LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Former Oakland A’s star Jose Canseco will put on a show at halftime of the Las Vegas Lights game on Friday, May 27, at Cashman Field.
And it’s Dollar Juice Night.
It’s a fitting stop in the public eye for Canseco, author of the 2005 tell-all book, “Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Big.”
A video promo posted by the Lights pokes a little more fun at the situation, with Canseco grabbing a juice box and mugging for the camera: “Gimme that. I’m Jose Canseco, and I approved this message.”
Canseco, who hit 462 homers in his Major League Baseball career, will be “launching autographed softballs into the stands,” according to a tweet by Las Vegas Lights FC. The team’s Summer Kick-Off Match will be against the El Paso Locomotive. The team opened play on Saturday against the Monterey Bay FC, losing 1-0. They play the Oakland Roots SC next,
Saturday at Cashman.
Canseco was an enormous star, American League Rookie of the Year in 1986 and MVP in 1988. He was half of the Oakland A’s “Bash Brothers” with Mark McGwire. He went on to play for three other MLB teams — the Texas Rangers, the Boston Red Sox and the Toronto Blue Jays, but he struggled with injuries.
When he named names in his book and admitted using anabolic steroids, it changed many of his relationships and fans’ perceptions. Instead of the Hall of Fame, he was put on a path that more resembled a sideshow.
Celebrity boxing, talk shows and even an incident when he shot himself in the hand while cleaning a gun in Las Vegas … not the career path his MLB numbers might have suggested.
Still, he is respected for speaking up when many others in baseball went silent about steroids.