As you know I went to the A's minor league camp this morning and that reminded me of Jose Canseco. It was early in spring training in 1997 and the major league club was still training at the minor league facility -- it's big and has 4 fields and accommodates lots of players. The A's had just signed him after an absence of 5 years and the media was waiting around for him to show up. He walked in wearing a pair of black boots with zippers. The zippers stick in my mind as a fashion statement.

They held a press conference to re-introduce him and in the conference someone asked if Canseco was still a fast runner. Canseco said he was and challenged the writer to a foot race. The writer said sure he'd race. Canseco said he wanted to bet on the race to make it worth his while. The writer said how much do you want to bet. Canseco said 25. The writer said 25 dollars? Canseco said 25,000. As I recall the race never came off.