Jose Canseco, Cuban-American baseball player and mixed martial artist
José Canseco Capas Jr. (born July 2, 1964), nicknamed Parkway Jose, Mr. 40-40 and El Cañonero Cubano (The Cuban Cannon), is a Cuban-American former Major League Baseball (MLB) outfielder and designated hitter. During his time with the Oakland Athletics, he established himself as one of the premier power hitters in the game. He won the Rookie of the Year (1986), and Most Valuable Player award (1988), and was a six-time All-Star. Canseco is a two-time World Series champion with the Oakland A's (1989) and the New York Yankees (2000).
In 1988 Canseco became the first player to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in one season. He won the Silver Slugger award four times: three as an AL outfielder (1988, 1990, 1991), and once as a designated hitter (1998). He ranks 4th all time in A's history with 254 home runs and is one of 14 players in MLB history with 400 home runs and 200 stolen bases. Despite his many injuries during the later part of his career, Canseco averaged 40 home runs, 120 RBIs and 102 runs scored every 162 games, playing a total of 1887 games in 17 seasons with 7 different teams.
As of 2022, Canseco's 462 career home runs rank him 37th on the MLB all-time list; among active players, slugger Nelson Cruz is the closest to Canseco on the list, with 449 home runs. At one time Canseco was the all-time leader in home runs among players born outside the US; this was later surpassed by Manny Ramirez, Albert Pujols, David Ortiz, Carlos Delgado, Rafael Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa, and Miguel Cabrera. He was the first player to hit 30 home runs for four different teams: Oakland (1986–88, 1990, 1991), Texas (1994), Toronto (1998), and Tampa Bay (1999). This record was later surpassed by Fred McGriff and Gary Sheffield who did it for five different teams.
Canseco admitted using performance-enhancing drugs during his major-league playing career, and in 2005 wrote a tell-all book, Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Big, in which he claimed that the vast majority of MLB players use steroids. After retiring from Major League Baseball, he also competed in boxing and mixed martial arts.