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José Canseco (born July 2, 1964 in Havana, Cuba)
is a former outfielder and designated hitter in
Major League Baseball, and is the twin brother of
former major league player Ozzie Canseco. His
family left Cuba when he and his brother were
infants, and he grew up in Miami, United States.

Canseco did not attend college on a baseball
scholarship. He was signed by the Oakland
Athletics in 1982 and reached the major leagues in
1986, causing a splash immediately. He was named
the American League's Rookie of the Year after
connecting on 33 home runs that year. In 1987, he
was joined on the team by Mark McGwire, who hit 49
home runs that year, and together they became
known as the "Bash Brothers." In 1988, Canseco
became the first player in major league history to
hit at least 40 homers and steal at least 40 bases
in the same year. That year, he helped the
Athletics to the World Series but they lost to the
Los Angeles Dodgers in five games. Canseco was
unanimously named the American League's Most
Valuable Player in 1988.

In 1989, Canseco was injured most of the year, but
he still managed to hit 17 homers as the Athletics
won their first World Series since 1974, beating
the San Francisco Giants in four games. The 1989
Series was interrupted before Game 3 by a major
earthquake in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Canseco came back in full strength in 1990,
hitting 44 homers and taking the A's to the World
Series once again. But this time it was his team
that got swept, losing to the Cincinnati Reds in
four games.

Canseco continued to be productive, but after 1990
his career hit a plateau, never accomplishing what
many expected he was capable of in the face of
frequent injuries and controversy. In 1992 he was
traded to the Texas Rangers, the first of many
junkets around the league.

In 1993, Canseco received unwanted attention when,
during a game against the Cleveland Indians,
Carlos Martínez hit a fly ball that Canseco lost
in the lights. The ball hit him in the head and
bounced over the wall for a home run. That same
season, Canseco suffered further indignity and
ridicule when he asked to pitch during a runaway
loss; he injured his arm, underwent Tommy John
surgery, and was lost for the remainder of the
season.

Canseco ran into trouble in his personal life at
various times. In 1989, his wife accused him of
domestic violence after he allegedly ran his car
into hers. That was the beginning of a series of
accusations and run-ins with the law while Canseco
was in the public spotlight.

Canseco retired in May 2002 after a string of
injury-filled seasons. His 462 career home runs
rank him 26th on the all-time list. Canseco made a
brief comeback attempt in 2004, but was not
offered a spot with the Los Angeles Dodgers after
spring training.

In 2005, Canseco admitted to using anabolic
steroids in a tell-all book, "Juiced: Wild Times,
Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits & How Baseball Got
Big". Canseco also claimed that up to 85% of
major league players took steroids, a figure
disputed by many in the game but which
approximated the estimate given by former player
and admitted steroid user Ken Caminiti, who had
died in 2004. In the book, Canseco specifically
identified former teammates Mark McGwire, Jason
Giambi, Rafael Palmeiro, Ivan Rodriguez, and Juan
Gonzalez as fellow steroid users. Giambi is
believed to have admitted to steroid use in
testimony before a grand jury investigating the
BALCO case. At a Congressional hearing on the
subject of steroids in sports, Palmeiro
categorically denied using performance-enhancing
drugs, while McGwire repeatedly (and
conspicuously) refused to answer questions on his
own suspected use, leading many to view his
silence as an admission. Canseco's book became a
New York Times bestseller.

In March 2005, it was announced that Canseco would
join Bronson Pinchot, Omarosa
Manigault-Stallworth, Janice Dickinson, Carey
Hart, Caprice Bourret, and Pepa on the 5th season
of the VH1 series The Surreal Life.


Trivia

    * First player (and one of only three) to hit
40 home runs and steal 40 bases in a single
season.
    * José Canseco joined Ruppert Jones, Ricky Lee
Nelson, Dave Kingman, Alvaro Espinoza and Kevin
Millar as the only players in MLB history to hit a
fair ball that got stuck in a stadium obstruction
[1].