Jose Canseco impressed with police after suspected bat thieves nabbed

By Rick Hurd, East Bay Times (TNS)

Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016 | 2 a.m.

PITTSBURG, Calif. — Awaking to discover that his bats have been stolen is not anything new for former Oakland Athletics star Jose Canseco.

A knock on his hotel door at 4:30 a.m. with the news that the possible thieves had been caught?

That's as rare as a 52-year-old man playing professional baseball.

"You know, it's kind of funny, I've had my bats stolen quite a few times," Canseco said in an interview Wednesday afternoon. "But usually, they show up at an autograph show or with autograph dealers."

This time, they showed up in a car in the parking lot of the Hampton Inn in Pittsburg. Canseco, who hit 462 home runs in 17 major league seasons with seven clubs, is staying there while playing the rest of the season for the Pittsburg Diamonds independent professional baseball. He was the starting pitcher for Wednesday night's game at Vallejo.

"I want to be part of Pittsburg, part of the community," he said. "I'm out in the community, I'm in the restaurants. I'm out. This is part of that. I have a house in Las Vegas, and had one in Blackhawk with the A's, but that's very, very long ago."

A hotel manager called police to the hotel about 3:30 a.m., reporting that live video surveillance was showing a possible car burglary in progress, Pittsburg police spokesman Capt. Ron Raman said.

Once there, officers Manly Williams and Gerald Lombardi reportedly found Sergio Verduzco, 40, of Oakland, and Richard Lewis, 24, of Pittsburg. Both had outstanding arrest warrants, Raman said.

Lewis was inside a vehicle that police believe Verduzco had stolen in Antioch. Verduzco was nearby, in the parking lot. They also found Canseco's bats in the vehicle, Raman said.

Police knocked on the door of Canseco's room and asked him to go identify six of his SamBat maple wood bats, which he said weigh about 34 ounces each. Canseco said he's been using that same brand of bat since his season with the Toronto Blue Jays in 1998. Each costs about $140 retail and he brought a dozen of them to Pittsburg when he arrived last week. He said some of his bats have been sold at auction for $500 to $1,000.

Canseco came away "impressed" with Pittsburg police. He also took photos of Lombardi and Williams holding the bats and posted one, thanking them for rescuing his bats, on his Twitter page for his 500,000 followers.

Oakland's fourth-most prolific home run hitter with 264 — he played for the A's from 1988-1992 and again in 1997 — also seemed a bit touched.

"It's actually kind of flattering," he said. "Who knows? Maybe, they needed them for a game or something."

Police arrested Verduzco and Lewis on suspicion of burglary. Verduzco also had an arrest warrant for assault with a deadly weapon and Williams had one for grand theft and possession of stolen property. They were taken to County Jail in Martinez. Their custody status was not available late Wednesday morning.