Tappan Zee Youngsters Meet Baseball Icon

Luis M. “Little Louie” Ruelas, a student at Tappan Zee Elementary, and his brother Nicholas M. Ruelas had a chance encounter with former big-league slugger Jose Canseco at Provident Bank Park in Pomona.

They have the photo to prove it, too.

Canseco, 47, who believes his 2005 book Juiced helped to blow the lid off the Steroid Era in Major League Baseball, is now playing with the Worcester Tornadoes in the Can-Am League, and was at the park to play against the Rockland Boulders over the Memorial Day weekend.

“We were just buying some items, and I noticed a guy talking on a cell phone; it was Canseco,” related the youngsters’ dad Luis A. Ruelas of Blauvelt. “I went up to him, and he said to wait just a minute and he would be right there. I didn’t know if he would or not, but he came right over. I asked him if he would mind taking a picture with my sons, and he was very accommodating. He couldn’t have been nicer.”

Canseco spent parts of 17 seasons in the majors, hitting 462 home runs. Despite often professing his desire to get back on the field, he hasn’t played in the majors since 2001.

He had eight 30 home-run seasons, five of them with Oakland, where he won a World Series in 1989.

He also played for the Texas Rangers, the Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Yankees. He ended his career with the Chicago White Sox in 2001, and is playing with Worcester on a one-year contract.