Dave Stewart rips Jose Canseco
Posted By Jeff Fletcher on June 23, 2009 7:35 pm
At the 1989 A’s reunion, Dave Stewart said Jose Canseco was a “bad teammate.” He said the A’s bitter feelings toward Canseco started long before Canseco’s book.
A lot of the players who showed up were asked about the two big ones who didn’t — Mark McGwire and Canseco — and mostly they said missed McGwire, but understood why he and the others who couldn’t make it were absent. Not too many nice words for Canseco, though.
The amusing thing was when the A’s players came out to the third-base line during introductions. Carney Lansford, now the Giants hitting coach, was reluctant to come out and join the enemy, but Tony Phillips convinced him to come out. No harm in posing for some photos.
i remember reading or hearing a while back about how stewart told larussa that if he put canseco in the lineup for the foruth game of the 90 series, that stewart would not pitch. apparently, joseco had become incredibly unpopular with the rest of the team to the point that stewart’s sentament was share with a lot of other guys.
perhaps you can ask stewart about that story. unfortunately, i can’t recall where it was mentioned now.