Fort Myers, Fla. ? Matthew LeCroy’s return to Minnesota Twins camp raises questions no other player can answer.

Like: How’s the gout? Is that hair coloring, or shoe polish? Are you really going to eat that? And: Where’s your opossum?

LeCroy became a power-hitting star at Clemson, prompting the Twins to make him the 50th pick in the 1997 draft. He never developed into the kind of everyday catcher or power hitter the Twins expected, leaving him with two choices:

Sulk his way out of the game, or become one of the selfless, prank-playing good guys who populate big-league benches.

LeCroy would be happy to settle for the latter this spring, as he tries to make the Twins as a third catcher, pinch-hitter and morale booster after spending last year with the Washington Nationals.

He returned to the Twins’ clubhouse this spring with noticeably darker hair, saying his gout was under control, jokingly offering to swallow a clubhouse cockroach in exchange for contributions to his retirement fund, but without the tin of road-kill opossum meat he tried to feed Eddie Guardado a few years ago.

“I never lost touch with him, but it is strange to see him back here with jet-black hair and a jet-black goatee,” said Michael Cuddyer, whom the Twins selected 41 picks before LeCroy in ’97. “I guess he’s making a statement that he’s gotten younger somehow.

“To me, he looks like he’s in one of those pictures from the ’70s where the film starts going bad and the hair starts looking blacker and blacker and the face gets whiter and whiter.”

LeCroy got 39 at-bats with Washington last year. He was released on July 24, re-signed with the Nationals on a minor-league contract on Aug. 7, and then broke his wrist, ending not only his season but his hopes of playing winter ball.

“The Twins called in the middle of January,” LeCroy said. “I had a couple of other teams call, but with nothing more than an opportunity, and I knew everybody here. This is the best thing that came up.”

He’s got a chance mainly because he heeded that sage baseball advice: Don’t make anybody angry on your way up, because you’ll see the same people on your way down.

“He’s a good baseball guy,” Ryan said. “He fits in here, and he’s got some pop. Maybe things will work out.”

LeCroy says he wants to stay in the game when he’s done playing.

“But you play as long as you can play,” he said. “I’m just here trying to make the team like always.”