Jose Canseco is back in the headlines with a story that sounds like it came straight out of a fictional sports novel. The former Oakland Athletics slugger says he put together what he calls a “Beefcake Book” of himself and mailed it to Madonna in the early 1990s.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan shared a clip on X where Canseco explained the whole thing. According to Canseco, Madonna wanted to see what he looked like without his uniform on. So after batting practice one day, he asked longtime team photographer Michael Zagaris, known around baseball as “Z,” to shoot a series of photos.
“Madonna wants to see what I look like with my uniform on, so I spoke with Z about taking some pictures, not nude but pretty close,” Canseco said in the clip. “Madonna wants a front view, side view, back view, whole combinations, just to see what I really look like, what she was getting herself into.”
The photoshoot that became clubhouse lore
Canseco described the session as more awkward than romantic. He said Zagaris snapped the glamour shots and they assembled them into what became known as the Beefcake Book. The whole thing was shipped off to Madonna, who apparently liked what she saw. But Canseco made it clear the feeling wasn’t mutual. He didn’t feel the same attraction toward her, which adds a weird twist to a story that’s floated around for decades.
This all goes back to 1991, when Canseco was arguably the most famous athlete in baseball. He was hitting moonshots, stealing bases, and living a life that blurred the line between sports and pop culture. The Madonna connection was a rumor back then, but Canseco is now confirming the details in his own words.
A bizarre piece of baseball mythology
Passan’s post has brought the whole thing back into the spotlight. The clip has been shared widely, and fans are eating it up. It’s the kind of story that only works because it involves Canseco, a guy who never seemed to care about keeping his private life private.
Zagaris, who shot the photos, is a legendary figure in baseball photography. He captured some of the most iconic moments in A’s history. But this might be his strangest assignment. Canseco saying he worked with Zagaris after BP to create an album for Madonna is such a specific window into that era. It’s hard to imagine any current player doing something like this, let alone talking about it so casually.
The A’s had that larger-than-life vibe in the late 80s and early 90s. Canseco was at the center of it, alongside guys like Mark McGwire and Rickey Henderson. This Beefcake Book story is just another reminder that those teams were as much about spectacle as they were about winning.
As for whether Madonna still has the book somewhere? Nobody knows. But the story is definitely not going away anytime soon.
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