. Stories about Jack Robinson and Jim Gilliam and the Negro Leagues. He was just fascinating to be around.” Campanella is survived by his wife Roxie and five children: Roy Jr., Anthony, John, Joni Roan, and Ruth Effort. SELECTED WRITINGS BY CAMPANELLA: It’s Good to Be Alive. Boston: Little Brown & Company, 1959. FURTHER INFORMATION Periodicals “Dodgers Legend Campanella Dies.” Chicago Sun Times (June 27, 1993): Sports Sunday, 3. Notable Sports Figures Campbell Awards and Accomplishments 1949-56 Named to the Major League All-Star Team 1951, Named National League Most Valuable Player 1953, 1955 1953 Set major league record for most home runs by a catcher in a season (41) 1953 Set major league record for most runs batted in by a catcher in a season (142) 1959 Published book It’s Good to Be Alive 1969 Inducted as the second African American baseball player into the Baseball Hall of Fame Donnelly, Joe. “Courage in Dodger Blue; Baseball Mourns Campanella, 71.” Record (June 28, 1993): D1. “Greatest Dodger of Them All.” St. Petersburg Times (June 28, 1993): 1C. “Hall of Fame Catcher Roy Campanella Dies at 71.” Jet (July 12, 1993): 14. Pearson, Richard. “Famed Dodgers Catcher Roy Campanella Dies.” Washington Post (June 28, 1993): D8. Thomas Jr., Robert McG. “Roy Campanella, 71 Dies; Was Dodger Hall of Famer.” New York Times (June 28, 1993): B8. Whicker, Mark. “Campy: Simply One of the Best.” Buffalo News (June 28, 1993): Sports, 2. Whiteside, Larry. “Campanella Broke Mold; Apprciation.” Boston Globe (June 28, 1993): Sports, 25. Other “Biography: Roy Campanella.” HickokSports.com. http://www.hickoksports.com/biograph/campanel. shtml (November 13, 2002). “It’s Good to Be Alive.” All Movie Guide. http://www. allmovie.com (November 19, 2002). “Roy Campanella.” cnnsi.com. http://sportsillustrated. cnn.com/baseball/mlb/all_time_stats/players/c/43016 / (November 20, 2002). Sketch by Michael Belfiore Earl Campbell 1955American football player E arl Campbell’s professional career was marked by his ability to sustain a hit. He was known for his strength and the fearlessness of his play. He rose out of the ashes of poverty to become a force on the football field. He won the Heisman trophy and restored the hopes of Houston football fans when he joined the Oil- Earl Campbell ers in 1978. A small town hero in Tyler, Texas, Campbell had a very successful NFL career during which he amassed 9,407 rushing yards. Although he never played on a championship team or went to the Super Bowl, Campbell remains one of the best to ever play the game. Born March 29, 1955 in Tyler, Texas, Campbell was the sixth of eleven children born to Bert and Ann Campbell. His father picked roses, worked in a convenience store and died when Earl was eleven years old. Raised by his mother, Earl was counted on, along with his siblings, to carry a greater responsibility within the family. He discovered a love of football in the fifth grade. He was bigger and faster than the kids that he played with and idolized linebacker Dick Butkus. It wasn’t until high school that Campbell became a running back, a switch he was unhappy with at first. When his coach promised him he could play both sides of the ball, Campbell embraced his new position and led his team to an undefeated season and a state championship in 1973. Campbell went on to the University of Texas in 1974. During his freshman season, he rushed for 928 yards and received the Southwest Conference Newcomer of the Year Award. He became close to his coach and mentor, Darrell Royal, and worked as hard academically as he was athletically. “He don’t take no prisoners,” said Royal of his star running back’s style. In his sophomore 239 Campbell Notable Sports Figures Career Statistics Rushing Yr Team 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 HOU HOU HOU HOU HOU HOU HOU/NO NO TOTAL Receiving Att Yds Avg TD Rec Yds Avg TD 302 368 373 361 157 322 146 158 1450 1697 1934 1376 538 1301 468 643 4.8 4.6 5.2 3.8 3.4 4.0 3.2 4.1 13 19 13 10 2 12 4 1 12 16 11 36 18 19 3 6 48 94 47 156 130 216 27 88 4.0 5.9 4.3 4.3 7.2 11.4 9.0 14.7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2187 9407 4.3 74 121 806 6.7 0 HOU: Houston Oilers; NO: New Orleans Saints. Chronology Awards and Accomplishments 1955 1973 1974 1977 1978 1984 1985 1990 1991 1974-75, 1977 1977 1978 1978-81, 1983 1990 1991 Born March 29 in Tyler, Texas Leads high school team to a state championship Enrolls at the University of Texas Wins Heisman Trophy Drafted by the Houston Oilers Traded to the New Orleans Saints Retires from football Inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame Enshrined in Pro Football Hall of Fame season, he rushed for over 1,000 yards and was voted the Bluebonnet Offensive Player of the Game after Texas’ win over Colorado in the annual Bluebonnet Bowl game. The following year was a disappointment to the university and Campbell. Campbell suffered a hamstring injury that affected his production and after a mediocre season coach Royal stepped down. The new coach, Fred Akers, challenged Campbell to lose weight and increase his production. In 1977, Campbell won the Heisman trophy after racking up an impressive 1,744 yards rushing. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had the first pick in the NFL draft in 1978 but traded the pick to Houston. Houston then chose Campbell as their number one pick. The Oilers at the time were a talented team that had never lived up to their expectations. Campbell soon made a name for himself in Houston and after a 199-yard night on Monday Night Football in 1978, his reputation was solidified. Although he enjoyed his reputation as one of the best in the game, Campbell’s Oilers never had much success. Campbell spent most of his career in Houston until coach Bum Phillips was fired; Phillips traded for Campbell when he was hired by the New Orleans Saints in 1984. It was in New Orleans that Campbell would retire in 1985 after Phillips was fired. 240 Named First Team All Southwestern Conference Wins Heisman Trophy Top pick in NFL draft Named All-Pro Inducted into College Football Hall of Fame Inducted into Pro Football Hall of Fame After retiring Campbell went back to Texas and accepted a position with the University of Texas. He became president of Earl Campbell Meat Products and opened an Austin-based barbecue restaurant in 1999. The restaurant was closed down in 2001. “I don’t know that business,” Campbell said in a Texas Monthly article. “This was the first time in my life I ran up against a wall, that I ran up on something I just couldn’t do.” Known in football for being able to take a hit without going down, Campbell continued to push his brand of meat products while remaining an active presence at his alma mater. Earl Campbell’s rise out of the small Texas town of Tyler to the National Football League and beyond, was helped by his ability to keep moving forward despite the many obstacles that lay in his path. Whether on the football field or in the highly competitive food business, Campbell has had success based on his resilience. He remains married to a woman he met in the ninth grade and has two sons. Campbell’s career landed him in the Pro Football Hall of Fame and in the hearts of many diehard Texas football fans. FURTHER INFORMATION Periodicals “Football Star Seeks to Keep Creditors at Bay.” Austin Business Journal (June 15, 2001). Notable Sports Figures Canseco “Where Are They Now?” Texas Monthly (September, 2001): 106. Other “The College Years.” Earl Campbell. http://www.earl campbell.com/college_years/index.html (January 6, 2003). “The Early Years.” Earl Campbell. http://www.earlcamp bell.com/early_years/index.html (January 6, 2003). “The Oilers.” Earl Campbell. http://www.earlcampbell. com/oilers/index.html (January 6, 2003). www.earlcampbell.comlife_after_football/index.html (January 6, 2003). Sketch by Aric Karpinski Jose Canseco 1964Cuban baseball player Jose Canseco S portswriters once chronicled Jose Canseco’s exploits both on and off the baseball diamond with a mix of reverence and disbelief. The Oakland Athletics (A’s) outfielder hit impressive home runs, helped take his team to three American League pennants and a World Series win, and was the first baseball player in history to achieve the “40-40” record: 40 home runs and 40 bases stolen in a season. Canseco attained a certain notoriety off the field as well, running into trouble with the law over fast cars and guns, and was accused of using steroids. Canseco denied this last charge vehemently, but after his career ended, he made headlines once again by claiming that a large percentage of players, perhaps as high as 85 percent, used the illicit substances to improve their performance. Year title. Two years later, he declared his intention to set a baseball first, the 40-40, and did it on September 23, 1988, in an A’s game against the Milwaukee Brewers. He was named the AL’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) that season, and often earned comparisons to Reggie Jackson, who praised his talents. Canseco was famous for his atbat twitches, but the quirk only seemed a warm-up to the real stunt: soaring home runs. At Game 4 of the American League Championships in Toronto in 1989, Canseco hit the ball into the fifth deck of the vast new Toronto SkyDome that estimates pegged as a 540-foot hit. Starred on Star Team Cuban-Born Canseco and his fraternal twin Oswaldo were born in Havana, Cuba, on July 2, 1964, to Jose and Barbara Canseco. In December of 1965, the family, which included an older sister, left Cuba and settled in OpaLocka, Florida. At Coral Park High School, Canseco was a talented, if somewhat slight of frame ball player who did not make the varsity team until his senior year. A scout for the Oakland A’s, a fellow Cuban, discovered him, and he was a 15th-round draft pick in 1982. He first played for the Rookie League or farm teams in several states before making his major-league debut in September of 1985 in an A’s game against Baltimore. By 1986, Canseco’s impressive hitting power had earned him the American League (AL) Rookie of the The A’s won that Series against Toronto, and took the World Series title that year against Bay Area rivals the San Francisco Giants. Canseco ended the season with a .269 average. He was signed to a record-setting fiveyear, $23.5 million contract, but injuries hampered his 1990 season. Though the A’s made it into the next World Series, they lost to the Cincinnati Reds. In 1991, the A’s failed to make the playoffs. At the height of his career, Canseco was inarguably baseball’s biggest celebrity. He was swarmed by fans everywhere he went, and was once even spotted leaving the apartment of sexy pop-singer Madonna. Several runins with authorities added to his cultivated bad-boy image: he racked up speeding tickets in the Porsches and Lamborghinis he collected, kept a pet cougar at his 241 Canseco Notable Sports Figures Career Statistics Yr 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 Team AVG GP AB R H HR RBI BB SO SB E Oak Oak Oak Oak Oak Oak Oak Oak/Tex Tex Tex Bos Bos Oak Tor TB NYY/TB CWS .302 .240 .257 .307 .269 .274 .266 .244 .255 .282 .306 .289 .235 .237 .279 .252 .258 29 157 159 158 65 131 154 119 60 111 102 96 108 151 113 98 76 96 600 630 610 227 481 572 439 231 429 396 360 388 583 430 329 256 16 85 81 120 40 83 115 74 30 88 64 68 56 98 75 47 46 29 144 162 187 61 132 152 107 59 121 121 104 91 138 120 83 66 5 33 31 42 17 37 44 26 10 31 24 28 23 46 34 15 16 13 117 113 124 57 101 122 87 46 90 81 82 74 107 95 49 49 4 65 50 78 23 72 78 63 16 69 42 63 51 65 58 64 45 31 175 157 128 69 158 152 128 62 114 93 82 122 159 135 102 75 1 15 15 40 6 19 26 6 6 15 4 3 8 29 3 2 2 — — 7 7 3 1 9 3 3 — 0 0 5 5 0 2 0 .266 1887 7057 1186 1877 462 1407 906 1942 200 45 TOTAL Bos: Boston Red Sox; CWS: Chicago White Sox; NYY: New York Yankees; Oak: Oakland Athletics; TB: Tampa Bay Devil Rays; Tex: Texas Rangers; Tor: Toronto Blue Jays. Miami home, and was once arrested for carrying a loaded semiautomatic pistol. Promoters of a baseballcard show sued him for being a no-show, and Canseco even had a “1-900-234-JOSE” hotline, which cost fans $2 during the first minute and $1 minute thereafter. Through it all Canseco had a problematic relationship with sports journalists, who were awed by his innate talents but put off by his ego. “Canseco is a baseball virtuoso, an athletic flower that blooms once a century,” wrote Rick Reilly in Sports Illustrated. “We know this because he mentioned it the other day.” Surprise Trade Canseco, who had bulked up considerably since his high-school days, was also rumored to be a steroid user. He categorically denied the charges. “No. 1, I take it as a personal attack on me and my race,” Canseco fumed about the matter in a 1995 interview with Barry M. Bloom in Sport. Between the 1991 and 1992 seasons, Canseco seemed to lose his edge. At the time, his marriage to Esther Haddad, Miss Miami 1986, was disintegrating, and in February of 1992 he was arrested after chasing and hitting Haddad’s car on the highway with his Porsche. He avoided jail by agreeing to court-ordered psychiatric treatment, and later said that the therapy had helped him immensely in dealing with some of the issues in his life. At the time, however, Canseco also had a troubled relationship with A’s manager Tony LaRussa that was often hinted at in veiled comments each made to the press. On August 31, 1992, after a dismal summer, Canseco was traded two hours before the season trading deadline. He was actually in the on-deck circle at the 242 Oakland-Alameda Coliseum, about to go to bat, when he was called in and told the news. To be traded in itself was a shocking way to end his career with the A’s, but its suddenness seemed designed to humiliate Canseco. A’s general manager Sandy Alderson discussed the matter with Bloom, in the Sport article, a few years later. “Jose had lost his desire to be a player,” Alderson asserted. “He had adopted a wish to be an entertainer in a broader sense without regard to being a baseball player. That didn’t work anymore.” Years after A’s management had made the infamous Canseco trade, emotions still ran high over LaRussa’s role in it. Neither had spoken to one another since, though LaRussa did tell Barry M. Bloom in Sport that he still believed Canseco was “the most talented player I have ever managed.” He also reflected back on comments Canseco had made at the time, specifically those in which the athlete asserted that the A’s would have never traded a player like Cal Ripken, Jr. or Kirby Puckett so ignominiously. “If Jose would have taken care of his business like Puckett and Ripken, which is be there every day and care about teammates and the outcome of the game and personal performance, we would have never traded Jose either,” LaRussa told Bloom. “He stopped caring. We couldn’t get him back on track.” Traded for three players to the Texas Rangers, Canseco had another bad season in 1992 and an even worse year the next, when he was mocked by fans after a fly ball bounced off his head and over the fence. After two seasons with the Rangers, he was traded to the Boston Red Sox before the start of the 1995 baseball year, and went back to Oakland in 1997 for a season. He performed well for the Toronto Blue Jays in 1998, en- Notable Sports Figures joying his best season in several years, but the Tampa Bay Devil Rays were the only team to bid for him at the close of the year. The Anaheim Angels signed him in late 2000, but released him from his contract before the season began. He was the Yankees’ designated hitter for a time, but did not play in the pennant race that brought the famed post-season “Subway Series” against the New York Mets. Canseco Chronology 1964 1965 1982 1985 1988 1988 Born in Havana, Cuba, on July 2 Emigrated to United States from Cuba with family Drafted by Oakland A’s Makes major-league debut Marries Esther Haddad on November 5 Becomes first player to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in a single season 1989 Oakland A’s win World Series 1990 Signs record $23.5 million contract 1992 Arrested in February and charged with aggravated battery 1992 Traded to Texas Rangers 1995-2001 Plays for Boston Red Sox, Oakland A’s, Toronto Blue Jays, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, New York Yankees, and Chicago White Sox 1996 Marries Jessica Seikaly on August 26 2002 Announces retirement from baseball and plans to write autobiography Canseco still told sportswriters that he hoped to hit 500 career home runs, which he believed would be the ticket to a spot in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. He spent what would be his final season with the Chicago White Sox, where his uneven hitting of the past few seasons continued (at one point in the season, he struck out 15 times in just nine games). What would become his last career home run, No. 462, came on October 3, 2001, in a Sox-Yankees game in New York. His future was uncertain, but he vowed never to retire. “One thing is I’m not a quitter. I never have been and never will be,” Canseco told Chicago Tribune sportswriter Paul Sullivan, even as news hit that the Sox’s Frank Thomas would return for the team’s final outing against Minnesota, making Canseco “expendable,” as Sullivan wrote. Yet Canseco remained optimistic. “It’s going to take a lot more than that to get me out of the game.” 1990s that the gifted player, who “seemed to have an intuitive feel for the game,” began to lose his focus. “Ten years ago Canseco seemed on the fast track to Cooperstown,” Peterson wrote. “Five years ago you could incite a spirited debate by questioning his candidacy for the Hall of Fame. Now? It’s not even a discussion.” Announced Retirement Made Claims of Steroid Use On May 13, 2002, Canseco announced his retirement. His agent, Alan Nero, issued a statement that explained Canseco was quitting the Charlotte Knights, a farm team in the Chicago White Sox organization, for personal reasons, including a desire to spend more time with his five-year-old daughter, Josie, from his second marriage in 1996. (The union with Jessica Seikaly, a former waitress at a Hooters restaurant, had also ended in divorce.) Within a week of retiring, Canseco was back in the news after declaring in a Fox Sports Net interview that steroid use, contrary to his past assertions, was rampant in major-league baseball. “Steroids completely changed baseball,” Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service writer Skip Bayless quoted him as saying. “That’s why guys are hitting 50, 60, 75 home runs.” When pressured for more specifics, Canseco declared that his forthcoming book would provide details about his own steroid use and that of other players. Bayless also wrote that Canseco had often asserted that he “could have hit 600 if I could have stayed healthy,” and theorized that because of steroid abuse, the player “got too big and strong for his frame. His joints and connective tissue couldn’t bear up under his rippled bulk and the unnatural power it could unleash. So one reason Canseco was able to hit 462 homers was also a reason he couldn’t stay healthy enough to hit 600.” Canseco’s 462 home-run total stood, 38 short of his oft-stated career goal. In an ESPN Radio interview, he claimed to have been blackballed by the major-league team owners, and hinted that he would expose baseball’s seamier side in a tell-all autobiography. A Miami Herald writer, Greg Herald, asserted that Canseco should exit the game more gracefully. “Get out with a little class,” Herald urged. “Retire right. Instead, inadvertently, Canseco is giving a public seminar on how not to make that ego-defying leap from star to ex/former/used-to-be.” Few sports pundits believed that Canseco would, in the end, be admitted to the Hall of Fame, despite his impressive 40-40 first. Gary Peterson, summarizing Canseco’s early promise and tragic decline in a Contra Costa Times article published by Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, recalled that Canseco “arrived in the major leagues at the speed of sound.… He wasn’t the architect of the A’s revival, but he did a lot of the heavy lifting.” Peterson noted that it was at the start of the A similar charge regarding the widespread steroid use was made by former National League MVP Ken Caminiti just days later in the press. Caminiti claimed that as many as 50 percent of all players used performance-enhancing drugs, thought to cause testicular cancer, heart disease, infertility, and the mood swings known as “‘roid rage,” while Canseco’s claims pegged the number at 85 percent. An onslaught of stories in the media centering on the ethics of steroid use followed. Many sportswriters noted that while a drug-testing policy was sometimes called for in professional baseball, it 243 Canseco Awards and Accomplishments 1986 Named American League Rookie of the Year 1986, Made All-Star team 1988-90, 1992, 1999 1988 Named American League Most Valuable Player 1988 RBI Leader 1988, 1991 American League Home Run Champion was thought that the powerful players’ union would categorically reject any such changes. Arrested for Nightclub Brawl On Halloween of 2001, Canseco and his brother Ozzie were involved in a Miami nightclub brawl and were arrested. They later rejected plea agreements on the felony charges and the cases were slated to go to trial in November of 2002. If convicted, Canseco could receive a maximum sentence of 31 years. The charges seemed to further doom his goal of entering the Baseball Hall of Fame. When Canseco retired, he was one of just nine majorleague players who had hit 400 home runs and stolen 200 bases or more as well. Seven of the other eight had been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame already, and though Canseco was the first to ever make the 40-40 mark, many sportswriters noted that his contributions to baseball were overshadowed by the controversies he instigated. As Herald wrote, “Everybody discounts his chances to be voted into the Hall of Fame because nobody seems able to stay focused on the talent that otherwise would make Cooperstown a logical destination.… The injuries, the speeding tickets, the steroid rumors, the divorces (and Madonna!), that fly caroming off his cap, the dark paranoia-all that static obscuring all that skill.” CONTACT INFORMATION Address: Jose Canseco, c/o Major League Baseball, 75 Ninth Ave., New York, NY 10011. Fax: (212) 485-3456. Phone: (212) 485-3182. FURTHER INFORMATION Periodicals “Analysis: Media Watch - Baseball’s steroid scandal has media crying foul on players.”PR Week (June 24, 2002): 12. “Back to b(A’s)sics.” Sports Illustrated 86 (February 10, 1997): 14. “Baseball: No plea agreement for Cansecos.” Sports Network (August 23, 2002). Bayless, Skip. “Jose Canseco, simply, may be waxing outrageous.” Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service (May 17, 2002). 244 Notable Sports Figures Bloom, Barry M. “Monster basher.” Sport 86 (June 1995): 87. Fimrite, Ron. “Kiss that one goodbye.” Sports Illustrated 65 (July 7, 1986): 28. Gammons, Peter. “The summer of his discontent.” Sports Illustrated 71 (October 2, 1989): 72. Hagen, Paul. “Jose Canseco had it all, then lost it, and other notes.” Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service (May 17, 2002). Herald, Greg. “Canseco needs to exit with class.” Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service (May 14, 2002). Heredia, Christopher. “Steroids play games with vital hormones.” San Francisco Chronicle (June 10, 2002): A6. “Jose Canseco Retires.” New York Times (May 14, 2002): D6. Kroichick, Ron. “Jose Canseco.” Sport 83 (April 1992): 20. Kurkjian, Tim. “Broken string (Struggles of the Oakland A’s).” Sports Illustrated 75 (September 30, 1991): 60. ——. “By the numbers.” Sports Illustrated 77 (August 17, 1992): 98. ——. “Home run derby.” Sports Illustrated 75 (August 19, 1991): 52. Montville, Leigh. “Texas-sized trade.” Sports Illustrated 77 (September 14, 1992): 36. Olson, Stan. “Jose Canseco delivers in Knights’ win.” Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service (April 26, 2002). Peterson, Gary. “Canseco allowed his star to burn out.” Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service (May 13, 2002). Price, S.L. “Life Is Beautiful.” Sports Illustrated 90 (March 22, 1999): 64. Reilly, Rick. “Whaddya say, Jose?” Sports Illustrated 73 (August 20, 1990): 42. Roderick, Joe. “Canseco’s comments bother Bonds.” Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service (May 21, 2002). Rodriguez, Juan C. “Canseco retires 38 homers short of 500.” Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service (May 13, 2002). Rogers, Phil. “Like him or not, Jose Canseco creates excitement.” Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service (May 18, 2002). Scher, Jon. “Bashed.” Sports Illustrated 76 (February 24, 1992): 89. Sherrington, Kevin. “Canseco book would shed light on steroids.” Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service (May 26, 2002). Sorci, Rick. “Jose Canseco 1988 A.L. MVP (Interview).” Baseball Digest 61 (June 2002): 61. Sullivan, Paul. “Canseco performs a Ruthian feat.” Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service (August 1, 2001).