The A’s and Their Money Soon Will Part on Canseco Contract

Seated before the picture box, you watch dumbfounded. It is the All-Star baseball game. The American League has a runner on second base, two outs. Wade Boggs is at bat.

The National League manager, Roger Craig, gives the sign to walk Boggs, picturing the next batsman as easier. That batsman is the highest-paid player in the history of baseball.

Name: Jose Canseco.

Craig guesses right. The NL gets Canseco on a weak roller, which is unimportant compared to the contempt displayed for the judgment of the Oakland Athletics, proffering all that money--$23.5 million for five years--to an entertainer with the imperfections of Jose.

In such a spot, would a manager have dared to put an extra man on base to get to Ted Williams? To Joe DiMaggio? Willie Mays? Mickey Mantle? Frank Robinson?

Little wonder the A’s announce the other day that if the football Raiders return to Oakland, sharing the stadium with the baseball team, the A’s may need financial comforting. They even threaten to leave.

If they were more careful the way they dispensed $23.5 million, they wouldn’t be as nervous.

When the Raiders departed Oakland in 1982, the A’s management described the move as an act of treachery, a kick in the zipper to the faithful fans of that community.

And what do the A’s do next? Under a threat of pulling stakes themselves, they manipulate a $15-million sweetheart loan from a city going busted. They get other benefits, too.

Having chided the Raiders for leaving Oakland, the A’s now aim to cash in on a possible return.

The club, you can see, gives a lot of consideration to its money, leaving you to wonder why it would give it away so capriciously and in such quantity to Canseco, who is an interesting figure on the scene but hardly your consummate performer.

He looks like Tarzan, only bigger. In an earlier day, he is labeled a bobby-sox idol. And when he talks, you sometimes hear characters out of Ring Lardner.

For instance, he is interviewed on TV before the All-Star game. He says it is fun to be there “with all the other superstars.”

In 1988, he is named Oakland’s model citizen not long before he is pinched more than once for dangerous driving, then for illegal possession of a gun.

And, unblinkingly, he sets up a 900 telephone number whereby, at a fee, one can call and capture the voice on tape of this god.

So, you ask, what does this have to do with Jose, the ballplayer?

And the answer is, if he is the highest-paid player ever, and an opposing manager would choose to pitch to him with two men on base rather than to the previous hitter with only a man on base, Oakland must sit down for thought and reflection.

“In what perverse fit,” it asks, “did we unload on this guy all that dough?”

“Don’t feel bad,” you comfort Oakland. “You got 65 games out of him last year. How would you like to give $4 million to a pitcher who is the winner of one?”

“Any saves?” Oakland asks.

“Yes, he has saved most of the four million.”

Canseco hits prodigious home runs and, one season, he hits 42. But is he the paragon of performance in this sport; and when, at 26, he promises he is going to keep improving, is that all the assurance required by the bank?

“We would like to borrow $23.5 million,” the A’s tell their banker.

“What’s your collateral?” they are asked.

“Our collateral is the word of Jose Canseco that he will keep improving.”

The A’s are told: “We offer free coffee to our customers. Have a cup on your way out.”

Tim McCarver, the former catcher now in the employ of CBS, did some research recently and found that the salary lead in baseball has changed nine times this year.

No sooner has a guy been handed the game’s highest pay when that figure yields to pay that is higher.

Contending that Canseco has what is called “marquee value,” the A’s will learn painfully that a link exists between marquee value and a team’s place in the standings.

Dan Marino had marquee value--until the Miami Dolphins started losing.

And on marquees today, do names come bigger than Bo’s?

And how much does Raider attendance escalate when the team is playing .500?

But you’ve got no grudge against Canseco. As long as he can milk Oakland, you encourage him to milk.

That’s the way it is, he may tell us, with the other superstars, too.