Baseball star Canseco loses home to foreclosure Thu May 1, 4:27 PM ET Former U.S. baseball star Jose Canseco said on Thursday he had lost his California mansion to foreclosure -- one of the first celebrities to publicly admit being a statistic in the U.S. housing crisis. Canseco, 43, one of the most flamboyant U.S. baseball players until his retirement from the major leagues in 2001, told the celebrity TV show "Inside Edition" that it did not make financial sense to keep his 7,300 square-foot (678.2 sq-metro) home in the Los Angeles suburb of Encino. "Inside Edition" said it had foreclosure documents showing Canseco owed a bank more than $2.5 million on the house. "I've been out of the game for about eight or nine years and obviously this issue with the foreclosure on my home," he told "Inside Edition." "I do have a judgment on my home and it to me is very strange because it didn't make financial sense for me to keep paying a mortgage on a home that was basically owned by someone else," he said. Canseco said the foreclosure was not a difficult issue emotionally. But he sympathized with the millions of other Americans who have already lost, or face losing their homes, because of soaring interest rates on sub-prime loans. "I decided to just let it go, but in most cases and most families, they have nowhere else to go," he said. It was not clear from the "Inside Edition" report where Canseco was now living. U.S. home foreclosure filings jumped 23 percent in the first quarter of 2008 from the prior quarter and more than doubled from a year earlier, real estate data firm RealtyTrac reported this week. Canseco was one of the first Major League Baseball players to admit using steroids in his tell-all 2005 book "Juiced." His personal life has also been controversial with two divorces and several run-ins with the law for violence. Canseco said a good portion of the money he earned in his heyday went to pay for his divorces. "I had a couple of divorces that cost me $7 or $8 million," he said. (Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte and Sandra Maler)
About 1992 or so, I sat next to Dick Anderson at a mandatory Insurance class. They try and legislate morality and have these requirements. He told me that, with the big money coming into sports, that he had been selected to serve on an NFL committee to help the kids coming in keep what they earn. Don't know what happened since , but what he told me...... He was, of course, the free safety on the undefeated Dolphins. He was all pro one of those years, and was paid 38 grand the next year. The year after, out of the game. Like the athletes of his day and before, he needed an offseason job, and sold insurance. I can't help feel sorry for these guys that had it made and lost it all. I have to believe it may be worse than never having it at all. They do say, an athlete dies two deaths. Anyone that remembers Mantle and Mays will understand.
and just how day, do you know what he has done? You are extremely judgemental, I say it is YOU who is a straight out LIAR
Sounds like a business opportunity - financial adviser to retired athletes & sports professionals. The amount of them that go from millions to nada within 10 years is amazing, especially in sports like boxing.
That already is huge. Met a guy who sold Floyd Patterson some gimmick. Told him it would be huge. What little money he had is gone. Tony Dorsett was getting pounded at 36 because EF Hutton packed him in Real Estate lmt partnerships that didn't work (duh). Anybody remember those? They'd get a local, and pour money at somebody's brother in law until it was gone. How about Billy Joel? I think his B in L ran his money - into his own account. It really bothers me. I honestly worry about Britney Spears money. I hate graft. Just hate it. Funny. Sick, and funny. Anybody have a story of an athlete or celeb who reallymade it? Schwartzenegger. Wayne Rogers is on Fox, but I'm not so sure he knows his ass from his elbow. Don't watch.
lenny dykstra's starting a company that works on that - with ex-athletes, advising them, etc. i've heard scott boras' agency has excellent post-athlete financial planning. i've heard most baseball agents who have a few clients do likewise. i know a couple people who have been smart with what they've made, and basically put the money into a variety of things - some businesses, some real estate, t-bills, etc. i was asked second hand for stock suggestions, but said that's NOT how i trade...only thing i did say 5 years ago was to pick a commodity and put a very small % into it for a 10 year run but what happens to most athletes / entertainers who don't hit the big time is that they haven't properly saved BEFORE the sharp dropoff, when they move from low-level but marketable to over the hill. in baseball (if you include the minors) and football, most people who start at 22 or younger are gone before 30. the agents of 30 years ago used to make a ton of money for little work; some have changed to billing for hours worked, rather than % of contract. canseco's problem, by the way, is he thinks he's a lot smarter than he is.
don't feel sorry for jose. i forgot about this piece. http://deadspin.com/372409/chasing-jose-by-pat-jordan <i>But that doesn't mean that Jose hasn't "pissed off" Rob a lot over the last four years that he has been Jose's lawyer. When Rob was defending Jose and his twin brother Ozzie a few years ago in a civil suit brought against the two brothers by a man they had beat up in a Miami bar, he told Jose to keep a low profile and not buy anything because Rob planned on pointing out to the court that Jose was broke. A week before the trail began, Jose leased a $300,000 Rolls Royce and bought a $2.6 million house, in addition to the $1.7 million house he already owned in Encino. "I had to admit in court that all those things Jose owned," said Rob. The jury returned a verdict that required Jose to pay the man he and Ozzie beat up 90 percent of $1.5 million. Ozzie, who is also broke, had to pay the other ten percent. "Jose still hasn't paid a cent," said Rob. After the trial, Jose put his $2.6 million house in South Florida up for sale. He had several offers on it, but decided to take the offer of over $2 million in Mexican telephone stock, which he was prohibited from selling for two years, at which time, the buyer guaranteed him, the stock would be worth $5 million. Two years later, Jose sold the stock for $15,000. Over the last few years, Rob has negotiated prospective deals for Jose worth almost $2 million. Rob got Taco Bell to ante up $25,000, plus residuals, for Jose to star in a TV commercial in which Jose would hold up a huge burrito and say, "This thing's gotta be on something." Jose demanded $50,000 instead and Taco Bell walked. Rob also got Jose an offer of $100,000 from GoldenPalace.com, which would require Jose simply to wear that company's t-shirt and cap whenever he was on TV. Jose demanded $200,000 and Golden Palace walked. Then, Rob got Jose an offer of $75,000 from a reality TV show that wanted to film Jose in a wheelchair for thirty days. Jose demanded more, and the TV show vanished. Finally, Rob got Jose an offer of $500,000 for a movie based on his life, but Jose demanded $1.5 million and the offer vanished. </i>