Marty Lurie Talks San Francisco Giants Baseball
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JOSE CANSECO IS GOING HOLLYWOOD


Once a potential Hall of
Fame player, Cuban born
José Canseco is going
to Hollywod to seek
another “career”this
one on the big screen.

By Amaury Pi-González
(EXCLUSIVE to Love of the Game Prods)José Canseco will start filming
his first motion picture. He will
be an actor on an action packed
flick. As a matter of fact
he will play an art thief that
is stealing from a drug
dealer so he (Canseco’s script)
can get his kidnapped nephew
back from this bad guy.

Canseco’s tell all book
about the players use of
steroids is also coming
out next September,
the title is “Dare To Truth”.

Aside from those two projects
for the ex slugger, he is
presently training for a
golf competition. A golf
distance competition to
be held next October
in Mesquite,Nevada.
A friend of mine recently
saw Canseco hitting golf
balls at the Brookside Course
(next to the Rose Bowl)
Pasadena. My friend said
that Canseco was hitting the
ball great distances. Canseco
said he has hit golf balls
over 350 yards and even
420 yards. Another ex Major
League player who is seen
frequently at that same
course, Fernando Valenzuela
(presently working as radio
commentator in the Dodgers
Spanish radio broadcast)said
“this is impossible” and
“I can hit the ball around 200
yards but that is including
all the way until the ball
stops rolling in the green,
not on the fly like José
says he is doing”.
Canseco took to golf when
he played in 1995 with
the Boston Red Sox and
fellow player Roger Clemens
invited him to play with him.
Who would have thought
then that a man with 462
home runs was going to
be trying to make a buck
by hitting a golf ball the
longest way. José has these
sponsors for this up coming
golf distance contest, Accuflex
and SMT. For one day of
work he will be getting pay,
at least twice the average
of what an average working
man in america makes in a year.
Clemens is 41 and he might
start the All Star Game in
Houston next July for the
National League with his
new team Houston, while
José who is 40 is looking
to act, to hit golf balls
and to write books to
make a living.
I love America !

José Canseco was born
in 1964 in Regla, a
little town accross Havana
Bay in Havana, Cuba. We
developed a good friendship
when he started playing for
the Oakland A’S(in those good
days the A’S had Spanish
radio)and I saw most of his
games. We used to talk a lot
about Cuba, he used to
ask me a lot about Cuba.
I left Cuba when I was 17, José
left as a toddler, so he really
didn’t have many memories
of his homeland. He used to
tell me that some of the things
I told him about Cuba his dad
has also told him.

Last February I was at the
CSHOF (Cuban Sports Hall
of Fame)yearly inductions
in Miami, Florida. There I spoke
with José Canseco Sr, who was
there to accept on behalf of
his son a special trophy for
the 40-40 feat, the first
player ever to hit 40 home
runs and steal 40 bases in
one season. José Sr told me
“the Media has written very
negative stuff about my son
and all he did was speak the
truth, he told the whole world
about this steroid scandal even
before people knew what
BALCO was”. José Sr seemed
very angry and disgusted at
the media for the way they
in his words “treated my son”.

Well, I reminded José Sr we are
in the USA, the only country in
the world were the Media
can overthrow a President
(refering to Richard Nixon and
the Watergate scandal in the
1970’s) he told me, yes, but
“José was no Nixon”. We spoke
for a few more minutes about
baseball stuff, the weather in
Miami and of course, where
Cubans meet we must talk
politics !

In a way I feel sorry for
José Canseco. He is not a
stupid man, he is not a bad
guy. He has made many
bad choices in his life and
he is paying for those today.
A lot of the media when José
was playing envy him, for
many reason, young, good
looking, talented and yes
outspoken. I heard very
negative talk about José
inside Press Boxes, things
that had nothing to do with
baseball. But I never worked
for the National Enquirer so
I could care less about
Madona, drugs or
rock ‘n roll.

Since I am talking about
José I might as well tell
everybody I was thinking
a few years ago of writting
a book about José, with his
permission of course. This
was before he came out
with the steroids scandal
and all that jazz. See, my book
was going to be historical
and about great Cuban
ballplayers. There are 7
Latinos in the Hall of Fame
in Cooperstown and 2 are
Cubans. Martin Dihigo who
played all 9 positions in the
Negro Leagues, he was
elected by special vote and
he is also in the Cuban,
Mexican and Venezuelan
Hall of Fame and Tany Pérez
(yes, Tany not Tony) his
real name is Atanasio
but when he came to the
US they just called him Tony.
Tany Perez currently is an
executive and advisor to the
owner of the Florida Marlins
Jeffrey Loria. Pérez once
managed but he is in
Cooperstown because of
his great playing career,
specially with the great
Big Red Machine of
Cincinnati in the 1970’S.
Back in 1995 when José played
for the Boston Red Sox with

My Canseco book was not
going to be controversial
but mostly biographical and
with references to the great
heritage of Cuban baseball.
For example, the first Latino
ever to play pro-baseball
in the US was Esteban Bellán
from Cuba, he played in
the 1800’S with the Highlanders.
Of course those plans to
write a book about Canseco,
which by the way was going
to be in Spanish, my #1
language were long abandoned
by yours truly.

Last time I spoke with Lon
Simmons we were talking
about José Canseco and he
agrees with me that when José
arrived in the bigs he had the
looks of a guy that was
destined for the Hall of
Fame, he could do it all
and do it well.

When ESPN does a package
about José Canseco they
always run that piece
of 20 second video where
he -playing for Texas-
gets hit in the head by
a baseball that goes
over the fence for a
home run in right field.
Do they have to to that ?
No, of course. Is Canseco
the ONLY man in history
that had that happened to ?
Of course not. But the
Media loves making fun
of Canseco, they always
did. If Canseco was an
African-American I am
sure the NAACP would
have treatened ESPN
with a lawsuit if they
kept running that video
because…well, we all
know people do not
hesitate to bring up
the race card. But Canseco
is a Latino and Latinos
are all over the place,
vote all over the place
and are still growing as
the largest minority in
the United States.

When José bought that
red Diablo Lamborghini
back in the late 1980’S I
was doing a story for
Telemundo Network, I
was the Sports Anchor
for CH 48 Telemundo
Network out of San José.
The producers wanted me
to take a drive with José
inside that car while he
was in Spring Training.
I told José, he told me
“you are kidding right “?
I told him no. He said,
there is not enough insurance
for Telemundo to do that.

By the way, I never did
took a ride with José in
his red Lamborghini. But
I did a lot of features with
him for Telemundo. Another
time a Telemundo, Miami-based
woman producer call me
and asked me: “Can you do
a feature with José and talk
to him about Madonna and
the thing they have going on ?”
I never did that, although It
was widely known that
Madonna said she
“loved Cubans”. I remember
telling José once “I must be the
only Cuban that Madonna has
not gone to bed with “. He
cracked up and told me
“eso si esta bueno”
“that is a good one”
By-the-way Telemundo
has become the elixir
of Spanish Tabloid TV.
To the point that they
are ridicolous, imitating the
worse of American Television
but in Spanish language.
Lot’s of Jerry Springer like
Spanish shows.

I do not want to sound
like 60 Minutes Andy Rooney,
but… I wish José Canseco
the very best in his
endeavor. Whatever he
wants to do I wish him
a lot of success. As a person
born in Cuba I was proud of
a baseball player in the
Major League with that
type of talent. I remember
once asking him about
his fellow Cuban Rafael
Palmeiro and José told
me: “Raffy is going to
hit more home runs than me”
I thought he was joking, this
was in the 1980’S ! Well,
he was right, Rafael Palmeiro
might have 600 home runs
by next year, and that
might be the most quiet
600 home runs for a player
in history.

I do have more stories
about Canseco, but some
I would never reveal.
My business is reporting
baseball and I do not care
to go beyond that.

Let me just end by saying
that José Canseco was a
very good player that
will not be in the Hall
of Fame but that brought
a lot of pleasure to
baseball fans everywhere
and If we approach it that
way I think everybody
will be happy. Even José.
————————————————————
Amaury Pi-González is on his second season
as Spanish Play by Play Announcer for the
Seattle Mariners Spanish Radio Network
(www.spanishmariners.net)calling the action
for all 81 home games from SAFECO Field
in Seattle and on his 10th season as Spanish
Play by Play for the SF Giants selected weekend
games over KZSF 1370 AM San José.
Amaury recently was inducted as a Journalist/
Broadcaster in the Cuban Sports Hall of
Fame in Miami. He is also the Vice President
of The Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum
a 503 c-1 non profit organization founded
in 1999 in San Francisco to recognize the
contributions of Latinamerican players in baseball.

0 comments

1 marty { 05.11.04 at 8:52 am }

Amaury: Excellent story about Jose Canseco. I agree, if you look at the enjoyment Jose brought to the fans and disregard the side adventures, he was a fine addition to the game. Canseco was one of the most powerful sluggers of all time in my opinion.
Thanks for the exclusive,
Marty Lurie

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I love Jose Canseco! He is my favorite baseball player of all time! Bash Brothers forever!

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