I played Poker in Vegas with Jose. Cool guy, but I knew to keep my distance.
To his reputation, he's edgy. A young kid patted Jose on the shoulder. I thought Jose was gonna kill him.
Also, Jose was there with a girl 25 years younger than him.
This was a few years ago. I told him that I was sorry about Bob Welch, who had recently passed away.
Jose frowned and said "Yeah. Tony Phillips and Dave Henderson, too."
I always thought that Jose was a little mis-understood. He's smarter than people think.
He spoke out about the steroid use. MLB didn't like that. Late in his career teams black-balled him...and he couldn't get a Hitting Coach job, either.
I said to him that "You must have been right at 500 Home Runs or just short."
He knew the exact #. "I had 462 Home Runs. But I only played 15 years."