Chasing Canseco - Best Day Ever.

[CobbvLajoie1910]

Tanner, you are my hobby hero, brother.

I think I've read this story 2-3x now -- love, love the passion.

Cheers!

[mouschi]

Originally Posted by CobbvLajoie1910

Tanner, you are my hobby hero, brother.

I think I've read this story 2-3x now -- love, love the passion.

Cheers!

Haha, thanks a bunch man! I appreciate that.

[pokerplyr80]

What a great experience for a fan. Something most of us can only dream of. Great post too, I read the whole thing and enjoyed it.

[ooo-ribay]

FANTASTIC story (even if this Giants fan could have done without your reliving of the '89 WS)!!!

It's hard to believe an "average guy" could get this arranged. I lived in Vegas for 33 years and a few things struck me about your story: your hotel room was attached to a casino? It's hard to find one that ISN'T. Jose's house? Stucco with tile roof is pretty much 99% of Vegas. My old house could be the little portion you showed of Jose's. Cigarette smoke? Yup, Vegas is pretty much the last place on the planet you can still smoke nearly everywhere.

I kinda met Jose at a signing but I was actually there to get Greg "moon man" Minton to sign a game bat. They were sitting side by side and Minton took the bat and told Jose he could probably hit one farther than Jose. As a side note, Greg was super cool and happy to talk to a Giants fan who remembered him. The handler or promoter or whoever he was was such an a**hole I basically threw the 40 bucks he demanded before I left. It seemed like Greg would have signed it for nothing.

Anyway, great story Tanner.

edit: I'm a retired LV firefighter...some of my buddies still on the job "ran on" Jose when his finger fell off at the poker table.

[mouschi]

Really? Wow that is interesting! Thanks for your comments as well. The Giants were definitely worthy adversaries - they had some GREAT players on that team. Two of my best friends back then were die-hard Giants fans, so we'd always go back and forth, and trade Cansecos for Clarks, etc.

Originally Posted by ooo-ribay

FANTASTIC story (even if this Giants fan could have done without your reliving of the '89 WS)!!!

It's hard to believe an "average guy" could get this arranged. I lived in Vegas for 33 years and a few things struck me about your story: your hotel room was attached to a casino? It's hard to find one that ISN'T. Jose's house? Stucco with tile roof is pretty much 99% of Vegas. My old house could be the little portion you showed of Jose's. Cigarette smoke? Yup, Vegas is pretty much the last place on the planet you can still smoke nearly everywhere.

I kinda met Jose at a signing but I was actually there to get Greg "moon man" Minton to sign a game bat. They were sitting side by side and Minton took the bat and told Jose he could probably hit one farther than Jose. As a side note, Greg was super cool and happy to talk to a Giants fan who remembered him. The handler or promoter or whoever he was was such an a**hole I basically threw the 40 bucks he demanded before I left. It seemed like Greg would have signed it for nothing.

Anyway, great story Tanner.

edit: I'm a retired LV firefighter...some of my buddies still on the job "ran on" Jose when his finger fell off at the poker table.

[mouschi]

If you recall, I made up a version of a Crusade card, but with Canseco as a Blue Jay.

It took me a few tries ...



and I even played with a dual game used version ...



but decided that was too crowded.

I wanted to play with the colors ...



and even recreate the logo ...



In the end, I came up with this ...



But I wanted to make sure that not only was my name on the front, but also have my face on the back ...



The final looked much more polished, and when Jose got a hold of it, he laid down a NICE red ink signature on it. So, here is the happy ending to this card!



BTW - If you have a purple or red crusade Canseco ... let me know! I still need 'em for my collection.

[mouschi]

From my article Fantasy Baseball has a Whole New Meaning you saw that I created a Magic the Gathering style type of card of Canseco, by giving him glowing eyes, a sword and dragons in the background.

When you see it, you swear you hear heavy metal music playing somewhere.

I gave his fantasy name "Canseco the Crusher". I think Jose got a kick out of that. Here it is, with the inscription "The Crusher"!



Yeah, I know this is a goofball card, but I am a sucker for inscriptions not found anywhere else ... especially if they are made up by me, and go along with a card I've made