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José Canseco y Capas, Jr. (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 Osvaldo "Ozzie" Canseco Capas `Ozzie Canseco`.
Canseco`s family left Cuba with his cousins and extended family when he and his brother were infants. They relocated to the United States, with José and Ozzie growing up in the Miami suburb of Hialeah, Florida. Canseco did not attend college, having been drafted in the 15th round by the Oakland Athletics in 1982. He first received high regard for his remarkable power at one of his early minor league stops, with the Modesto A`s in Modesto, California. Home run blasts of over 500 feet were not uncommon, and the fans would chant "Loot, loot!" to cheer him on.
He was a late season call up, playing in 29 games in the major leagues in 1985. Canseco was an immediate splash in 1986, his first full season, being named the American League`s Rookie of the Year after connecting on 33 home runs and 117 runs batted in.
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 by hitting 42 home runs and stealing 40 bases. That same 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 with a .307 batting average, 120 runs scored, 134 runs batted in, 42 home runs, and 40 stolen bases.
In 1989, Canseco missed roughly half the regular season with a broken wrist, 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 to form in 1990, hitting 37 homers, despite the latter part of the season being compromised by what would become a recurring back problem 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 1991 when he hit 44 home runs 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 (during the middle of a game while Canseco was in the on-deck circle no less) for Ruben Sierra, Jeff Russell, and Bobby Witt. The trade to the Rangers would be the first of many junkets around the league.
During the 1993 campaign, Canseco received unwanted attention for two on-field debacles that occurred within days of each other. On May 26, during a game against the Cleveland Indians, Carlos Martínez hit a fly ball that Canseco lost in the lights as he was crossing the warning track. The ball hit him in the head and bounced over the wall for a home run. The cap Jose was wearing on that play, which This Week in Baseball rated in 1998 as the greatest blooper of the show`s first 21 years, is in the Seth Swirsky collection. After the incident, the Harrisburg Heat offered him a soccer contract. Three days later, Canseco asked his manager, Kevin Kennedy, to let him pitch the eighth inning of a
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