He Still Swings for the Fences
As an action movie star in a project that he expects to start shooting this year, Jose Canseco plays a guy who steals a drug lord’s artwork because the drug lord has kidnapped his niece.
The movie has just about everything, Canseco said. “Car chases, fast driving, fight scenes.”
But no baseball. At 39, Canseco didn’t hook up with the Dodgers after a tryout this spring, but he said he was “tired of all the hypocrisy” anyway and doesn’t miss baseball.
Canseco’s movie doesn’t have a title, but his book does. He said “Dare to Truth” should be out in September, by which time he’s going to be even more up to date with his karate, taekwondo and weight training.
Did we mention golf?
The 6-foot-4, 240-pound Canseco has set his sights on winning the long-drive championship in October in Mesquite, Nev. He already has AccuFLEX shafts and SMT Golf driver as his sponsors, and Canseco says he can hit the ball 350 yards regularly while often topping out at 420 yards.
“I see the whole thing as a hobby,” said Canseco, who was introduced to golf by Roger Clemens when they were Boston Red Sox teammates. “Pitchers are usually golfers because they have so much time off between starts, they can play all the time.”
Canseco had 462 home runs in his 17-year career, but he loves slamming golf balls instead of baseballs now.
“It’s just fascinating. I’ve already hit baseballs as far as you can hit them,” he said. “I play with guys and they see me hit a golf ball 350 yards, and they freak out.”
Canseco, who lives in Encino, says he’s at the Balboa driving range four times a week and is ready now to compete in the long-driving competition.
“Just to crush a golf ball, it’s amazing,” he said.
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Speaking of baseball sluggers, Mark McGwire, who hit 583 home runs, has accepted a sponsor’s exemption into the PGA Tour’s John Deere Classic, July 8-11, at the TPC at Deere Run in Silvis, Ill. McGwire, who is a scratch player, plays at Shady Canyon Golf Club in Irvine.
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He has played only eight stroke-play events and won two of them -- the Masters and the Bob Hope -- but Phil Mickelson is a total of 94 under par in 2004. Of his 33 rounds, he has had 22 rounds in the 60s.
Mickelson plays the HP Classic of New Orleans next week in a stretch of four tournaments in a row that also includes the Wachovia, the Byron Nelson and the Colonial.
Mickelson’s green jacket got quite a workout when he wore it to tape TV shows with David Letterman and Jay Leno, and although rules for wearing the jacket are strict, Mickelson didn’t break any. He also wore it when he rang the bell at the New York Stock Exchange.
The hierarchy at Augusta National frowns on the jacket being worn as a prop in the filming of a commercial.
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The week’s top rant comes from the Sunday Times of London, which on its list of the top 10 overrated things in sports, puts the Old Course at St. Andrews as No. 3.
An excerpt of the critique: “A shrine to the sport as a whole? Yes, but only for the terminally misty-eyed. Lift that mist -- tricky when the stuff shrouds the town for days on end -- and you are left with a grim, Presbyterian settlement on a wind-lashed promontory in the North Sea.”
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From Aree Song, 17, asked why she turned pro so early: “So I could retire early.”
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Last week’s seven-hole playoff at Las Vegas, where Christie Kerr outlasted Seol-An Jeon, was the longest on the LPGA since 1972, when Ann Prentice went 10 holes to defeat Sandra Palmer and Kathy Whitworth at Corpus Christi, Texas.
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Marshall Faulk, Gary Carter, Kellen Winslow, Rollie Fingers, Jerry Rice, Joe Morgan, Marcus Allen and Lou Holtz are expected to play in the $250,000 Stan Humphries celebrity tournament, part of the Celebrity Players Tour, Wednesday through May 2 at Morgan Run Resort and Club in Rancho Santa Fe. Children’s Hospital and Health Center of San Diego is the charitable beneficiary. Details: (858) 373-8700.
James MacArthur, Kermit Alexander, Andy Carey, Rosie Casals, Jay Johnstone, Mike Lansford, Rogie Vachon, Marlin McKeever, John O’Hurley and Fred Williamson are among the celebrities scheduled to play in the Foundation for the Retarded of the Desert tournament, May 24 at Desert Falls Country Club in Palm Desert. Details: (760) 632-7770.
The Santa Ana College Athletic Foundation will play host to the Ed Arnold Classic on May 24 at Miles Square Golf Course in Fountain Valley. The event benefits the Santa Ana College Athletic Hall of Fame and provides scholarships to transferring Santa Ana College student-athletes. Details: (714) 564-6091.
Regional qualifying for the California State Open begins May 13 at Robinson Ranch in Santa Clarita. The other events are May 19 at Coyote Creek in San Jose and at the PGA of Southern California at Oak Valley in Beaumont, July 28 at Hunter Ranch in Paso Robles and Aug. 30 at Redhawk in Temecula. The State Open will be played Sept. 1-4 at the SCGA course in Murrieta. Details: (909) 845-4653.
The PGA of Southern California Golf Club will hold “Spring Swing,” a family festival, Saturday from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Major manufacturers will be on hand for equipment demonstrations and sales. Details: (877) PGA-2500.