YANKEES BE DAMNED : DALE BERRA : After Ordeal in New York, Son Toils at Tucson in Effort to Join Dad in Astro Family

Yogi Berra, reputed baseball philosopher, would probably say about a situation such as this: “It’s never over till it’s over.”

But when Dale Berra, Yogi’s son, was released by the New York Yankees July 27, many thought that a career marked by unfulfilled promise and dotted with controversy was all but over.

The Yankees offered the younger Berra, an eight-year major league veteran who mostly sat the last two seasons, a job as a player-coach with one of their minor league teams. That would seem to be the kind of job an unemployed utility infielder would take.

Berra turned it down, apparently believing in a slightly different version of his father’s aphorism: “It’s never over till I say it’s over.”

So here is Berra, tirelessly taking fielding practice in the stifling afternoon desert heat at Tucson’s empty Hi Corbett Field. Berra is the newest member of the Tucson Toros, the Houston Astros’ Triple-A entry in the Pacific Coast League. And all indications are that he’s happy to be here--or anywhere other than New York.

Never mind that Berra now wears a uniform featuring bull horns instead of Yankee pinstripes. Never mind that he plays in a stadium constructed by Hi Corbett, former mayor of Tucson, and not in The House That Ruth Built. And never mind that those monuments to former Yankee stars in center field have been replaced by a sign for Tucson’s favorite pizza parlor.

Berra, 29, simply likes playing again. In fact, he says he is not concerned about returning to the big leagues just yet. Ask him again next spring, though. . . .

“This isn’t really that difficult a situation for me to handle,” Berra said on the eve of his first game in Tucson. “Things didn’t work out in New York, so I’m here. My priority is to play again, that’s all, after sitting so much. Maybe have some fun, too.”

As a Yankee, Berra didn’t play much or have much fun. He said he had thought it would be just the opposite. “It had always been my dream to play for the Yankees,” he said. “It was the happiest day of my life when I was traded there.”

After going to New York from the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1985, though, Berra’s illusions of life as a Yankee were shattered. Wasn’t it Hemingway--or was it Yogi?--who said it is unwise to want something too much?

Berra’s father was fired as manager only 16 games into the ’85 season, and Dale had to read owner George Steinbrenner’s explosive quotes in the papers about Yogi’s supposed managerial failings. Dale sat idly on the bench under both Billy Martin and Lou Piniella, and when he did play, he felt the nagging pressure of trying to live up to the Berra name.

Then, Berra had to deal with the adverse publicity stemming from his appearance at the Pittsburgh drug trials last fall, when seven players testified under immunity against Curtis Strong, a caterer who was convicted on 11 of 14 counts of cocaine distribution.

“It was a good move, for sure, getting out of New York,” Berra said. “Basically, I had to be perfect for them. There was no in-between. (It was) because of my name and because of Steinbrenner. It was a tough situation. I couldn’t control a lot of things.”

Berra and the Yankees did not part on the best of terms. Berra is highly critical of Steinbrenner for what he says is the owner’s constant meddling. He also said that Piniella, the current manager, showed little confidence in Berra’s ability.

Steinbrenner could not be reached for comment, and Harvey Greene, Yankee public relations director, said that Piniella would not consent to be interviewed about Berra.

Berra, however, talked at length and with passion about both Steinbrenner and Piniella.

“If I would make one error (in New York), I’m out,” Berra said. “I could play great for a whole week, then do one thing wrong and not play again for another week. I’d get it from everywhere. (Steinbrenner) would get to you through the newspapers. He’d (criticize) you there but not to your face. I’d read a lot about myself.

“I mean, we’re talking about probably the only team in America where Dave Winfield doesn’t start every game. Incredible! They don’t (always) start one of the five best players in baseball against right-handed pitching. They’re giving away the pennant. I can’t understand it. . . . I’m sure it was a mutual decision to get rid of me. George wanted it, and Lou agreed with him.”

Unlike his famous father, Dale Berra has never been more than a mediocre player. His major league batting average is .238, and he never had to worry about dusting off a spot on his mantle for a Gold Glove. When he was released by the Yankees, he was hitting .237 in 42 games.

Still, Berra had a few good seasons. Most notable was 1982, when he hit .263 and drove in 62 runs in 156 games. Berra’s salary of $512,000 a year, which the Yankees will continue to pay through 1988, made him a true big leaguer, even if his statistics didn’t.

The way Berra figures it, he would still be in the big leagues were it not for the Yankees.

“The Yankees had no confidence in me,” he said. “If I made an error, I’d never get slapped on the butt and told, ‘Don’t worry about it--it’s in the past.’ Other guys got that. Not one time was I given a vote of confidence. Only negative putdowns.

“One game against Minnesota, I think it was a Friday night, I made an error that led to a five-run inning. I knew then, in that inning, that I wasn’t going to play tomorrow. I thought to myself, ‘I can go out and do whatever I want tonight.’ A guy who knows he’s not going to be yanked out isn’t going to worry about making that error.”

Apparently, it wasn’t always that way. For the first 16 games of the 1985 season, he was happy. Yogi was managing, and Dale was being platooned with Mike Pagliarulo at third base.

When Yogi was ousted, though, Dale went to the bench, then later was implicated in the Pittsburgh cocaine investigation. At one point, Billy Martin, then the manager, snidely suggested that the Yankees had gotten rid of the wrong Berra.

Hardest of all on the Berra family was the public disclosure of Dale’s drug use during his stay with the Pirates. They apparently had known about his problem.

Last Sept. 9, Berra told a Pittsburgh federal court that he had used cocaine on and off from January 1979 to October 1984 and that he had sought help to stay away from the drug. Berra also told the court that he had “absolutely not” used cocaine after being traded to the Yankees.

The only time Berra has made anything other than a vague reference to his cocaine use was on the witness stand. “Anytime you use cocaine, you have a problem,” he said in court. “Yes, I had a problem.”

Berra also said in court that his father had been very supportive. “Obviously, it wasn’t an easy thing (to tell him),” Dale testified. “But he’s been such a good father to me his whole life, he accepted it and stood behind me.”

Similarly, Dale stood behind Yogi when Steinbrenner fired the elder Berra last season. At times, Dale found that difficult, since he was still a Yankee.

“He spent 40 years of his life there in New York, and all of a sudden they decided he shouldn’t be around there anymore,” Dale said. “It was hard for all of us to accept. After that happened, I was like a leftover.

“All of last year was pretty traumatic for me. I had everything I had ever wanted out of baseball, and then it flew out the window. My dad deserved better than what he got.”

Berra said that his gradual phasing-out of Yankee pinstripes might have been a residual effect from his father’s firing, but he added that he does not believe that disclosure of his drug history had anything to do with it. He said he had been randomly tested for drugs the last two years and that tests always proved negative.

“I put it behind me as soon as I left Pittsburgh,” Berra said. “It was something that happened three years ago and it’s over. I think the Yankees forgot about it, too. They have three other guys in my situation (Al Holland, Claudell Washington and Rod Scurry), and they are still playing in New York.”

For whatever reason, Berra is not.

One day--maybe as soon as September, when big league rosters are expanded--Berra would like to play again for his father, who is a coach with the Astros. Berra said he had several offers after clearing waivers last week but decided to join the Astros’ organization because his father is a coach, and they might need infield help next season.

“But my dad can’t help me down here in Triple-A,” Berra said. “The Astros won’t bring me up unless I do something down here.”

It was at Yogi’s suggestion that Dale concentrate on doing well in Triple-A instead of settling for a reserve role on a big league team.

“Now, he’s getting a chance to play,” Yogi said last week in Los Angeles. “He’ll get some times at bat and see if he can still do it. Other guys have gone back down and made it back up. He wants to prove something.” In Berra’s first minor league appearance since 1979, he started at second base for the third-place Toros in a showdown with first-place Phoenix. His first time at bat, Berra slapped a single to left field and later scored a run. He struck out his second time up. He was on deck in the fifth inning when thunder, lightening and heavy rain washed out the rest of the game.

Berra seemed satisfied with his play. And his actions indicated that he had also had fun, for a change.

“There’s more camaraderie in the minors,” Berra said. “Plus, I like it better because I hit better down here. The pressure isn’t as great, either. . . . If no one sees fit to bring me up, then it’s something I’ll have to deal with.

“But I’m not unhappy in Triple-A. I get paid until ‘88, so I guess I can thank the Yankees for that.”