You never know with Jose Canseco, who tends to overlook the details. It still amuses Red Sox people, for example, that when he played here, he used to refer to former Sox bullpen coach Herm Starrette as ''Norm.''
So maybe Canseco, speaking from Florida as a card-carrying member of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, really didn't know Monday afternoon that he was a runaway leader in the voting to be designated hitter for the American League All-Stars July 13 in Boston. And that another former Sox player, Wilfredo Cordero of the Indians, was second.
''I haven't made the team yet,'' Canseco said. ''There's still two weeks of voting left. And Wil Cordero is second? What about Frank Thomas? Or Edgar Martinez?''
For the record, the voting ended Sunday. And while Canseco could have rattled off any number of names that he thought warranted inclusion on the team, he still wouldn't have come up with anybody in the American League with slugging credentials better than the ones he's bringing to Boston tonight for a two-game set with the Red Sox.
And of the Three Amigos - Roger Clemens, Mo Vaughn, and Canseco - what were the odds that Canseco, who one day will be known as the only member of the 500-home run club to play for five teams in six seasons - is the only one assured of a place among the All-Stars?
Yankees manager Joe Torre, who will manage the AL Stars, has said he's leaning toward taking Clemens, while Vaughn's triumphant arrival in Anaheim is resembling an exile to Elba.
Canseco, known in these parts as the Man Traded Straight-Up for John Wasdin, is on pace for a Ruthian 60 home runs with the Devil Rays, having hit 28 home runs in the team's first 76 games. He is averaging a home run every 10 at-bats, a rate better than Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, or Ken Griffey.
He is tied with Nomar Garciaparra and Shawn Green of the Blue Jays for the most extra-base hits (42), and only recently was overtaken by Griffey (.650) and Garciaparra (.642) in slugging percentage.
Recently, he's cooled off drastically - he's batting just .125 (5 for 40) in his last 10 games, striking out in exactly half (20) of his 40 at-bats in that span. In a three-game set against the Yankees, all Tampa Bay losses, he went hitless in 12 at-bats.
''How did that happen?'' he asked, repeating a question. ''I was facing Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte when he was on, and El Duque [Orlando Hernandez]. One, two, three.
But now, two days before his 35th birthday, he's about to face the Red Sox, the team against which he has hit more home runs (39) than any other team in baseball, including three earlier this season.
And he won't be facing Pedro Martinez, whose next start isn't scheduled until Friday in Chicago.
''Thank God,'' Canseco said. ''Is he the best in the game right now? No doubt. He's just incredible.
''He has such command of the strike zone. The most important thing is the unbelievable movement on his fastball. It moves four or five inches. A guy throws 95 miles an hour, with that movement, that's indescribable. And his changeup probably moves even more. He can throw any pitch any time he wants. It's a struggle just to get a hit off him.
''[But] I'm looking forward to going to Boston,'' he said. ''I've got a lot of fans in Boston.''
Oh, really? While Canseco doesn't hear the type of vicious catcalls still directed at Cordero, from the moment he steps on the field here, he is the target of the kind of booing that marks him as a villain in the WWF vein.
It's the kind of treatment you'd expect for a guy with biceps built to comic-book dimensions, has had fly balls go ''Boink'' off his coconut and over the fence, and says things like, ''If I played defense all the time, I'd have 500 home runs and 600 errors,'' which is what he said upon his return to Oakland earlier this season.
''I guess I've always given them their money's worth,'' he said. ''I've always considered myself an entertainer. Fans pay good money to be entertained. They want to be entertained, they want to see characters. In that sense, I guess I've always done the job for them.''
But even though he hit 46 home runs last season for the Toronto Blue Jays - No. 40 came last Sept. 6 off Pete Schourek of the Sox - no one really expected Canseco to assume his latest role, as newest challenger to the exalted home run levels established by McGwire, his former Bash Brother in Oakland.
Canseco had been emphatic, earlier in the season, in saying that no one any time soon would hit 70 again, unless it was McGwire himself. And yet here he is, a week and a half before the All-Star break, with an outside chance of being nearly halfway there.
''Not even close,'' Canseco says when asked if he'll mount an assault on 70. ''It's way too early to tell. For any kind of chance, I'd have to keep up that same kind of pace after the All-Star break. I always have had trouble staying healthy. To hit 70, too many things have to go right.''
Canseco is playing for a team in his home state of Florida for the first time in his career. And while he's happy to be living in St. Petersburg Beach, just a 10-minute ride from the ballpark, and is just a three-hour ride from his family in Miami, the Tropicana Dome hasn't exactly been kind to him. Of his 28 home runs, only nine have come at home. Then there's the ball he hit into a catwalk in the Dome that never came down and was ruled a double.
''Is that the highest ball I've ever hit?'' he asked. ''I don't know, how can you measure it? But it's right up there.''
At the start of the decade, Canseco used to routinely lead everybody in the All-Star voting, the Griffey of his time. But while he is a five-time All-Star, this will be his first trip back in nearly a decade. His election kicks in a $50,000 bonus in his contract, an incentive-laden $2 million deal that automatically vests for next season at $3 million, plus incentives, if he reaches 500 plate appearances.
What he'd really like is an invitation to the home run-hitting contest the night before the All-Star Game.
''I haven't been in one in a long time,'' he said. ''It's going to be really exciting for the fans. I can't remember where my last one was, it's been so long, but I don't think I got the ball out of the infield.
''I think whoever wins, because of the Wall, will be whoever hits the most fly balls. On a certain day, any of six guys could win it. Six different days, six different guys would win it.
''It doesn't have to be the biggest, strongest power hitter. Griffey? Yeah, he'll be at a disadvantage, hitting lefthanded, because it's longer to right field, but I'll guarantee you, there are going to be a lot of long shots.''
And almost certainly, some of them will be hit by Canseco, a long shot in itself.
