Jose Canseco

Guide Note:

Jose Canseco is a former Major League baseball player who spent his best years with the Oakland Athletics, but played for six other teams during his 17-season career. In 2005, he admitted using steroids, and claimed to have administered them to several of his teammates.¹

Fast Facts:

1. Full name: Jose Canseco y Capas, Jr
2. Born: July 2, 1946
3. Birth place: Havana, Cuba
4. Was married to: Esther Haddad and Jessica Sekely
5. Sekely and Canseco have one daughter, Josiphene
6. Six-time All-Star
7. 1986: A.L. Rookie of the Year
8. 1988: American League Most Valuable Player
9. First player to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in a single season²
10. 2008: Set to release next book with working title of Vindicated³

Born in Communist Cuba in 1964, his family emigrated to the United States when Canseco was an infant. While in high school and in the minors, Canseco became known for the tape-measure home runs he would hit. During his first full season with the Oakland Athletics in 1986, Canseco clubbed 33 homers and drove in 117, earning him American League Rookie of the Year honors.⁴ Two years later, Canseco snagged the American League Most Valuable Player Award. Between 1988 and 1990, Canseco helped lead the A's to three straight World Series and a World Championship in 1989. Between 1993 and his retirement after the 2001 season, Canseco played for seven different teams: the Texas Rangers, Boston Red Sox, Oakland Athletics, Toronto Blue Jays, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, New York Yankees, and Chicago White Sox.

In 2005, in the midst of the Barry Bonds steroids scandal, Canseco wrote a purported tell-all book entitled Juiced, in which he admitted using steroids and claimed to have injected several former teammates with the performance enhancing drug, including Mark McGwire, Jason Giambi and Rafael Palmiero. In 2008, he announced the imminent publication of another book, Vindicated, in which he would name more names that were not mentioned in the Mitchell Report.

Canseco alleges that in 1991, Madonna tried to persuade him into marrying her in order for her to have another Cuban child.⁵ In an interview with US Magazine, Canseco revealed details of his relationship with her. Canseco also wrote about their relationship in his 2008 book, Vindicated.⁶