Less Bash, but He’s Still Brash : Athletics: Canseco has a bad back, bruised hand and swollen finger, but he says he’s ready for the Reds.

There is a heartbeat, a pulse.

Or as Jose Canseco said Monday: “I may be a little limited, but I’m not dead yet.

“In fact, I’m getting better.”

An unhealthy development for the Cincinnati Reds?

The Oakland Athletics hope so, of course.

In their four-game sweep of the Boston Red Sox in the American League playoffs, the A’s had 38 hits--34 singles and four doubles.

Canseco had two singles in 11 at-bats. He struck out five times, walked five times and scored three runs.

With Mark McGwire producing two singles in 13 times at bat, the Bash Brothers were turned to trash, which is about the way Canseco felt.

He had a cortisone shot for his ailing back shortly before the playoffs began, bruised his right hand in batting practice before Game 1 and also had to cope with a swollen middle finger on that hand, suffered when he jammed it opening a refrigerator door in late September.

When it comes to domesticity, Canseco might be safer taking the curves in his Jaguar.

“There was no way he was going to walk up there and hit a three-run homer,” A’s batting coach Merv Rettenmund said of Canseco’s condition, stance and approach in the playoffs.

“I mean, I don’t think we saw anything different than we did during the last two months of the season because of how sore his hand was.”

And now, with the World Series set to open tonight?

“The cortisone has really helped my back,” Canseco said of the condition that put him on the disabled list in June. “I lost a lot of power and bat speed, but the back is like 95 to 100% now, and the swelling in the finger and hand has gone down.

“I can live with it, play with it. I’d rather be here in this condition than to have had a terrific season and hit 50 home runs and not be here at all.

“It’s like I’ve said many times and now proven . . . I don’t think there’s another player on this or any planet who could do what I’ve done.

“I played hurt, missed a lot of games and still hit 37 homers and drove in 101 runs. What player wouldn’t love those numbers?

“It would take a broken bone to keep me out of a World Series. I mean, I can do things hurt that most healthy players only dream about.”

He didn’t in the playoffs, but then the Red Sox consistently pitched around him, and he might not have even been in the lineup if those had been regular-season games, according to Rettenmund.

Now, the coach says, there should be no excuses. It’s time for the real Canseco to rise up and dominate, the way baseball’s highest-salaried player should in baseball’s showcase event.

“It’s hard to perform when you’re not healthy, but you’ve got to make adjustments whether you’re 60%, 80% or 100%,” Rettenmund said.

“Whether he can be the Jose Canseco of April and May, he’s got to produce. Big players do it, and I think he’ll be a factor.”

Canseco hit only three home runs after Aug. 2. His re-emergence would be an emotional boost for the A’s.

“Well, I think our emotions are real good to start with,” Manager Tony La Russa said. “But if Jose has two or three of the type games he’s capable of, he can put a lot of crooked numbers on the scoreboard, and what that does is enhance our chances of winning.

“I think his bat speed is real good right now. I think he feels good. But I want him to stay within himself. As long as he’s getting on and scoring runs, like he did in the playoffs, I can live with that. Just contribute.”

With his back and other problems, Canseco said he has spent the entire summer making adjustments, but there is little he can do to compensate for reduced bat speed and the reluctance of pitchers to pitch to him.

“I’m getting a lot of breaking balls when pitchers are down in the count,” Canseco said. “That’s why I got so many walks in the playoffs.

“They’re all going to approach me that way. They’re not going to say, ‘He’s not healthy,’ and throw me a 3-1 fastball down the middle. It just doesn’t work that way, though I wish it did.”

Aside from the challenging fastballs of Roger Clemens, the Boston pitching staff nibbled against the A’s, daring the Oakland hitters to take what was being offered. Nobody does that better than the fundamental-minded A’s.

“We don’t need two- or three-run homers to win, and the playoffs should prove that,” McGwire said. “People always seem to be looking for a way to knock us, and now they’re trying to make four games look like a year’s work. You mean this was the first time we’ve gone four games without a home run? Who cares?

“We won, and we might not have if we’d been up there trying to juice it. You can’t do that against the Boston pitchers. They’re in and out, up and down. They’re crafty. I mean, Mike Boddicker was inventing pitches as he went along. He even threw two or three knuckleballs.”

Like Clemens, the Reds’ Jose Rijo can be expected to challenge the A’s tonight in a park built for power. Canseco said at the 1988 All-Star game here that he might hit 50 or more homers playing a full season at Riverfront Stadium. He said Monday, however, that it would be a mistake to try hitting home runs, that he has to concentrate on hitting straightaway.

It would also be a mistake, he said, because the A’s “lineup of All-Stars” has proved it can win without the home run.

This, he believes, is the best Oakland team yet.

A bit brash coming from a 26-year-old veteran of five-plus seasons?

Well, the brash and bash may be back.

Canseco took three days off after the playoffs to rest his injuries, returned to live batting practice Sunday and said he has never lost his confidence.

“You go up there with confidence or you’re defeating yourself to start with,” he said. “There are two parts to the game--mental and physical. I might hurt physically, but I’ve still got to believe I can do it.

“And,” he said, smiling, “I do.”

Career Statistics

Year AB HR RBI Avg. 1985 96 5 13 .302 1986 600 33 117 .240 1987 630 31 113 .257 1988 610 42 124 .307 1989 227 17 57 .269 1990 481 37 101 .274 Totals 2,644 165 525 .270

World Series Statistics

Year AB HR RBI Avg. 1988 19 1 5 .053 1989 14 1 3 .357 Totals 33 2 7 .182