{"id":465636,"date":"2026-02-08T03:22:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T03:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/465636\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T03:22:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T03:22:12","slug":"mark-mcgwire-coming-back-to-as-in-special-assistant-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/465636\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark McGwire coming back to A&#8217;s in special assistant role"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Mark McGwire is back with the A\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>The former big league slugger was hired by the team as special assistant to player development, <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/mcgwire-athletics-as-6a56d64ab81f3b3937c8eee0255fc9ca\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">according to the Associated Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a homecoming of sorts for McGwire, who spent parts of 12 seasons with the A\u2019s during their days in Oakland.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>McGwire, who was taken No. 10 overall by the A\u2019s in the 1984 MLB Draft, won the 1987 American League Rookie of the Year and hit a then-rookie record 49 home runs.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38421033\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/AP_Rangers_Athletics_Baseball_63344-738be-0.jpg\" alt=\"Mark McGwire, a Hall of Famer, in a green blazer, waving at a baseball game.\" class=\"wp-image-38421033\"  \/>Former Oakland Athletics Mark McGwire waves to fans after being inducted into the A\u2019s Hall of Fame prior to the baseball game against the Texas Rangers, Sept. 21, 2019, in Oakland, Calif. AP<\/p>\n<p>He was a key part of the Oakland team that won three straight AL pennants from 1988-90, including a 1989 World Series championship over their cross-bay rival Giants.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>McGwire and Jose Canseco made up one of the most iconic duos in baseball history, nicknamed the \u201cBash Brothers,\u201d during their six seasons together in Oakland.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In 1997, McGwire was dealt to the Cardinals, with whom he became an even larger figure in the game of baseball, breaking the single-season home run record set by Roger Maris in 1998 during a historic home run race with Sammy Sosa.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>McGwire retired after the 2001 season, having hit 583 home runs and made 12 All-Star teams.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Since his playing days, McGwire has been held out of the Baseball Hall of Fame due to his ties to steroids, although the A\u2019s inducted him into their team Hall of Fame in 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.46494993;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38421057\" width=\"864\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/7013749_51917186GI001_steroids.jpg\" alt=\"Jose Canseco high-fives fellow Oakland Athletics player Mark McGwire.\" class=\"wp-image-38421057\"  \/>Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire of the Oakland Athletics celebrate during a 1990 MLB season game at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in Oakland, California. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not the first time McGwire will be part of a team\u2019s staff.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>From 2010-12, McGwire served as the hitting coach for the Cardinals before taking the same position with the Dodgers from 2013-15.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He served as the bench coach for the Padres in the 2017 and \u201918 seasons.<\/p>\n<p>The A\u2019s are entering their second of at least three seasons in Sacramento since leaving Oakland, which was where they had played since 1968. <\/p>\n<p>The franchise is aiming to move to their permanent home in Las Vegas for the 2028 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mark McGwire is back with the A\u2019s. The former big league slugger was hired by the team as&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465637,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,238281,591,192940,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-465636","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-mark-mcgwire","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-oakland-as","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}