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<![endif]-->It's hard for anyone below the age of about 20 to see Jose Canseco as anything but a weird joke.
The status decline that started in 1993 with his failed pitching experiment and the homer that bounced off his head landed him in a bout a couple days ago with a gigantic South Korean in the mixed martial arts ring.
It was a sign of just how far Canseco has fallen from the late '80s and early '90s, when he was maybe not the best major leaguer, but definitely the most celebrated.
To show just how celebrated he once was, I'm taking some excerpts from a couple recent blog posts I've done describing two unique commercial ventures he embarked on late in the 1989 season.
In early September of '89, the All-American Sports Memorabilia Show at San Francisco's Moscone Center included salesman Curt Wenzleff selling Canseco's pairs of dirty socks for $150 each.
Wenzleff said, "They come with a certificate of authenticity. They haven't been washed. They are just the way they were after Jose took them off in the locker room."
He claimed it was a chance for speculation—only four pairs of Canseco's dirty socks were on the market and he wasn't making any more of them available.
Wenzleff said he'd once sold Canseco’s dirty jockstrap, for an undisclosed price, to a misty-eyed woman.
He explained, "Look, we couldn't sell this stuff if people didn't buy it. Someday, some player is going to come up with a limited edition autographed snot rag, and you know what? A fan will pay $100 for it, easy."
Wenzleff was right, but I have to think even he was amazed when someone paid $10,000 for Luis Gonzales' used chewing gum. <!-- my page break -->
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And, I don't know how many people remember 1-900-234-JOSE, but it's obvious now that Jose Canseco was probably the first pioneer in the effort by pro sports players to skip the media and talk directly to fans with blogs, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc.
The difference is that Canseco actually made money from his communications. It cost $2 for the first minute and $1 for each minute thereafter to hear Jose talk, and you got daily updates from Canseco. It's as though somewhere deep inside he knew he'd need the extra income someday.
Jeff Borris, Canseco's Beverly Hills agent, said, "The telephone company says they've never seen a 900 number with the 'hang time' Jose is getting. Most of the callers are on for five minutes or longer."
Canseco explained why he started the 900 number. "How it originally came out was, the media stuff was happening with the speeding and the guns (incidents from earlier in 1989), and people weren't getting the story from the horse's mouth. I just wanted to tell my side of the story."
Here's what he had to say about a day in Cleveland. "It was boring, I guess, because there were only about 400 fans (actually 5,931) in the stands, sort of like one of those Triple A (minor league) games where no one shows up. I like it when there are 40,000 or more.
"The most exciting thing for me was, I looked up once and saw a bat that must have been three or four feet long flying over my head. I kept looking up because I thought it might come down and bite me on the neck.
"My personal life was kind of boring. I woke up late again—like I say, I like to sleep late— and went to a mall with my friend and ate Italian food. Then I came back and watched TV for a while. It was one of those boring days."
"But I guess the worst thing is happening now. This hotel where I'm staying doesn’t have room service after 10 PM, and I could starve to death. I guess I'll call out for a pizza."
For comparison's sake, here are a few recent tweets from Barry Zito: "Sitting on the plane about to fly to Seattle. We'll be turning it around up North.."
"The bay area's weather is more perfect than SoCal right now, call your friends and gloat."
"I mean, we've heard all the theories but what's really the cure to a hangover? Some say grease, I say B vitamins."
So my question is: Would you pay $5 monthly for, say, a private email newsletter from Manny Ramirez or Alex Rodriguez, or a password-protected Twitter feed from them?
What about LeBron James or Kobe Bryant?
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