VERO BEACH, Fla. — He came to this annual Dodgertown tryout camp dressed as if he were going to have lunch at a beachfront restaurant.
He wore a blue and white designer-type sweat outfit with a gray cap turned backward. They pinned the No. 521 on his back, which isn't the highest or longest he has been assigned because he has twice endured extended jail time in the last two years.
He was one of 108 players of all sizes, shapes and experience who participated in the one-day camp Monday that began with Tom Lasorda welcoming them to "blue heaven on Earth." He came from his new home in Encino either in an attempt at 39 to revive a career in which he hit 462 home runs or to tout a tell-all book that he insisted will finally be published in September.
It has always been hard to separate reality from fantasy where Jose Canseco is involved, but the one certainty to emerge from a long day is that the Dodgers, despite their need for a right-handed, slugging first baseman (about the only position this man without a position can play), aren't going to offer him a major league contract, and Canseco said he will not go to triple A.
"This is probably going to be my last attempt at it," he said, having last played in 2001 with the Chicago White Sox, having last tried to play with the Montreal Expos the next spring before being cut and seemingly certain the Dodgers won't call today with anything positive.
"I'm just trying to be realistic," he told a group of reporters. "See you guys in the movies."
The movies?
Well, agent Doug Ames said Canseco had three movies on his plate and would begin filming with Steven Seagal during the summer.
Of course, Ames and Canseco appeared to be making it up as they went along Monday, with Canseco even revising his infamous estimate of two years ago that 85% of players use steroids.
Now, Canseco said he was misquoted, although only slightly.
"The percentage I used was 80," he said, "and I think the numbers may have changed. When I said [80], it was awhile back, maybe one and a half or two years. Who knows? Maybe the number has diminished, but at the time I think it was 80%."
Canseco said he thinks too much is being made of the issue, considering that steroids can't automatically create the hand-eye coordination essential to succeeding in baseball ("you're either born with that or you're not"). Whatever the percentage is now, no one, including Barry Bonds, has ever been more suspected of using steroids or more often denied it than Canseco.
