Thinning the Herd

[captainsblog]

In the 1990s, José Canseco became one of the poster boys for steroid abuse in major league baseball, but I'd become aware of him long before that. Back when he was in the minors in the mid-80s, one of his coaches was quoted saying that Canseco was so strong, he would likely kill a pitcher with a line drive. The Morning Zoo radio station in Rochester at the time glommed onto this quote and, for several weeks, included the scores of his games under the heading of the José Canseco Manslaughter Watch: "Three [Yankee/Angel/whoever] pitchers ESCAPED WITH THEIR LIVES as Canseco went 2-for-5 last night with a home run, four RBIs, and no homicides."

After years of glory and later ones of disgrace, the now-50-year-old finally hung up his spikes last year, but not his infamy. For his lifetime hitting line now includes two World Series rings, 462 major league home runs, and one missing finger:

Jose Canseco is in a Las Vegas hospital, as doctors try to save what they can of one of his fingers. According to the Miami Herald, Las Vegas police said the ex-slugger told them he was cleaning his gun in his kitchen when it fired, hitting a finger.

“There was nothing suspicious. There was no alcohol involved, just a misstep with a handgun,” Las Vegas Metro Police Lt. Mark Reddon told reporters, according to NBC News.

TMZ Sports reported it had gotten in touch with Canseco’s fiancee Leila Knight, who provided an update:

" … he was sitting at a table in their home cleaning the gun when it went off. She says he didn’t know it was loaded — and the shot ripped through the middle finger on his left hand."

Fortunately, he only had the one gun to clean, or he'd never be able to flip the bird at Congressional investigators again;)

Comments

[liddle-oldman.livejournal.com]

I do note that you can't clean a handgun without either flipping out the cylinder or removing the bolt, whichever. *shakes head*