That Old Bash Magic?

They say he is a new man, but isn’t everybody in the spring?

Jose Canseco is back with the Oakland A’s, who unceremoniously dumped the old Jose Canseco.

He is back with a familiar flair, provoking hoots and hollers from the stands, stimulating ticket sales and prompting assistant general manager Billy Beane to say, “He puts us on the map again. In some ways he’s synonymous with A’s baseball in the Bay Area.”

It didn’t seem that way on the night of Aug. 31, 1992, when Canseco was summoned from the on-deck circle while preparing to bat against the Baltimore Orioles and told he had been traded to the Texas Rangers.

It seemed a bitter conclusion to a tumultuous relationship, and neither Canseco nor the A’s ever envisioned his return, but here he is, having been reacquired on Jan. 7 in a trade that sent pitcher John Wasdin to the Boston Red Sox, his most recent previous team. Canseco demanded the trade when Boston fired Kevin Kennedy, his friend and last season’s manager.

He’s older, of course, at 32, but wiser?

“If not now, with everything that’s happened, when?” Canseco says.

He is back as part of a fearsome duo with Mark McGwire, but forget that “Bash Brothers” bit.

“A thing of the past,” McGwire said, echoing Canseco’s sentiment. “It was a good run while it lasted, but it ended when Jose left. If the marketing department wants to think up something new, I have no problems with that.”

This is what the marketing department has come up with: “Oakland A’s Powerball . . . Be There When It Happens Again.”

The early commercials, billboards and ticket brochures picture McGwire, whose 52 home runs last season led a powerball attack that produced a club-record 243 homers. Only Baltimore (257) and Seattle (245) had more.

Canseco isn’t only rejoining a bash brother, he’s rejoining a whole brood of young bashers, which has him excited.

In a wide-ranging interview he:

--Accused Boston General Manager Dan Duquette of being ego driven and having destroyed the Red Sox.

--Acknowledged that it is unlikely he would have returned except that this is a different organization from the one he left in ‘92--”New owners, new manager and 99.5% new players.”

--Said that at a nail-hard 240 pounds, he has never felt better or stronger, that he has recovered completely from last year’s back surgery, is hitting the golf ball close to 400 yards and is willing to bet $25,000 that he is the fastest man in the A’s camp.

Canseco may be pulling a leg or two with that fastest-man claim, but he insists that he is again capable of playing the outfield, hitting 40 home runs and stealing 40 bases.Although he has hit only one spring homer, he predicted that he and McGwire should combine for 90-100 homers.

“Mark missed a month and hit 52,” Canseco said. “I missed half a season and hit 28. That’s 80 right there, so it’s a very easy possibility.

“To me, Mark is the best power hitter in baseball. He’s going to break the record [of 61 homers in a season]. To hit 52 while missing a month is amazing, but he’s developed to a point where he can do it every year. He’s so strong, so consistent and knows the game so well.

“If we both get 500 to 600 at-bats, it will be something to watch. I mean, there’s no question about the numbers. We’ve done that consistently.

“The question with us is health. You can’t put up numbers from the disabled list.”

Canseco has been on the disabled list at least once in six of the last seven years and has not appeared in more than 111 games in any season since 1991. He hit the 28 homers in only 360 at-bats and 96 games last year before disk fragments prompted back surgery Aug. 1.

McGwire has been on the disabled list eight times since 1989, sat out virtually all of the 1993 and ’94 seasons and has been troubled by back spasms this spring. Only Babe Ruth, however, reached 300 homers--McGwire has 329--in fewer at-bats, and no one ever reached 40 and 50 homers in fewer at-bats than McGwire did last year. He hit one every 8.13 at-bats, the lowest ratio ever.

Can he and Canseco hit 100?

“Predictions and expectations are just predictions and expectations, but it’s exciting to think it might happen,” McGwire said.

“[General Manager] Sandy Alderson called me 2 1/2 months before he made the trade for Jose and asked me what I thought and I encouraged him to do it. A healthy Jose is good for 30 homers and 100 RBIs. I should have a lot of fun protecting him in our lineup.”

The powerball assault of last year included 36 homers by Geronimo Berroa, 22 by Scott Brosius, 20 by Jason Giambi, 19 by Ernie Young and a career-high 35 by catcher Terry Steinbach, who then took less money than the A’s were offering and returned to his hometown Minnesota Twins as a free agent.

Steinbach represents a significant loss in many ways, but A’s management believes their Nos. 2 through 7 hitters may be baseball’s most formidable.

“I hate to sound like Pollyana, but Jose and Mark back to back are arguably one of the best power combinations ever,” Beane said.

“Mark had such a great year that it’s kind of scary thinking what he might do with Jose in front of him.”

High praise for a combination the A’s couldn’t wait to break up on the night of the trade deadline in 1992.

McGwire and Canseco had triggered a mini-dynasty, combining for 404 homers, starting in 1987, but an exasperated front office and then-manager Tony La Russa finally lost patience with Canseco after a series of disruptive incidents and disturbing headlines.

There were confrontations with the police involving fast cars and a handgun left exposed on a car seat. There were an on-and-off marriage, a fling with Madonna and, in La Russa’s view, a deteriorating approach to defense and winning. Heck, Canseco said after he left, the A’s put too much emphasis on winning.

“It wasn’t that Jose was a bad person, I never thought that,” said Dave Stewart, the pitching bellwether of those championship teams and now assistant general manager of the San Diego Padres. “It was just a case of too much happening too fast. He had youth, success, money and notoriety, and he didn’t know how to put it in order.

“The one thing I can say in his defense is that sometimes he found trouble and sometimes trouble found him. He wasn’t always wrong. It just seemed that way.”

Canseco still has a fast car, a black Porsche that arrived at the A’s camp before he did. He has also been through a divorce, thoughts of suicide and psychological counseling. He has a 3-month-old daughter with his second wife and said, “I’m not the same guy I was. Everybody changes, and I feel that I’ve matured a lot.”

Which is not to say trouble doesn’t still find him. In Texas, for example, he made the highlight reels when a fly ball bounced off his head and over the fence for a home run. And he tore up an elbow during an-ill fated pitching assignment.

It was also in Texas that he and Kennedy, the Rangers’ manager, developed a mutual respect. When Kennedy moved to the Red Sox as manager in 1995, so did free agent Canseco, helping Boston win a division title.

The Red Sox stumbled through the first half in ’96 but rallied under Kennedy to produce baseball’s best record after the All-Star game, a show of resiliency that failed to save the manager. Canseco called Kennedy’s firing a moral disgrace, adding:

“It’s strictly an ego thing with Duquette. He wants everything under his control, and any coach or member of the staff that doesn’t submit is fired or demoted. Players are treated like pieces of property. It’s a shame, a mess. He’s destroying the Red Sox.”

Roger Clemens left as a free agent. Canseco demanded to be traded and predicted that Mo Vaughn, similarly critical of Duquette, would be the next to go.

The Red Sox approached the A’s in regard to taking Canseco back in August, about the same time the A’s were wondering if Canseco might be available, according to Beane.

“Sandy has always been a fan of power and high on-base percentage and that’s what Jose offers,” Beane said, referring to Alderson, his boss. “Everybody regrets the way [Canseco was informed of the trade] 4 1/2 years ago, but wounds heal.

“The perception is that we reacquired Jose to sell tickets, and we have, but that’s a nice byproduct of what was strictly a baseball decision.

“We think Jose has come through his back surgery and is 100% healthy. This is not a quick fix. We hope to have him for four or five more years, and frankly, one of the reasons we pursued him was to give McGwire [eligible for free agency next winter] reason to stay by demonstrating that we’re committed to winning.”

Only McGwire and Brosius remain from the team Canseco left in ’92. Even Ruben Sierra, Bobby Witt and Jeff Russell, the three players Oakland received from Texas in that trade, are long gone.

The young, rebuilding A’s looked to McGwire for leadership last year and got it. McGwire said it was one of his most relaxed and enjoyable seasons. Now Canseco returns to share the leadership role. McGwire called to welcome him back on the day of the trade.

“Nobody really knew Jose before,” McGwire said. “He was always in his own world. He didn’t let anybody know him. That was his personality, but I can see in the way he relates to people now that he’s changed, grown, matured. I think it’s going to be fun having him back.”

Even La Russa, now managing the St. Louis Cardinals, recently applauded the A’s reacquisition.

He and Canseco reconciled their differences two years ago. La Russa even tried to lure Canseco to St. Louis as a free agent.

“There’s always been a lot of goodness to him,” La Russa said. “Beyond that, he’s definitely the most talented player I’ve ever managed, but as a manager you can’t ever win with one player if you lose the other 24. In ‘92, Jose was threatening to destroy everything we had built. I mean, we won that year in spite of him.

“Ultimately, I have to think the trade was good for him. He was operating in a fantasy land of his own making and it forced him to face reality and reestablish his values and priorities. The A’s made a good move. I’d jump at the chance to get a player of his ability.”

Said Stewart: “Things happen in baseball. I left [the A’s] on bad terms and they brought me back. Rickey [Henderson] left and they brought him back. Now it’s Jose’s turn. It just shows that Sandy is a forgiving person.”

It might also show that in the reconfigured Oakland-Alameda Coliseum, the A’s expect Canseco to join McGwire in bashing as never before.

“Jose always wanted to play in a park where he had a chance to hit 60 home runs,” Stewart said. “If he can’t hit 60 the way the Coliseum is now, he can’t do it anywhere. It just may be too late.”

Maybe it is. But as Canseco noted, it should be fun finding out.