Jose Canseco ‘juiced’ about promotion at Lights soccer game

The man who once dropped $5,000 out of a helicopter as part of an outlandish spectator cash grab and was rewarded with a mention on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” is whirring up his promotional rotor again.

Lights CEO Brett Lashbrook has dubbed Friday’s soccer game against El Paso at Cashman Field $1 Juice Night with Jose Canseco. Juice boxes will be sold for $1, and the former major league Bash Brother and longtime Las Vegas resident will flex his muscles at halftime during a home run hitting contest.

“It’s like school lunch cafeteria juice boxes that we’re selling, but we’re calling it Canseco Juice — all tongue-in-cheek,” Lashbrook said.

There’s Juicy Juice, then there’s the kind that Canseco, an admitted steroid user during a career that saw him belt 462 home runs, used to supplement long, prodigious drives.

Lashbrook initially had some trepidation about approaching the former Oakland A’s slugger with the idea. But he said Canseco took it all in good humor.

“When we went over to his house, I had the staff make the boxes. I had one that said $1 Canseco Juice, and one that just said $1 juice,” Lashbrook said. “I said hand him the Canseco Juice, and if he gets mad, give him the other one.

“He took the Canseco Juice one and laughed the whole time.”

Lashbrook said the juice will be served in generic packages — mass producing containers featuring the long ball specialist’s face or bulging biceps would have been cost prohibitive — but the home run hitting contest will definitely have a Canseco flavor.

Instead of standing at home plate at the traditional baseball diamond, the big man will set up near the warning track in right-center field. He will attempt to launch softballs over spectators and onto (or over) the roof of the Cashman Field Convention Center.

“In all seriousness, there’s an aspect he’s gonna break a window in the club restaurant,” Lashbook said.

Which, in all seriousness, also seemed a thinly veiled attempt to sell a few more tickets.

Around the horn

— Local politicians and tourism types were quick with the hosannas when it was announced English Premiere League power Chelsea FC would meet Mexican heavyweight Club America in a soccer exhibition July 16 at Allegiant Stadium.

They perhaps forgot about Club America’s visit to Southern Nevada in 2013. Hundreds of the team’s supporters clashed with those from El Super Classico rival Chivas during a bloody brawl in which rocks and bottles were thrown before their “friendly” at Sam Boyd Stadium.

Fans also flooded the field during the game. More fights ensued. More arrests were made.

The hope was that a good turnout and atmosphere for the Chivas-Club America game might lead to Las Vegas landing a Major League Soccer franchise.

— Dr. John Cheng, 52, killed May 14 when a gunman opened fire in an Orange County, California, church, was the primary care physician of former UNLV quarterback and current Cleveland Browns fullback Johnny Stanton.

“Absolute hero,” Stanton wrote on his Twitter account. “He attacked the gunman and helped save so many in that church. I just wanted his name to be known. He will be missed.”

— UNLV football coach Marcus Arroyo posted on Twitter that the Rebels’ combined APR is 984, whatever that means, and their GPA is 3.31 — which seems like a really good GPA for a college football team.

Regardless, the average UNLV fan would probably trade 2.31 points off the team’s GPA for six wins and a berth in the Tropical Smoothie Cafe Frisco Bowl against Old Dominion.

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— Two days after the Pac-12 said it would be abolishing its division setup to determine the participants of its championship football game at Allegiant Stadium, the Mountain West did the same thing.

Pac 12: Conference of Champions.

Mountain West: Conference of Imitators.

Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.