Slumping Canseco sits

By JOHN ROMANO

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 26, 2000

ST. PETERSBURG -- He has been taken out of lineups from Oakland to Boston to Texas to Toronto for various physical ailments.

But Jose Canseco could not remember the last time he was benched for not being good enough.

Canseco was called into manager Larry Rothschild's office when he arrived at Tropicana Field on Thursday afternoon and was told he was out of the lineup for at least one game and maybe more.

Canseco said his benching will not benefit his slump in any way. On the other hand, he does not have much room to argue.

He is hitting .225 in May with three home runs. He has seven homers for the season. At this point last year, Canseco was among the league leaders with 17 home runs.

"It's always been physical problems with me before," Canseco, 35, said. "Maybe I'm thinking too much about the physical stuff. I need to get back to my basics."

The Rays plan to bring over a young pitcher or two from extended spring training for an extended batting practice session with Canseco before tonight's game.

"When I sat down to talk to him, he thought it would be a good idea to see some live pitching to work on tracking the ball," Rothschild said. "I thought it was a great idea, so we'll try to do that so he can make some adjustments and look at different things. It's not just for a four- or five-pitch at-bat. This way he can stay out there."

Canseco said his biggest problem was getting too antsy with his swing. He said he is anticipating the ball too quickly instead of staying back on the pitch.

"It's just little bit by little bit, I've fallen into bad habits. ... It can last a long time," Canseco said. "I just have to do a better job of picking the ball up instead of jumping too soon. I need to let the ball do what it's going to do and then go after it."

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