Jose Canseco

Just as many kids growing up in the late-80's and 90's, I had a huge collection of baseball cards. This was a few years before it began to cost more for a pack of cards than it did for a gallon of milk. It was also when people collected ball-cards in hopes they would be lucky enough to pull out a card of their childhood hero.  

The scars of MLB's recent past are beginning to heal and fade. The Steroids Era is growing smaller and smaller in the rearview mirror.

It's been over six years since Major League Baseball was first embarrassed on Capitol Hill in the "steroids hearings" of March 2005. Over three years have passed since the release of the Mitchell Report.

Despite the march of time, there are still a handful of retired MLB stars who, well, we simply wish would just go away—Jose Canseco and Roger Clemens among them.

When it comes to the craziest men in all of sports, Jose Canseco has to top the list.

From attempting an acting career, to challenging former athletes to boxing matches, to taking the infamous baseball off the head in a 1993 regular season game against the Cleveland Indians, Jose Canseco always seems to capture the media spotlight in the biggest of ways.

The former Oakland A's slugger's' most recent debacle came just this past week when he sent his twin brother Ozzie to fill in for him in a scheduled fight at a Hard Rock nightclub on Saturday night.

For a time, Jose Canseco wasn't one of the best players in Major League Baseball, he was the best player in baseball.

Canseco became the first player in history to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in a season. In the 1989 American League Playoffs against the Toronto Blue Jays, Canseco blasted a 484-foot home run into the fifh level of Toronto's Sky Dome, which to this day remains the dome's longest home run. 

Recently I wrote an article asking a very interesting question: “Did Jose Canseco save baseball?” 

I had numerous comments and appreciate everyone who took part in the discussion. I found there were more than two sides to this complex issue. From my point of view, the chain of events that led up to that fateful day in Congress deserves to be looked at more closely. 

The year 2005 was indeed an interesting year in the baseball world.

The Chicago White Sox won their first World Series since 1917, Alex Rodriguez and Albert Pujols were again having monster years and Jason Giambi and Ken Griffey Jr., again, rose to prominence.

The 2005 season was also a breakout year for the former MVP and six-time All-Star, Jose Canseco.

Most of the media, Major League Baseball, teammates, and most of the public feel that Roger Clemens is guilty of steroid use and therefore guilty of perjury before Congress.

But wait. Reginald J. Brown, a former special assistant to President George W. Bush and associate White House general counsel has found a legal argument that he believes could win.

Jose Canseco may want to think of writing a new book or do something extraordinary in order to get out of the current streak of bad luck that he has hit. When Canseco was in his prime, he would date models and drive some of the world's most expensive cars. Nowadays, it seems like he can't even afford a nice home.

While the July 31st trade deadline gets all the hype, the wheeling and dealing is far from over, as each season there are a number of moves made through waivers after the deadline.

Just last season, big names like Jason Giambi, Jim Thome, and Alex Rios all found new homes well into August, and with the buzz surrounding Adam Dunn among others, this season could again see difference making players moved after the deadline.

When watching the Los Angeles Dodgers' Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier, shades of past glory in California come shining through.

Remember the days of Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco in Oakland? I don't...I was born in the 80's, but I've seen the footage.

Just watching two players electrify a crowd like McGwire and Canseco did draws parallels to today in Chavez Ravine. Add to the beat Silver Slugger Awards for two-thirds of the Dodgers outfield, and the stage is set for a new slugger-duo dynasty.