Jose Canseco’s Freak Show Arrives In Yuma, Won’t Last More Than 3:10

Hey, Jose Canseco’s back in baseball!

Well, sort of. He’s going to serve as player-manager with a team that nobody’s ever heard of in a league that’s never played a game. But hey, it’s something.

Here’s my friend Amanda Rykoff (via espnW):

Bill Veeck himself would be proud of this publicity stunt. The Scorpions’ attendance has dropped over the past three seasons, and the team’s future in Yuma has been in doubt. This is nothing more than a ploy to bring attention to the team and get people talking. And I don’t blame the team or Canseco for going along with it.

--snip--

But if the Yuma Scorpions want to hire Jose Canseco to manage the team and play for them, why should he say no? The other nonsense (the boxing matches, reality shows, etc.) is on him, but this latest gig represents a symbiotic relationship. The team needs publicity and a boost. Canseco is only too happy to provide it for them in exchange for a paycheck.

We may all laugh at Canseco for making a mockery of his career. But this time at least he’s laughing all the way to the bank.

Hey, I’m not blaming Canseco for participating in this travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham. He’s become a circus freak, and circus freaks have to take their work where they can find it.

I can blame the team, though, because this isn’t any way to run a franchise. Will the good citizens of Yuma show up to see the Canseco Show? Yeah, probably some of them. But what happens when the Canseco Show folds its tent early, following withering reviews? Will those good citizens keep showing up? Probably not.

Hiring Jose Canseco to do almost anything is the last step before giving up. If I owned the Yuma Scorpions, I would skip this unsavory step and sell the franchise to someone who knows how run a baseball team.