Jose Canseco Offers the Finger to the Public

Jose Canseco, the controversial former American League slugger, once again has created headlines.  Last month, the 50 year old Canseco shot his middle finger off as he was cleaning his 45 caliber Remington. Canseco appeared emotional over the accident in an interview with Inside Edition.




Canseco had the digit surgically re-attached. But during a poker tournament, Canseco's finger fell off as he was tossing his cards on the table.   Rather than wallow in tragedy, Canseco adopted a farcical entrepreneurial tact.

Canseco took to Twitter to auction off his severed middle finger along with the firearm.  Of course, E-Bay does not allow auctions of firearms or body parts, but Canseco's auction offering is telling.

Canseco must be hard up for cash and attention if he is auctioning off his middle finger.  Of course,  Canseco's two divorces cost him $8 million a piece.  After his 17 year MLB baseball career with eight American League baseball clubs (primarily with the Oakland Athletics), Canseco was resigned to play Independent Baseball.  Later, he resorted to a short lived Mixed Martial Arts career and then doing Celebrity Boxing, notably fighting to a draw with Danny Bonaduce.

Canseco will be remembered for his tell all book Juiced: Wild Times, Rampaging 'Roids Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Big (2005).  Canseco's admission to taking steroids helped prompt Congressional hearing in 2010.

In his controversial public life, Canseco has been a target for criticism, hence his quote about being criticized for anything that he does.  But publicly suggesting that a blown off middle finger could be bought in an auction as a drink stir seems more than a bit out there.

Even though Canseco's 462 home runs puts him 32nd of the list for all time Home Run list and his four Silver Slugger awards, Canseco only garnered 6 Votes for the Hall of Fame in 2007, which means that Canseco is only eligible for admission through the Committee of Baseball Veterans.  By offering his middle finger to the public via E-Bay, one suspect that Canseco may wait as longer than banned MLB great Pete Rose for admission to Cooperstown.

George Steinbrenner on Being the Boss

Since former New York Yankees skipper Joe Torre managed to not mention longtime Yankees owner George Steinbrenner during his 28 minute speech as he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, it is worth recognizing "the boss".

Tony LaRussa on Baseball

US Mint Strikes Curved Coin Celebrating Cooperstown

The US Mint will be striking its first curved coin in order to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Following the mandate of PL 112-152 passed by Congress in 2012, this limited edition legal tender is supposed to be produced like the French Mint's 2009 coins commemorating the Year of Astronomy.

David Everhart

The shape of the coin has the convex side depicting a raised Major League baseball which was designed by US Mint Engraver David Everhart and the concave obverse side will display the winner of a design competition judged by Baseball Hall of Famers Joe Morgan, Brooks Robinson, Ozzie Smith, Don Sutton and Dave Winfield.

Cassie McFarland

Cassie McFarland, a 28 year old artist from San Luis Obispo, California, entered the baseball coin design competition because: "she was fascinated by the notion that America's coins could reflect the personality and history of its people".  McFarland's  "Hand Full of Gold" design beat 177 other contestants by depicting a stylized baseball glove.  McFarland's glove design complimented the concave shape of the cupped glove.  Two shafts of wheat on the side of the glove unite with the glove stitching to form a circle, depicting national unity and perhaps the importance of our national pastime to American culture.

The San Francisco Mint will produce up to 50,000 $5 gold coins, 400,000 $1 silver coins and 750,000 half-dollar coins. These commemorative coins will be sold at a premium of $35, $10 and $5 respectively, with the proceeds going to benefit the Cooperstown based National Baseball Hall of Fame's non-profit operations.  

Numismatics can catch their curve-ball coins starting March 27th. However, due to the baseball theme and the convex curvature of the commemorative coin, it still would have been a bad bet for Broadway Joe to use for the Super Bowl XLVIII ceremonial coin toss.