When Jose Canseco goes camping

(Sports Illustrated photo)

Jose Canseco gets a last chance – albeit a slim one – to keep alive his career 23 years ago today as he signs a minor league contract with the Montreal Expos.

The Expos then invite Canseco to join them at major league spring training camp in Jupiter, Fla.

Canseco’s age – less than five months away from his 38th birthday – and his increasingly brittle body profile him more as a designated hitter than an everyday outfielder in the major leagues.

The only problem, though, is Montreal still plays in the National League, which is a couple of decades away from incorporating the DH into its game.

Canseco’s mid-February arrival in spring training also serves to act as a stable pony of sorts for up-and-coming Expos outfielder Brad Wilkerson.

Canseco appears in 14 exhibition games for the Expos and hits just .200 in those games.

Eventually, like just before the start of the 2002 regular season, the Expos release Canseco.

In doing so, the Expos leave Canseco 38 home runs shy of 500 for his career and, ultimately, out of the game as Canseco never again plays in the majors.

Within three years, Canseco in 2005 authors a self-serving, tell-all book, Juiced, that publicly drags baseball through the sordid world of steroid use within in the game.