Today in Blue Jay History: Blue Jays Sign Jose Canseco and other stuff...

On this day, in 1998, the Jays signed free agent Jose Canseco to a one-year contract that ended up earning him $2,125,000, much of that earned incentives.

He had a pretty good season for us, he hit 46 home runs (at the time, 1 short of the team record, now 3rd in the single season ranking), stole 29 bases (we'll ignore the fact that he was caught 17 times, meaning we'd have been better off if hadn't tried to steal). He drove in 107 runs, with a .237/.318/.518 line, for a team that went 88-77, finishing 3rd in the AL East. He also won the Silver Slugger award, for best hitting DH. He also struck out 159 times, a team high that was tied last season by Kelly Johnson.

Jose claims he wasn't on steroids at the time. Who knows, maybe he wasn't. Part of the price of having him on the team is having to listen to the stupidity of him wanting to be mayor or his offers to play for the Jays for free.

Also on this day:

One Year Ago:

I talked about Vlad Guerrero's agent telling people that Vlad had a $8 million offer form a mystery team, but he was still willing to listen to the Orioles offer. As you know he ended up signing a minor league contract with the Blue Jays in May and was released in June. My favorite part:

My agent would also like you to know that I have an $8 million offer from some other website, but I'm still willing to consider staying here for the bimonthly bag of cheese doodles they throw down to me in the basement.

You'll be happy to know that SB now throws me a money bag of cheese doodles.

Jessef tried to figure out if the extra bases taken stat was of much value. I'll let you check his math.

And I whined a little bit about the Blue Jays relationship with us bloggers. A year later, it's a year later. I prett ymuch have the same opinion, I don't want in the press box. I don't want a relationship with players, I don't want to start judging them on their personality. They have been nice enough to let me talk to Tony LaCava and Dwayne Murphy, in the past year. Returning emails is sometimes more of an art form than a science for them, but I'm trying to be more zen like about (not really, I just get pissed off and fantasize about Tyler Blez' world where Billy Beane calls him to offer an interview).

Sometimes they let me listen in when there is a phone conference, sometimes not. I still think the idea of doing something just for bloggers, now and then, would be ok. The problem, as always, is that the PR guys think all us bloggers are cowboys and have no rules and that if I screwed them, they wouldn't have someone to go to with their complaints. We have tried to explain that I have bosses at SB and they have no objections to telling me when I have screwed up.

Three Years Ago:

We signed free agent reliever Kevin Gregg, and didn't that work out wonderfully. Al Yellon was nice enough to give us a scouting report.

And Hugo talked (Briefly!) to Dirk Hayhurst about his then recent surgery. Dirk is always interesting. So is Hugo.

Four Years Ago:

Hugo had bits of news about Adam Loewen's batting ability and the Jays interest in Kevin Millar. I always love Hugo's writing:

I mean, if Alex Rodriguez vouches for your character, what does that say about you? What do you think the Yankees would look like if they signed every player Johnny Damon recommended them to? My guess is that it would be pretty much the most hilarious team ever. Anyway, the Jays snatching Millar out of the grasp of the Yankees and Mets pretty much makes up for the whole Burnett situation, no?

Five Years Ago:

Hugo talked about possible 5th starters. Remember Gustavo Chacin?