Canseco Returns To A’S

Jose Canseco returned to the Oakland Athletics in a trade from Boston finally made official Monday and will be reunited with Mark McGwire, with whom he formed one of the most explosive combos in baseball in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Canseco was sent back to Oakland for right-handed pitcher John Wasdin, who was 8-7 with a 5.96 ERA last season in 25 games, 21 of them starts. The Athletics also got cash, apparently to pay part of Canseco’s $4.5 million base salary this season.

Reliever Roberto Hernandez and the Chicago White Sox agreed to a one-year, $4.62 million contract.

Relief pitcher Heathcliff Slocumb and the Red Sox agreed to a one-year deal worth $2,975,000.

Right-hander Dave Mlicki and the New York Mets agreed to a $610,000, one-year deal, triple his $195,000 salary last season.

Free agent Terry Pendleton and the Cincinnati Reds agreed to a minor-league contract.

Curt Flood, whose outstanding career effectively came to a premature end after he challenged baseball’s reserve clause in the prime of his career, was eulogized in Los Angeles as an authentic American hero. “Because he came our way, we are better,” the Rev. Jesse Jackson said at a funeral service for Flood, who died Jan. 20 of throat cancer - two days after his 59th birthday.