Canseco Earns MVP, Joins Select Group : A’s Outfielder Is the First Unanimous Choice in AL in 15 Years

NEW YORK — While there have been various debates over the definition of what makes a most valuable player, Jose Canseco more than qualified on all counts in 1988.

Canseco, the first major leaguer to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in one season, was selected unanimously as the American League MVP in voting released Wednesday.

“It takes a lot of the sting out of the World Series loss,” Canseco, who went 1 for 19 in the Series against the Dodgers, said while on his honeymoon in Hawaii. “I was really surprised it was unanimous. It’s really exciting.”

The Oakland right fielder received 28 first-place votes and 392 points from a panel of 28 sportswriters, two from each AL city.

Canseco is the seventh AL player to be named the MVP unanimously, and the first in 15 years. Hank Greenberg (1935), Al Rosen (1953), Mickey Mantle (1956), Frank Robinson (1966), Denny McLain (1968) and Reggie Jackson (1973) were the other unanimous selections.

Boston left fielder Mike Greenwell, with 242 points, was runner-up to Canseco, followed by Minnesota’s Kirby Puckett with 219, New York Yankees’ Dave Winfield with 164 and Oakland’s Dennis Eckersley with 156 in the voting by the Baseball Writers’ Assn. of America.

Canseco hit .307 with a major league-leading 42 homers and 124 runs batted in while leading the Athletics to the pennant and a 104-58 record.

Canseco ranked in the top 10 in 12 of the 17 offensive categories that the league charts.

“The thing that will stand out mostly in my mind is the 40-40, because it was breaking ground for a ballplayer,” he said. “There is no reason for me to stop improving. I’m only 24 years old.”

Canseco said he will probably announce a new goal during spring training. In general, he said he hopes “to improve my batting average, home run total and stolen bases and cut strikeouts down to 100.”

“He put together an awesome season,” Oakland bench coach Bob Watson said during the Series. “I’ve seen some players put together some big numbers, but when the game was out of hand. Jose had some big home runs and stole bases when we needed them.”

Twenty-seven of Canseco’s home runs either tied the score or put the A’s in the lead. Oakland also won 29 of the 37 games in which Canseco stole a base. He led the AL with 76 extra-base hits and was second in runs scored with 120.

This was by far Canseco’s most consistent season, however, as he raised his batting average 50 points.

“I don’t think I had a bad drought except for an 0 for 20. And even when I was 0 for 20, I was hitting the ball well, so the key was staying consistent,” said Canseco, who led the Athletics to their first pennant since 1974.

It is Canseco’s second major award in the majors. He hit .240 in 1986 with 33 homers and 117 RBIs en route to the rookie of the year award. In 1987, he had 31 homers and 113 RBIs.

Canseco, who was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1964, was the A’s 15th-round selection in the June 1982 free-agent draft.