Elimination

José Canseco Is Benched

Elimination

I was listening recently to a copy of the radio broadcast of game 4 of the 1990 World Series.

I don’t know how old you were in October 1990. I was 6 years old; old enough to remember watching the game on television, but not quite old enough to really appreciate what I was seeing.

Anyway, one thing I had completely forgotten about the 1990 World Series is the fact that José Canseco was benched for the deciding 4th game of the series.

It might not seem like much today, of course. Canseco isn’t thought of quite as fondly these days as he was back in the late 1980s.

You have to remember that Canseco burst on the baseball scene like a bomb back in 1986. He hit 33 home runs at the young age of 21, and only improved from that. He famously became the first man with 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases in a single season in 1988, which is also the year he won his first and only Most Valuable Player award.

Canseco was big, big news, especially in 1990. In fact, the 1990 Athletics are still remembered as one of the greatest teams in American League history, largely because of the Canseco / McGwire power hitting combination. Most of us also forget that the Athletics had Rickey Henderson, Willie McGee, Harold Baines, and a pitching staff that ranked up with the best teams of all time.

And yet Canseco’s power was completely gone in October, and the A’s were swept by the unhearlded Cincinnati Reds.

Canseco did manage to make a brief appearance in that fourth game. He came in as a pinch hitter for none other than Harold Baines in the bottom of the 9th inning, down by a run.

He managed to ground out weakly to third base.

From Oakland Tribune, October 21, 1990, page B-3

Now, it is true that Canseco had some physical ailments during that series. He struggled with injuries in 1989, and wasn’t really 100% for most of the 1990 season. And it turns out that heavy steroid use isn’t some sort of magic formula to make all your physical problems go away.

But it still boggles my mind that Canseco was benched in an elimination game like that. And I’m not sure if I can think of any good parallels in baseball history.