Billy’s Back, and Yankees Have Look of Winner : New York Is on a Tear, and Moving Up in Standings

Perhaps it’s only a case of temporary beauty, but pinstripes are once again the vogue in the American League.

The New York Yankees, who came stumbling out of the blocks in 1985 with all the grace of the Keystone Cops, who started so poorly that they got their manager fired after just 16 games, are in the midst of an old-style, Bronx Bomber-type tear.

Including their 6-1 triumph over the Angels Saturday afternoon at Anaheim Stadium, the Yankees have won six straight games. They have won them with capable starting pitching and powerful relief work, with abandon on the base paths, with trickery and imagination and anything else Billy Martin can shake loose from his sleeve.

The atmosphere in the New York clubhouse these days is so tranquil, so extraordinarily pleasant , that a reporter has to do a double-take to make sure he’s entered the proper quarters.

Players smile. Conversation is punctuated with laughter. Martin’s postgame meetings with the press take on the homey air of a Sunday afternoon barbecue with the family.

“It’s easy to talk to you,” a grinning Martin tells reporters, “when you win.”

On the field, the Yankees are doing all the right things.

Saturday, Martin stays with starting pitcher Joe Cowley, who is wild but keeps wriggling out of trouble, until absolutely the correct moment. After Cowley yields a one-out single to Ruppert Jones in the seventh inning, Martin trods to the mound to make a change. There, he is greeted by an agreeable Cowley, who tells him, “Good move, skip.”

Martin’s choice as Cowley’s replacement is Brian Fisher, a rookie right-hander whose specialty is the fastball. At the plate is Reggie Jackson, who normally eats up right-handed rookies who throw fastballs.

But not this time. Jackson hits a 3-1 delivery right back at Fisher, who gloves it and whirls to begin an inning-ending double play.

“Fisher throws 93, 94 miles an hour,” Martin explains later. “That’s a great fastball. I’m not gonna say it’s unhittable, but it’s gonna get most hitters out.”

An inning later, with a 5-1 lead and Willie Randolph at third base, Martin wants an insurance run. So, he pinch-hits with Mike Pagliarulo, who is expected to execute a suicide squeeze.

Pagliarulo’s bunt is perfect, Randolph scores easily, and the Yankees have their insurance run.

“That’s the way baseball should be played,” Martin said. “We’re being aggressive, making the other team think about it. All I do is sit back and appreciate it.”

In New York, George Steinbrenner must be smiling. This is precisely what the Yankee owner had in mind when he changed managers three weeks ago, firing Yogi Berra and rehiring Martin for an unprecedented fourth time.

Under Berra, the Yankees were 6-10 and residents of sixth place in the AL Eastern Division. Since the switch, they are 12-5.

This Yankee turnaround--is it Billy . . . or is it meant to be?

From stall to stall in the New York locker room, opinion is divided. If there’s any consensus, it’s that Martin has made the team more aggressive, but that it was only a matter of time before the Yankees’ true talent began to assert itself.

“If Yogi was still here, we’d be doing the same thing,” center fielder Rickey Henderson said. “But Billy has given us a little more fire. Billy’s a great manager--he’s the best I’ve ever played under. He loves chance-taking baseball, he loves to be aggressive.”

Second baseman Willie Randolph: “I’ve always liked this style of baseball. Billy Ball, Yankee Ball, whatever. It’s the way baseball should be played. We’re taking it to the opposition, coming right at you, forcing the other team to make mistakes.

“We’re now starting to roll, but I think this was inevitable. The difference has been like day and night, but I’m not surprised. With this team, it was only a matter of time before we started kicking the opposition’s butts.”

Designated hitter Don Baylor said the Yankees’ reversal stems from a change in attitude.

“Now, we come to the park expecting to win,” he said. “Before, we hoped to win.

“I don’t know where you get that from. Maybe stability. There’s no more unrest, like there was in the beginning (of the season). There were signs of us losing a manager since Day 1 and 2 of the season.

“We’re more relaxed,” Baylor continued, before adding with a smile, “plus, we’re 3,000 miles away from home.”

Getting away from the Bronx Zoo has apparently done wonders for the Yankees. The key, the players concur, is to keep it all together in the midst of all the inherent New York distractions.

“We have to be consistent over the long haul,” first baseman Don Mattingly said. “Basically, the season is a marathon.”

The best news for the Yankees is that, at least for the time being, they have worked their way back into the race.