Over the course of a 17-year major-league career, Jose Canseco experienced his fair share of slumps.
That’s why he doesn’t think much of it when he sees Toronto Blue Jays hitters like Troy Tulowitzki and Russell Martin scuffle.
“It happens to every player. It’s happened to me in the past,” Canseco says. “I remember going through all of April without hitting a home run. By the end of the year I had 40-something.”
Blue Jays fans may be alarmed to see some of their all-stars below the Mendoza line, but their struggles are nothing like a dry spell Canseco experienced his first full season with the Oakland Athletics. In 1986 the slugger suffered through a nine-game hitless streak, striking out 12 times and walking just once.
“I went 0-for-40 one time in my Rookie of the Year season,” he recalls. “By the all-star break I’d hit 23 home runs with 70 RBI, hitting over .300. Then all of the sudden I go 0-for-40.”
Looking back on his struggles, Canseco believes it was just one of those times when things weren’t going his way.
“I remember Rickey Henderson stealing and the second baseman goes to cover and hitting a line drive right into his glove and that’s a double play,” he says. “So was it really a slump? No, I was hitting the ball hard.”
Over the course of a full season, the former Blue Jay sees these periods where the baseball gods refuse to cooperate as an inevitability.
“Sometimes you’re not doing anything wrong. Things just add up to make you 0-for-20, 0-for-30, 0-for-40. It’s not really a slump, it’s just the way the game is structured.”
Canseco isn’t even sure that “slumps” exist.
“Technically there are no slumps,” he says. “It’s just psychological.”
It may not feel that way for some struggling Blue Jays, but Canseco is speaking from experience. He may not believe in slumps, but he’s certainly survived them.
Chances are the Blue Jays offence will as well.
